VernonGirl

Four things comedian Steve Martin can teach us about success

Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life is the book funny man Steve Martin authored. It was published in 2007, but I just read it, so it's new to me. An excellent read. Martin recounts his love interests, a complicated relationship with his father, encounters with famous celebrities like Elvis Presley, and how he persevered through being broke, being rejected, delivering comedy to empty theatres and, even, being famous to become the man he is today (or when his book was released).

There are at least four key messages from Martin that can teach us how to be more successful:

1. Dress differently to be seen.

When Martin began seeing three thousand people come to his stand-up comedy performances, he bought a white suit to wear onstage for visibility.

"I was afraid it might seem derivative, but I stayed with it for practical reasons, and it didn't seem to matter to the audience or critics. The suit was made of gabardine, which always stayed fresh and flowed smoothly with my body. It got noticed in the press because it was three-piece, which appeared to be a symbol of conservatism, but I really wore the vest so my shirt would stay tucked into my pants."¹

2. Invent a new way to get paid.

Martin observed that opening acts never got noticed, mentioned or reviewed because the headliner got all the glory. He decided to exclusively pursue headline gigs and in one year he was completely broke. His travel costs were about three hundred dollars, and he was getting a flat fee of five hundred dollars per show. Netting just two hundred dollars wasn't cutting it.

Wisely, Martin called a show business friend for advice.

"He told me the deal he always proposed to club owners. He would take the door, and they would take the bar."....."I would be paid according to how many people I drew.."⁵

3. Be encouraged by naysayers.

When Martin concluded that the audition process was a dead end, he decided to resign from his television writing career and go on the road to do stand up comedy. His agent told him his stand up comedy was headed nowhere and that he should "Stick to writing". Martin says that he "took this warning with a strange delight" and it was a "necessary ingredient in any young career".³

When Martin was doing stand up comedy to over eighteen thousand people, regularly appearing on Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show, he definitely proved his agent wrong.

4. Do the opposite of what everyone is doing.

When Steve Martin observed that "a skillful comedian could coax a laugh with tiny indicators such as a vocal tic (Bob Hope's "But I wanna tell ya") or even a slight body shift"⁴ like slapping a stomach, he decided to do the opposite. Rather than giving audiences a punchline, he let the audience pick their own place to laugh. This type of anti-climactic tension-induced comedy was completely revolutionary and even Rick Moranis, another comedic actor, called it anti-comedy.

Martin writes, "My goal was to make the audience laugh but leave them unable to describe what it was that made them laugh."

One of Martin's techniques was to end his comedy routine in an unexpected way, so that the audience never really knew what to expect. He led his audience outside, hailed a taxi, went around the block, returned and waved to the audience - and drove off and never came back. This led to a review in The Miami Herald saying "Steve Martin is the brightest, cleverest, wackiest new comedian around."²

Martin's book also comes in an audio cd. If you have long commutes and want something inspiring to listen to, I recommend Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life (Audio CD)

(Disclosure: Amazon.com affiliate links mean I get paid when you buy through these links.) If you don't want to buy the book, you can probably borrow it from your local library like I did.

Thanks for reading,

Courtenay

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5 Reasons why going for coffee is bad time-management for consultants

When you are a consultant, your time and ideas are precious and they have to be doled out selectively and carefully. Otherwise, you can give them away and end up feeling empty emotionally and financially.

A stranger called me up the other day and wanted to go for coffee. She had a website that wasn't working for her, and she wanted to discuss her options. Here are five reasons why I didn't go:

1) You're giving your advice away for free when you go for coffee.

I have come away from coffee meetings with no promise of doing business with that person, but a feeling like I just gave all of my ideas away for free. This can leave me feeling resentful and cynical.

2) Time out for coffee, also involves time out for driving to and from the coffee shop and getting ready for the coffee meeting.

Leaving your office to go out to a meeting is a huge waste of time and gas. Plus, you have to buy a coffee. I would rather use that extra time to write on my blog, read something that will help me write on my blog, or actually get some work done for my current clients.

3) Coffee is on somebody else's turf.

If someone wants to go for coffee, invite them to have one in your office. This is a more effective use of time and it brings the meeting onto your own turf.

I have a home office with a cozy fireplace, two large desks and all of the equipment you would normally see in a "real" office. When potential clients walk into my office, they know we are not only having "coffee", but we are working on a business relationship which should result in an exchange of currency if I present a compelling offer to serve their need and close them effectively. Overall, my own turf leaves me feeling more in control, gives me more confidence and makes a more professional statement than a coffee shop.

4) Agreeing to go for coffee without qualifying someone can be disappointing for everyone.

In the past, if someone asked me to coffee, I would quickly say, "Sure." Then, I would meet them and find out that they can't even afford my services. This was a disappointment to me and to them. Recently, I have begun qualifying them on the phone before agreeing so quickly. I ask questions like:

"What is the problem you are struggling with?"

"Who are you using for your services now?"

"Why is your current provider not effective?"

"What are your objectives?"

"How did you hear about me?"

"When are you looking to do this work or make these changes?"

I also tell that person my hourly rates and give them a sense of what certain projects may cost on a project-by-project basis. Then, I ask:

"Do those rates sound reasonable to you?"

If the person hums and haws, or says, "That is something to think about." It is a sure sign that my rates are too high for them and they are not a good fit for me as a client. If they tell me, "yes, that sounds good, let's get together", then I'm more likely to agree to a meeting.

5) If you can't get down to business on the phone, a coffee meeting probably isn't going to help you gain a new client.

Occasionally, there are those "touchy feely" people in this world who like to have face-to-face meetings before making a decision to do business with someone. And, if you have a good feeling that they might become a client, after pre-qualifying them on the phone, then I say, "Go for it. Go for coffee." However, I have found lately that I can talk to someone by phone for the first time and we usually decide to work together, or not, within thirty to sixty minutes.

You might be asking...."how"?

It goes back to point four above. I ask them lots of questions. In addition to that, I also give away a bit of advice too. I provide a solution. I make a suggestion. I ask a question they may have never considered. I get to the heart of their problem and come up with my best solution as quickly as I can....even if the solution is free and it doesn't involve me at all.

Sometimes, someone doesn't really need to pay me for my help. They just need a little free advice and a free solution. But, if they truly have a problem that I can solve, I can identify it within thirty minutes, tell them the process by which I can solve it, tell them how much it will cost and ask them if they would like to go ahead. If they say, "yes" then we discuss payment and determine our next steps for working together. Then, I hang up the phone, go to my kitchen and grab myself a coffee.

Thanks for reading,

 

Courtenay

Ode to our dog Julie

 

Julie has been my family's pet for about twelve years. It's funny, because I can't remember exactly when we got her. I just know what house I was living in. I'm not even sure about Julie's age because we got her from the SPCA and they couldn't figure out how old she was. She was named Julie by the SPCA staff. We liked the name and kept it.

Julie has been my running, walking, hiking and mountain biking partner. She's been a great protector of my kids, a comfort to us and a wonderful member of our family. Last week, Julie's health began failing. Today was Julie's last day on earth. Now we have our own dog angel in heaven...barking up a storm, wagging her tail and eating milkbones. Rest in peace Julie.

Seven Ways Games Reward the Brain

This new video, that gets really interesting eight minutes into it, examines a very unique and out of the box perspective...what if we use rewards and processes found in games to motivate us in learning, business, health, government, or marketing?

Watch this video to get a new perspective about motivation and think about how you can apply these principals to a problem you are working on, or a product or service you need to market. It's wonderful.

Thanks for reading,

Courtenay Pitcher

Vernon, B.C. Creative Firm Lava Marketing Erupts New Website

Lava Marketing, the creative firm I launched in 1999, erupted with a new website yesterday. It features a portfolio, our clients and packages for search engine optimization (also known as getting your website to the top of Google), Content Management Systems, Web Design, Logo design, Corporate Identity Design and Brochure Design.

Lava Marketing works fast.....

Lava Marketing is a unique creative firm because we can produce high quality work that is affordable, and ready fast. If you need a web site design, ad design, packaging design or logo design, we can provide you with first concepts within 48 hours, guaranteed.  

We break all the rules, and give you original design files....

Have you ever felt that your hands were tied because you couldn't get the original design files for your logo, a print piece or your website design? Lava Marketing does what most web designers or printers will NOT ever do....once you make your final payment for work completed, we turn over all of the editable design files to you immediately. This gives you more freedom in sourcing suppliers (like printers), saves you time, improves the quality of your marketing and especially saves you money.

We work with all file formats....

We know that some of your advertising partners may not have all of the latest design software. That's why we design in Photoshop (.psd) AND Adobe Illustrator (.ai). We also provide .pdf, .tiff and .jpg file formats. This allows you, our client, the most flexibility when transferring files to your advertising partners like printers or online advertising.

We're really quite small, but our experience is vast...

When you hire Lava Marketing, you're hiring me. I personally take care of you. There is lots of me to go around. I have several suppliers, over fifteen years of marketing experience, own two companies, have worked with various sectors (manufacturing, wood products, mortgage, real estate, public speaking, training, health care, leisure and tourism) and I have a very broad perspective.

Ask us for a Quote...

If you are wondering how affordable I am (we are), fill out our quote request form.

I look forward to being your marketing partner.

Cheers,

Courtenay Pitcher

Chance Favours The Connected.....Mind

Do you feel like you need some new ideas for your business or even your personal life? Maybe you have a problem you are working on, you have a book to write, you simply want to be more innovative, or you're feeling stagnant?

In reading a blog article about finding ideas unconventionally (Source), it lead me to do more research on a fellow named Steven Johnson. According to this video talk by Johnson, which is well worth watching for the next seventeen minutes, "Chance favors the connected mind." In other words, we can all be more innovative just by connecting with people of different fields of expertise.

Johnson came up with this theory by studying English coffee houses. According to Johnson, people of different backgrounds would mingle, consume alcohol and exchange ideas, thus leading to the Age of Enlightenment. (For a better explanation, watch the video.)

About two years ago, I needed help finding more joy in my career. I was a Financial Security Advisor at the time. I felt tired and un-energetic, and I had a cough that wouldn't go away for over a year. All of my life, I was usually bubbly and full of piss 'n vinegar, so when I was feeling completely flat, I knew I needed help .

I went to see my friend, Cindy Bertrand, a Healer. As it turned out, I didn't need career counselling, I needed healing. I needed to let go of some past pains to remove some figurative jail cells keeping my energy locked away. Once I did a lot of self-reflection and crying, I went and saw Krista Ingram, a Naturopath. She gave me an Ecinacea tincture that healed my cough in 3 days.

All of this work led me to realize that my former career in Marketing was what I loved and was good at. It also gave me the creative outlets and variety I required. I quit my Financial career immediately and returned to Marketing. I've been creative, happy and energetic ever since.

Is there someone you can call today for a coffee chat...to simply get together and share ideas? Maybe it's your Lawyer or your Accountant. Think outside the box. Have you met with a Naturopath, a Healer, a Style and Image coach, a Scientist, a Marketer, a Writer, a Web Designer, a Physics student or a Teacher lately? Who can you connect with to expand your mind, create and innovate?

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Idea Generator

3 Ways to Network on LinkedIn: Promote, find, attend events

 
 

Are you looking to promote your event? Are you looking for local networking opportunities? Here are three ways events can be used as networking tools on LinkedIn:

1. Find an event to attend.

2. Promote your own event or seminar.

3. Announce that you are attending someone else's event.

Step 1.

Sign into LinkedIn.

Step 2.

Find the "More" menu at the top of your home page. Click on the "Events" tab in the "More" dropdown menu.

Step 3 - Find Events.

You will come to the "Events Home" page. On this page, you will see Network Updates of events that people in your network are attending, hosting, or are interested in. This is a great way to find common interests with your network, or start conversations in order to build relationships with those in your network.

Click the "Find Events" tab.

To find events happening in your area, fill in the "Specific Location" radio button and enter the location you would like to search. I did one for Kelowna. You can see it here below:

Hit the Search button and it will return searches for the location you specified. Searches can be refined by: Upcoming, Within a Week, Within a Month, Within a Year, Past, or Any.  Event Type can be refined by All, Conferences, Tradeshows and Conventions, Networking and Meetups, Training and Seminars, Fundraisers or Other.

Step 4 - Add Events.

Click the Add an Event Tab. Here, you can enter the event title, date and time, venue name, location, website and whether you are attending, are interested or are not attending. If you are not organizing the event, you would simply click that you are attending or that you are interested.

To have the event appear on your LinkedIn profile, select "Attendee", "Presenter" or "Exhibitor" from the grey box that will appear when you select the box next to "I'm attending."

If you are the organizer of the event, you click "Yes, I am organizing the event." and then Add more details. The "Add more details" screen will ask for all of the above details plus Address, City, Region, Country, Postal Code and a description. This image shows the screenshot.

It will also ask you to categorize your event by Type, Industry, Keywords, Who should attend and Organization, as you'll see in this screenshot below:

Step 5 - Publish.

Click on "Publish Event".

What events are you attending? Make sure you promote it on LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher

Use LinkedIn to find new clients in your geographic area, city or town

 

Have you ever wanted to find people to connect within your city or general area using LinkedIn? As long as you are a member of LinkedIn, one of the best on-line networking business resources right now, it is easy to do and it is free:

Step 1:

Make sure you are signed in to LinkedIn.

Step 2 - Advanced Search:

Look for the Advanced Search link on the top right hand side of your LinkedIn screen. It is located to the right of the People search box. It looks like this (highlighted in blue):

Step 3 - "Located In or Near" search:

In the Location box, use the drop down menu to search "Located in or near". Then type which Location you would like to search. You can search within a certain distance of your local area and it will pull both members in the area and members who are willing to travel to your area. It will pull results from your postal code and the surrounding postal code area within that distance you specify.

You can also sort by Keyword, First Name, Last Name, Title, Company, School, Industry, Groups, Interest (all members, industry experts, potential employees, consultants/contractors, entrepreneurs, hiring managers, or deal-making contacts), or when they Joined LinkedIn.

Hit the "Search" button at the bottom of the page and get your results.

Step 4 - Filter:

Now, you can filter your search results to: 

Current Company: All companies, or specific ones in your area.

Relationship: All members, 1st Connections, 2nd Connections, Groups or 3rd and Everyone Else connections. Use the 3rd and Everyone Else connections to find those people that you are not yet connected to.

Industry: All industries, Real Estate, Construction, Financial Services, Health, Wellness and Fitness, Hospitals and Healthcare, etc.

The filter section is on the left side of the page about mid-way down. It looks like this image below:

Do you have questions about using LinkedIn? Let me know. If I can answer them in a simple post like this, I will. Or, if you would like a longer training session on LinkedIn or other Social Media, I offer those for groups or individuals for a very reasonable fee.

Cheers,

Courtenay Pitcher

Left to right selling

When you get a new client asking questions about your service or product, do you do left to right selling?

Last weekend, Shawn (my gorgeous husband of twenty years) and I took off for an evening to travel to Penticton to provide creative direction on a photoshoot for a real estate client. On the way, we stopped at a boat store in Kelowna to dream about two types of boats: one big cruiser we can live in during retirement. We would float that one up the Pacific coast and sleep in it. It'll be perfect when we're sixty and the kids have left home.

The other one would be a Master Craft X 2. Of course, who can take us seriously when we pull up in my Oldsmobile Intrigue? That car is pretty old, but it runs like a dream and costs me next to nothing and that, my pretties, allows me some monthly flexibility in the finance, slash dream, department.

So, after we took a look at two very large boats and determined that they are not an option in the Okanagan without renting a slip at a marina, which is impossible because of a three year waiting list, our thoughts turned to our children.

The weekend before last, our two boys got up on wakeboards for the first time. The seven year old did it first. I stayed in the water near the shore, floating in my lifejacket and holding him until he was comfortable. He fell once, so I swam out to him. "Straight legs. Just stand up like you're getting off the couch." I said. "Then lean back when the boat pulls you out of the water. Most importantly, have fun. Enjoy yourself. Tell yourself you can do it." Presto. He was off on the second try.

Because the seven year old boy did it, our nine year old was determined to do it. I performed the same routine and he got up on the second try too.

But our FourWinns boat is not really built for wakeboarding. The speed is hard to control and the wake cannot be adjusted. If you want to be a serious wakeboarder or a surfer, the latest craze, you need a large wake. And it's nice if you can keep a steady speed in the water. It helps the surfer, skier or wakeboarder stay in control.

After we wasted "Bob's" time on the big boats, he turned us over to another fellow to answer questions about the X2. The other salesman asked us, "Do you have any questions?" It was like he was half asleep or hungover. He sat there and didn't really say anything until we poked him.

Let me tell you.....if you want to sell something, you don't ask the customer what kind of questions they have. Instead, you assume they know nothing and sell from left to right. In other words, he should have started on the left side of the boat and explained each feature until he reached the right side of the boat. By doing that, he could have demonstrated to us that we need that boat.

I don't know what questions to ask about a boat that I know nothing about. I see people in Kalamalka Lake using it, but I don't know why it is so great. I see people surfing behind it. I see that it carries a lot of people. I don't know its capacity. It looks like a lot of fun. But I'm not sure what questions to ask about it other than, "How much?" I don't know what I don't know. It is the salesperson's job to educate me so that I make an emotional decision to buy that boat.

He could have asked us, "What do you know about this boat." Then, he could have started explaining the features all the way from storage to speed control to seating capacity.

Darn it. I wish that salesman was better at left to right selling. We still have our same boat. It runs pretty good. I'm happy with it. But my intuition, and my husband, tell me that the Master Craft X2 is really the one to own so our boys can become better wakeboarders. I just need to be sold on the features from left to right.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, wannabe wakeboarder

Is your database big enough to fill a movie theatre?

Lisa Salt is the Owner of The Salt Team, a Vernon, B.C. Real Estate Team. Last night she held a private viewing of SALT, the movie, for all of her clients. The place was packed. She had to start the movie about ten minutes late to process her clients (including my husband, our two boys and me) through the popcorn and pop line-up. Everyone got a free ticket to the movie and one free pop and popcorn.

She began the evening thanking everyone in the theatre for all of their referrals to friends and families over the years and especially in this market. "This is our little way of giving back." She said. "I can only hope they make a sequel."

She and her agents (real estate that is) were dressed in black with T-shirts that said "Who is Salt team." They greeted everyone at the door and thanked us for coming. There was a large RE/MAX balloon propped outside the theatre at the front door.

It was brilliant of her to capitalize on Hollywood's millions of marketing dollars to promote a movie with her same name. All of it was possible because she keeps a very good database of clients. Invitations were sent by email first, and then I received a follow-up physical invitation by postal mail.

Do you have a list of email and postal mail addresses you could access if the right marketing opportunity came along?

By the way, we loved the movie. It was action-packed and had a great twist at the end.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher

How to ruin a networking opportunity in three seconds and seven ways to recover

Last night I was at a networking event. Beautiful scenery. Great food. But someone I met just didn't get networking.

I asked, "What do you do for a living?" She said, "I'm a Financial Planner."

I yawn, but being the experienced networker that I am, I try to build a connection with her. "I tried Financial Planning for a while," I said. She asks me if I found it hard. "Yep," I say. "I enjoy it," she says. "What do you do?" she asks me.

I answer, "I create logos, business cards and marketing materials." She replies with what I call a conversation-opportunity-networking-ender: "Unfortunately all of that material is created for us through our head office."

Here are some other replies she could have used to build a relationship with me and get referrals:

1. That sounds like really creative work. How did you get into that?

2. Neat, do you have clients locally?

3. Cool! Are your clients successful? Who are they? (After listening for a while she could have asked: Do you think you could introduce me to them?)

4. You were in Financial Planning? Did you sell your clients or give them away? What solutions were they looking for? Do you think they would appreciate a call from me?

5. Knowing that most of my materials are created for me through my head office, do you think there are services you provide that I could still take advantage of?

6. What kind of marketing tricks do you recommend for Financial Planners?

7. Tell me more about your business. Maybe I have clients or friends you can help.

Listening and showing interest in other people's businesses can help your own business. If you know what people do, you can connect them with your clients or friends. By doing this, you help your friends/clients, but you also have a higher chance of gaining referrals from the business person you sent them to.

What other questions would you have asked me?

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher

http://www.vernongirl.com

Inspiration is a friend with benefits for copy writers

According to Kelly Diels (owner of Cleavage, a blog about sex, money and meaning) inspiration is fickle. It's a friend with benefits for copywriters. Something that rarely comes, except maybe each six weeks. So copywriters must find inspiration in the mundane. Something beautiful can be found in a grocery list, an email to a friend, a bank lineup, or an SMS message. Ideas from everyday experiences are what Diels says to use for putting together brilliant copy. We all lead lives with responsibilities. Some of us are mothers, wives, workers. "Prisoners can still write brilliant poetry between beatings." she says

But Diels had more than that to offer during the two hour Red Shoe Blogger Writing Workshop I took July 2010 in downtown Vancouver.

Getting to the workshop on time was exciting.

I woke up at 4 a.m. and my husband and I packed our camping gear and kids into our F350 Diesel one-tonne truck and headed to Vancouver from Vernon. We were going to the island with our seven and nine year old boys for a holiday, anyway, so the workshop was a couldn't-miss opportunity.

A quick stop for breakfast at Denny's in Kamloops was a nice relief, but then I quickly realized that getting to the workshop on time would be tight. Over the Coquihalla highway we flew, with the kids asking, "How long 'til we get there?" about every half an hour. When we got stuck in a construction traffic jam in Surrey, I thought for sure I wouldn't make the one o'clock workshop at all. Traffic over the Port Mann bridge turtled along. We wound our way along Hastings, an area known to be populated with homeless, mostly heroin drug users. My kids were fascinated with the "Hobos." I have no idea where they got that word. We reiterated to them in our most serious parenting voices, "Never try those little white candies with the faces on them, or you'll end up here."

Finally, success. We arrived at the corner of Hastings and Cambie. My husband circled the block once so he could figure out exactly the right place to drop me off. (He takes care of me.) "I don't think I'll be able to park the truck here with all the camping gear in the back if we want to come back to any of it." he said. I said, "I've got my phone. I'll text you when the workshop is done. Are you going to be okay with the kids?" "we'll be fine." he said. I slipped into the Black Block building for a rich experience that will forever change my perspective about copy writing, words, language and memoirs.

The Black Block building was modern, clean and contemporary. Glass and granite, juxtaposed with brick and rod iron. A stark contrast from the down-the-street scene of needles, shopping carts, dirty faces and desperation.

I was late, but Kelly addressed me by name. "Hi Courtenay." I could tell who she was. She has very bright eyes. Curled eyelashes. Her students were around an Ikea-like white pine round boardroomesque table. Leaning into her. Some of them had chins on hands, like lovestruck teenagers. All women in their mid-thirties, early forties. Except two men. Young men. I think one was an Engineer. He seemed nice. Asian fellow. A white guy, kind of good-looking but a little annoying, kept asking Kelly about vulnerability. "Have you ever been too scared to post anything." He was either echoing his fears or trying to find cracks in her veneer. Either way, he bugged me. She handled him well, no getting defensive with his questions. He was verging on playing mind-games.

I noticed that no one was really taking notes. Maybe I missed the beginning where she told everyone that she would send them a copy of the presentation. I did arrive 15 minutes late. I hate being so rude.

Her workshop had me on the edge of my seat. But, I've learned from many failed university tests to take notes, even when I'm mesmerized. Here is my interpretation of Kelly's wisdom:

1) Grocery lists, emails, SMS messages and bank line-ups can all be inspiration for stories. Keep an audio recorder (I use my iphone) handy and record your thoughts. Take ideas from your daily interaction with people. Be constantly thinking about writing. Jot your ideas down so you'll have them for when you are ready to write.

2) Form a habit for writing. Take the time to sit down at the computer and give it the hairy eyeball until something comes to you. Like meditation is to yoga, ritual is to writing. Make it a daily ritual or habit. Give yourself permission to carve out time for it so it gets easier.

3) Don't expect Perfection. "Your skills will always fall short of your vision." Kelly says. Just write and see what comes of it. If you wait for perfection, it will lead to procrastination. Near perfection comes with practice. It's an art, a craft. Pursue it with diligence.

4) Don't wait for inspiration, go after it with a club. Consistency, communication, conversation, being open to engage in ideas, finding like-minded people, reading inspiring blogs, reading about writing structure and reading poetry will give you new ways of expression.

5) Write personal. Kelly calls this "emotional resonance." Weave your story into the article or piece you are writing. Your story is unique and universal. Kelly says, "it's emblematic of our time". Your story may seem boring to you, but it is really interesting to someone else in another place. In the future, the story you write today will seem very fresh: a new perspective or experience for the reader. Sometimes the story you write may make you feel vulnerable. Take a risk. Articulate the silence.

6) Make sentences surprising. Show, don't tell. Avoid cliches. Stop using dying or worn-out metaphors. Find another way to say something so it becomes interesting. Reverse the way you say something. (She used the example "hopeful cars and V8 hearts".) Remove the words "just" and "very". Describe the tiny details. (ie: "She hit me on the crown of my human head." instead of saying "She hit me on the head.") Start with one feeling and end with another. Contrast black with white, or sweet with sour (ie: ice cream with black pepper).

7) Fully explore a word. Uncover its meaning. "Riff on it." Kelly says. Deconstruct it. Learn its etymology. Roll it around on your tongue. Rhyme it. Examine the perceptions it invokes. Is it spiritual or practical? (Like Danielle LaPorte). Come at it from all angles and connotations. Add some flavour to your words with Virtual Salt. Check out YouTube for Def jam poetry. (Like this Jamie Foxx video.)

8) Use the basics. Get someone to edit for you. Read a piece aloud before you publish it. Stop using emoticons. Drop adverbs. Spellcheck.

9) Revive English-in-high-school tricks and find more. Amplification: repeat a word and phrase over and over to emphasize it. Understatement: flatly describe a fraught topic (Penelope Trunk). Hyperbole: imaginative but over-the-top. "Be extravagant and make shit up." Kelly says. Deliberately embrace run-ons and fragments. Insert conversation or something unexpected. Engage the senses - smell - touch - taste. Use cheezy hip-hop videos to find creative phrases. (ie: "I'll make your bedrock.") Or Hamlet (ie: "I'll speak daggers to her.").

10) Get intimate with voice. Mimic someone for a while. Get into their style. Develop new tools, new feeling and a new repertoire by learning how to write like someone else.

After the workshop, I slipped passed a group of Asian sailor boys dressed in their white navy uniforms down Cambie Street to find my husband and kids sitting in the truck licking icecream and just as happy as can be. While I was in my workshop, they toured Robson Street. As it turns out, my oldest son loved people watching. He really liked Vancouver. It truly is an amazing city.

If you ever get the opportunity to take one of Kelly Diel's writing workshops, I highly recommend it. In the first twenty minutes, I felt I got my money's worth. The next 100 minutes were a bonus.

Where do you get inspiration for writing your blog, stories, marketing pieces, poetry or general memoirs? I would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment at my blog at http://www.vernongirl.com.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, aspiring writer

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vernongirl

Slideshare - Grow Your Business With Social Media

Grow your business with social media

View more presentations from Courtenay Pitcher.

Here is a slideshare presentation of a recent presentation I made about How To Grow Your Business With Social Media.

There was a question that came up during the presentation:

"How do I invite people to become Fans of my Facebook page if they are not already my friends. I have their email addresses."

Answer: You must first "Friend" them on Facebook, using their email, and then you can invite them to be a Fan. If you don't want to "Friend" them, you just have to make sure that your Facebook Fan Page is engaging enough that they will Fan you themselves.

Remember, you could send them an individual email and ask them to become a Fan. I'm not suggesting that you SPAM everyone. But one nice personalized note, popped through the email, is still okay, in my opinion.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher

What are your website objectives?

An Internet presence should begin with a website.
Here are some objectives that your website can accomplish:

*Attract new customers
*Reduce the time to market of certain products or services
*Make announcements to current customers
*Reduce paper and postage charges by using email
*Inform and educate clients about products and services
*Service existing clients
*Advertise your business around the world
*Advertise your business locally
*Increase the value of your company
*Increase your company’s credibility
*Improve your company’s image
*Help you and your staff spend less time on the phone with customers
*Attract new employees
*Show examples of your work
*Replace your brochure with quicker information fulfillment
*Replace service manuals
*Help your customers locate key personnel
*Promote upcoming events
*Attract entrepreneurs to business opportunities
*Offer on-line product purchases and/or product knowledge
*Demonstrate that you are great corporate citizens
*Attract shareholders
*Open a new communication channel to media
*Explain who you do business with (partnerships)
*Book appointments or reservations
*Take applications

Establishing credibility is one of the most underestimated powers of a good website…and a dangerous one for some consumers. A colleague of mine – a webmaster – told me about his pawn shop client who has a website. If you walk into the guy’s store, you see carpet that hasn’t been changed for 30 years and dust that’s at least that old, too. Yet, he has the most incredible website – with nice graphics and professional design, great information and a sophisticated shopping cart system. (That’s because my colleague, the webmaster, designed it for him.) His customers from around the country who buy products off his site will likely never know what a pigsty his store is. His website is first-rate and that is all they will ever see. (Boy! You gotta be careful with Internet blind dates if this principle applies!)

Think of it the opposite way. Sometimes you are better off to pull an ugly website off the Internet if it creates a bad impression of your business. One of my clients had a large website for their Optometry business when they hired me to help them update it. It was so outdated we pulled it off immediately and posted a single page that said: “We are currently renovating our website to serve you better. Please enter your email address and we’ll notify you as soon as we launch our new site.” The former site just didn’t reflect the quality of their service and products and so they were better off not using it at all.

To meet your objectives of what you want to accomplish with your website, here are some items to include:

*Frequently asked questions
*Company structure and staff, along with phone numbers and email addresses for all key personnel
*Products
*Services
*Prices
*Hours
*Locations and contact information, including physical addresses
*Directions or maps on how to find your stores
*Testimonials
*Warranties
*Employment information
*Business or franchise opportunities
*Vision/mission statement or corporate philosophy
*Number of years in business
*Upcoming events
*Community involvement and sponsorships
*Newsletter
*Shareholder information
*Search tool – especially if your website contains lots of information
*Portfolio (for designs, plans, art work, etc.)
*Listings (real estate agents)
*Reservations (accommodation)
*Vehicles (used and new cars)
*Book your appointment (vehicle maintenance, dental, etc.)
*Activities (travel, tour companies, event company)
*Packages
*Mortgage calculator (mortgage broker)
*Site Map – for larger sites
*Applications – financial industry
*Partners (companies you work with)
*Resources (links to helpful sites)
*Promotions
*Customer Care
*Awards

Realistic Expectations…

 “A friend called me up the other day and talked about investing in a dot-com that sells lobsters. Internet lobsters. Where will this end? The next day he sent me a huge package of lobsters on ice.
How low can you stoop?”
--Donald Trump

The owners of a manufacturing company came to me to help them develop a website. They did not have a marketing budget and were struggling to sell their quality wooden fireplace mantels into the state of Washington. They thought that if they had a website, residential home developers would phone them to buy wooden mantels.

It is a myth that a website is the overnight answer to your marketing problems. Like a brochure, your website must be designed, published (or in the case of a website – launched), distributed (emailed or advertised in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter or StumbleUpon) into the right hands, read (or seen), have a ‘call to action’ and target a willing participant who acts on the call. If you expect new business from your website, it needs to be promoted properly, measured for effectiveness, maintained and kept ‘fresh’.

For most people, giving birth to an effective website requires a substantial investment in time, planning and money. Although most websites take from three to six months from concept to launch, a nine-month investment in your website baby is not unrealistic if you expect a quality result (unless you have a superior marketing company to project manage for you).

Websites also serve certain marketing functions. Getting new overnight business from them is definitely not one. There are pros and cons to consider before deciding to put the website bun in the oven!

Website Advantages

*A great way to get information into the hands of your customers immediately
*Can be updated immediately
*Can present information statically and dynamically
*Are interactive – providing you with valuable customer feedback
*Are visual and can include audio
*Have unlimited space (very affordable)

Website Disadvantages
 
*Require frequent maintenance
*Can be costly to set up – both in time and money
*Are somewhat of a mystery – kind of like your car if you’re not a mechanic. Your webmaster, like your mechanic, has a lot of power and knowledge and you are subjected to trusting him or her.
*Have continual yearly and/or monthly fees including hosting, domain name renewal and maintenance

Consider Your Timeline…

 “If I had to sum up in a word what makes a good manager, I'd say decisiveness. You can use the fanciest computers to gather the numbers, but in the end you have to set a timetable and act.”
--Lee Iacocca

A typical website project, from design to launch, takes at least three to six months. The majority of the time is spent gathering ideas, images and text. Set a timeline for yourself and your web design team upon starting this project. Here is a check list that will help:

1.    Gather information, plan your site, and develop a bid document
2.    Have three design companies bid on your project
3.    Choose a design company
4.    Meet with design company to begin your project
5.    Wait for initial design concept
6.    Review the home-page and sub-page concept. Provide feedback.
7.    Review the home page and sub page again, give the web design company the go ahead to develop the remainder of the site.
8.    Wait for the design company to incorporate all of your images and text into the site.
9.    Review the completed site, test links, proof read, and provide feedback.
10.    Wait for the designers to make final adjustments to the site.
11.    Review the final design and sign it off. Have meta-tags (we’ll explain later) programmed into the site.
12.    Launch the site.
13.    Submit the site to key search engines and announce it to media and customers.
14.    Get your backup and passwords from the design company and make your final payment to the web design team.
15.    Promote, Promote, Promote!
16.    Track your success.
17.    Keep it fresh!

Patience and planning are key to making your website project a positive experience.

Don’t get e-screwed!

 “There was a time when a fool and his money were soon parted, but now it happens to everybody.”
-Adlai E. Stevenson

When your gut feeling tells you that the prices are ridiculous, they probably are. Continue reading and you’ll know whether you’re paying a fair price for the services you are about to receive!

Budget…
Establish a budget to determine what you can afford. Most website designs start at $900 and up. This cost does not include your domain name ($25 - $45/year), hosting (from $180 per year and up), database ($1,500 and up), or e-commerce ($3,000 and up). Other charges can include maintenance ($40/hour and up) and promotion ($100 and up).

When considering your return on investment, determine ways that a website can save or make you money if it:

*Eliminates or reduces the need to print brochures or catalogues
*Cuts postage and faxing charges
*Cuts time for stuffing envelopes and packages
*Cuts long distance phone calls to customers or staff
*Saves printing charges for brochures, catalogues, annual reports, owner’s manuals, etc.
*Saves personnel time speaking with customers
*Saves personnel time searching for information
*Brings new customers
*Sells products

To do Internet marketing well, it requires its own marketing plan. Every activity in your Internet marketing plan should have a budget, an objective, a market and a way to track success.

Each activity should include costs for creative, time (human resources) and items such as hosting, advertising, maintenance or design charges.

Target Market
Consider who will use your website and it will be easier for you to determine your objectives. Will it be…
*Staff
*Present Customers
*Suppliers
*New Customers
*Distributors

Important for pricing and language considerations, is to determine where your website will be accessed from…
*Locally
*Nationally
*Internationally

Determine which age group will use your website as it will help you consider the information, type style, graphics and technology that you include in the site…
*Kids
*Teens
*Adults
*Seniors

You get the idea! As with other types of media, you have to know your market before you can design an effective website for it.

Revenue
Consider the ways that your website can bring in new revenue streams….
*Support existing products and services
*Offer New products and services
*Advertising or link exchanges
*New customers

Expenses
Consider some of the expenses of website development and marketing…
*Photograph acquisition
*Copywriting
*Design
*Hosting
*Maintenance
*Promotion

Price
Pricing of the website design, hosting and maintenance is important to consider as part of your marketing plan. I always advise my customers to start small and build. Get on the Net with a small investment. Begin promoting the site and generating traffic to it. Then expand.

You also need to consider how to price your products on your website. For example, will you offer discounts for on-line ordering? Will you use your website to blow out slow moving products? Will you offer your purchases in Canadian or US currency, or both?

If you feel that the website will be worth your time, energy and money, then let’s get started!

Blogs are also great alternatives to a website. Read more about blogs.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, Webmaster, Website content writer

This article was adapted from my book: Secrets of Internet Marketing

Photo of the Day - Fishing off the boat on Kalamalka Lake near Vernon, BC

June 12th, 2010 was one of the nicest days of the year so far and the first time I was out on my boat with my husband and one of our boys. Here is a picture of our seven year old fishing off the boat on Kalamalka Lake near Vernon, BC.

The photo was taken with my Iphone.

We use the Kekuli Bay boat launch to access Kalamalka Lake. It's a beautiful launch and there is lots of parking. The key is to get to it early in the morning on nice weather weekends.

(Don't worry, my boy can swim and we were tied up near the shore away from boat traffic...hence the reason he is not wearing a life-jacket.)

If you plan to go fishing on Kalamalka Lake, don't forget to purchase your fishing license. We got our license at Surplus Herby's in Vernon. They have a great selection of fishing gear and very helpful staff. At Canadian Tire, we picked up the fishing regulations book and a very inexpensive fishing rod that is perfect for kids.

Safe boating and thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, Official fish gutter

How a luxury real estate brand for Kelowna, Vernon and Calgary is born

When Gord Fowler, a dually licensed RE/MAX real estate agent in Calgary and Vernon, came to my company Lava Marketing to create a luxury real estate brand for him, I was delighted.

Obviously, everything about a luxury brand must scream:

professionalism,

quality

and class.

When a new brand is developed, we also make sure that elements like colour, font choices or design touches are consistent throughout the client's marketing pieces. 

For Gord, we developed a proposal that included a new logo, tagline and marketing photo. Once these projects were complete, he hired us to do a web page design, business card design, web page programming and 8.5 x 5.5 flyer.

Gord was decisive about choosing his new brand name: Fowler Luxury Homes. 

We came up with several tagline choices. The one that took first prize was:

You Deserve The Best.

This tagline has a double entendre....not only do you deserve to live in a luxury home with a luxury lifestyle, but you also deserve a specialist and seasoned professional in dealing with Okanagan luxury and resort properties, Gord Fowler.

Here is the logo with the tagline:

 

Every great real estate agent needs a really great photo. Our original intent was to take Gord's picture in front of a crackling fireplace inside a luxury home. As it turned out, the location we used for the photoshoot had a fabulous balcony in front of the Vernon Yacht Club. What better backdrop to scream "luxury" and "Okanagan lifestyle" than yachts? (A blue suit is always a safe and professional choice too.) Here is the result:

We integrated his logo/tagline, with his image to create a web page design that we uploaded (in pieces) to Ubertor, a template website system popular with real estate agents. I have to admit that working with a template system like Ubertor is challenging. We had to adapt our original design to fit into their rigid template. But I'm pleased with the results:

Here is the business card (front and back) that incorporates many of the same elements:

Business Card Back (notice the background with elements of the logo):

This is the 8.5 x 5.5 flyer design just approved:

What do you think of Gord Fowler's new marketing pieces? Do you think we hit the mark so that when you are looking to buy a luxury property in Calgary or the Okanagan, you'll call Gord Fowler? Please leave a comment at the bottom of this blog.

I really enjoyed working with Gord on this project. Thanks Gord!

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, Personal branding specialist

Five Tips For Giving a Blog Interview

As blogging becomes more popular, you might be approached to give an interview to a Blogger (aka Writer, Journalist) so they can create a story about you or your business for their blog. Here is some etiquette on giving the interview and interview follow-up that I have learned by working with various media and publicity personnel over the years in traditional media. I have updated it here to apply to social media as well.

1. Everything is on the record. Bloggers are typically very good interviewers and they will ask you to provide the highs and lows of your business. The Blogger will also assume that everything you say is okay to print. So, if you do not want something in print, don't say it.

2. Make time for the interview. Typically, a Blogger is on a time schedule to make a deadline.  If you can provide the interview when they call you, that is typically most effective. You can ask the Blogger to schedule the interview at another time, but this can lose momentum. You want your story to get out immediately. A third party endorsement is great publicity. So try to make time for the interview as quickly as possible. You may lose the Blogger's interest, or get smaller exposure, if you delay.

3. Be honest and intimate. Bloggers are like bloodhounds. They can sniff a story and don't appreciate bull. Be honest. Be yourself. It goes a long way. They can tell when you're holding back information. Try to give the Blogger a nice new tidbit of info that nobody has written about you or your business before. Maybe a new revelation you've had, an award you've just received or a new client would be something to talk about. 

Reveal something sort-of intimate or personal, like an "inside scoop" or breaking news or developments. If you make a mistake and say something personal that you don't want in print, tell the Blogger that right away. Say, "Oops, I didn't mean to say that. Can you make sure that stays out of print?" Yes, this goes against the "Everything is on the record" point I made above. But Bloggers want to be able to come back to you later-on for more stories, so they don't want to damage their relationship with you. They will recognize your mistake and respect your wishes, usually (unless you are the former Mayor of Vernon and you are fudging receipts, lol.) 

4. Follow up with information or photos quickly. Bloggers are usually working with inspiration, or a timeline in mind. I write when I feel inspired. Then, I want to get the story posted as soon as possible so I can rest easy and feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm not as organized as other Bloggers who have a story plan and a publishing schedule.    No way.     So when I ask someone for a logo or a photo, I want in NOW. (Sorry, I'm a Type A personality.)

Additionally....a story looks better with a photo. In fact, your story gets greater exposure with a photo or video and has more credibility. If you can provide large web resolution photos to the Blogger for their use with the story, it will get you more mileage.

In terms of information...if you don't have it at your fingertips during the interview, tell the Blogger you'll get it right away and then do it. If you can't get the information you want right away, let the Blogger know when you can get it and see if that timeline is adequate. Maintain your integrity as a good source of information by updating the Blogger about the status of that information or following through with it.

5. Thank the Blogger publicly. Once the story is published, leave a comment on the blog endorsing the story or adding something extra to it. Tweet or retweet the story on Twitter. Promote the story on Facebook and/or leave a Facebook comment. These are great ways to build links and traffic back to your website, to show appreciation to your local Blogger who took the time to write about you, and to "toot" your own horn.

Blog interviews are now the new "media" interview. They are important and necessary for promoting your business. Bloggers are often looking for new, refreshing stories, so don't be afraid to approach them about your business.

Have you given a blog interview lately? Leave a comment at the bottom of my blog with a link to the story. I would love to read it.

Thanks for reading my blog.

Courtenay Pitcher

June 21st - Vernon - Grow Your Business With Social Media Event

When Brenda Hala approached me to provide a workshop on behalf of The Professional Photographers of Canada - BC (PPABC), I was delighted to say Yes!

Formerly called the Professional Photographers Association of BC, the association now calls itself Professional Photographers of Canada - BC to create a stronger voice across Canada.

The Association promotes and fosters the personal ethics and professional development of the working photographer and/or specialist.

Brenda Hala says that the principle focus of the PPABC is the advancement of their members and associates within the photographic industry through education, fellowship and public awareness.

Brenda is the one who takes my portrait photo. I always enjoy working with her because it's fun.

Join me for a workshop about marketing with social media, presented by the PPABC! The event is open to anyone.

Monday, June 21, 2010
8:30 a.m. - Networking and Registration
9:00 a.m. to Noon - Seminar

Location:

Village Green Hotel
4801-27th Street, Vernon, BC V1T 4Z1

Cost: $25 per person. Please pay at the door.
Cheque or cash only. No credit card.

For more information, and to pre-register, please contact:
Brenda Hala
250.542.3010
brendahalaphotography@shaw.ca

Topics will include:

LinkedIn - Learn how to network with LinkedIn for advancing your career or small business. Create a LinkedIn profile, get and give recommendations, connect your LinkedIn profile to Twitter, customize your website link, start or join a group, share what you are reading, or promote your blog or RSS feed.

Blogs – You’ll see how cheap and easy it is to begin blogging. Learn how to post articles, photos and YouTube.com videos to your blog. Learn what a category cloud is. Understand why you should comment on other blogs to promote your business. Learn why blogging can leverage your marketing, earn trust, gain you clients and increase your credibility.

Twitter – Set up a profile, tweet, retweet, direct message, reply, customize your Twitter background, and schedule tweets. How to brand yourself, increase traffic to your blog or website, build relationships and increase your profile using Twitter. Learn how to use Hootsuite.com. Learn powerful automation tricks to save time.

Facebook – Set up a Facebook page for your business. Learn how to engage people on your page. Get people to write on your wall and start discussions. Learn how to automatically bring in your RSS or blog feed.

See you there!

Courtenay Pitcher, Social Media Workshop Presenter

Interior Transmission Shifts its Marketing into Overdrive with New Logo

Interior Transmission, here in Vernon, B.C., recently worked with my company, Lava Marketing, to develop a new logo (pictured above). When I started this project, I didn't know anything about transmissions. I actually think that was a good thing. It allowed me to leave all assumptions aside and create an image that an uneducated customer, like me, could relate to at-a-glance.

In fact, transmissions aren't sexy at all from an imagery standpoint. They don't really look like anything one would recognize. And most people don't know what they look like. There are many styles of transmissions too, so there is no ONE icon to represent them. Not like Michael Jackson's glove, or Nike's checkmark, or McDonald's yellow arches, or Dolly Parton's....well....you get the point.

When I sat down to talk to Cindy and Kim Myers about their company, I asked them to describe the symptoms of a broken transmission. Kim told me they are a clutch that won't go into gear, a clutch that grinds, leaky fluid, pink puddles, a burnt smell, a "check engine" light coming on, jerking, banging and overdrive lights flashing.

So there are lots of things going WRONG with the interior workings of the car when the transmission is not behaving.

But, how could we get that across with imagery? Well, first, we came up with this:

The logo above was a good start. But the colour was all wrong, the car was the wrong style and its interior workings were too intricate. A logo should be clean, simple, modern and reflective of its owner's values. A logo should be easy to recognize when it is very small and details should be kept to a minimum.

In comes the sexy 1963 Split Window Corvette aka...the Sting Ray. Here is the image my client asked me to replicate in their logo:

Now, this image doesn't say anything about Transmissions, except that if you have one, you would probably want it to be sitting in this car....right? Yah......! I know I would.

But this image DOES say a lot about Kim and Cindy Myers. They like classic cars. Kim likes to fix them. And they REALLY like the Sting Ray. In fact, they might even own one. (Maybe they'll take me for a cruise in it sometime.)

Hence....the creation of the Interior Transmission 2010 logo:

I can't take credit for "Get Your Shift Together." They already had that tagline picked out. But I sure do like the logo....and the hot colour. What do you think? Please leave a comment on my blog by clicking the comments link at the bottom of it.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher (Wishing I was sitting in a hot red Sting Ray cruising by Okanagan Lake with my good-looking husband right now.)

p.s. If you have any of the symptoms of a mis-behaving transmission, go see Interior Transmission in Vernon. According to Cindy, Kim is a genius when it comes to fixing transmissions. He's honest too. And if his wife trusts him, I would too. Shouldn't you?

p.s.s. I would like to give a photo credit for the photo of the Sting Ray above...but I don't know where this photo came from. If you come across it, send me the link so I can link to it.

From Mountie to Mary Kay - Shelley Haslett is 2010 Vernon Woman of the Year

(Pictured above: Shelley Haslett, Vernon Women in Business Woman of the Year 2010 holding the Woman of the Year trophy and wearing the Diamond Journey Pendant she now owns from Gregory's Fine Jewellery, event sponsor.)

Thursday, May 20, 2010 was the night that Shelley Haslett was awarded the 2010 Vernon Women in Business Woman of the Year honour.

The Woman of the Year Award recognizes and celebrates the accomplishments and contributions of women in our community. The 23rd Annual Woman of the Year Gala was held at the Best Western Vernon Lodge. There were inspiring stories about each of the ten nominees.

Described as courageous and contagious, Shelley Haslett is married to Al and they have two daughters – Paige (25) and Colleen (21). Her community involvement over many years includes Chair of the School fun night, Brownie leader, Cancer Society Relay for Life, Adopt A Road program, NOYFFS Adopt a Family at Christmas, Hospice Christmas Home Tour, Bosom Buddies and President of Vernon Women in Business.

Shelley is a Mary Kay Senior Director who started her business in 1979 while working for the RCMP. In 1981, she became a full time Mary Kay business owner and hasn’t looked back.

RCMP Staff Sergeant Margaret Shorter says, “I first met Shelley in the common room in the women’s dorm at the RCMP training academy [30 years ago]. After a few years with the RCMP, Shelley discovered Mary Kay and made a career choice to leave the Force. As she will tell you, she didn’t see the RCMP offering her the opportunity to have a free car and a diamond ring every year. Shelley is a people person and, while she was in the Force she made a good Mountie. She is also a person who dreams, believes, and achieves not only for herself but for anyone who will get on the magic carpet with her. She adds the fun to difficult challenges and celebrates the success of surviving them.”

President of Mary Kay, Ray Patrick writes, “Shelley has always conducted her business with enthusiasm and confidence, displaying the utmost in ethics in all she does.”

Shelley is a breast cancer survivor – - - twice. She is a member of Vernon Bosom Buddies who visits women at Vernon Jubilee Hospital shortly after surgery to offer encouragement and answer questions. Her Vernon Bosom Buddies friend Renee Smith writes: “We all enjoy her great sense of humour and appreciate her willingness to help in any way she can.”

Her husband Al writes, “I personally sat at her side for weeks during her two bouts with breast cancer. The courage and positive attitude this lady demonstrated would be enough to encourage and inspire anybody that was in her company to believe and realize attitude wins it all. There is only one Shelley Haslett who puts all others before herself and lights up a room with her smile and continuously encourages others through positive actions and reinforcement.”

Daughter Paige writes, “My mom has always been my mentor, my educator, my friend. As I start to become my own woman, I see more and more of my mother in me, and each day I realize that this is who I am now and I thank her for giving me every opportunity to discover that.”　

Jan Shumay says, “North Okanagan Youth and Family Services Society have benefited from Shelley’s caring spirit for many years. Shelley has made Christmas happen for many forgotten families, youth and young children. Shelley’s generosity makes a truck a necessity in delivering all the gifts. A true Woman of the Year sees her community as part of her responsibility, gives of her time skills and passion, and does it because she CAN. Shelley is truly that person.”

Nominees are considered based on the following:

1. Consistently displays and exercises leadership.
2. Demonstrates vision, initiative, creativity and courage.
3. Enriches and improves quality of life for others.
4. Has an impact in her chosen field.
5. Displays and sustains a continued commitment to her community.
6. Promotes and supports opportunities for females.
7. Has made Greater Vernon a better place to live.

The event is run by volunteers (including myself) made up of members from Vernon Women in Business and is possible through generous sponsorship from VWIB members and the community. (A company I run with my husband, Rhino Curbing, was a Platinum sponsor of this year's event.)

Shelley Haslett's acceptance speech showed her sense of humour. She told the crowd, "I would rather wear out than rust out." when referencing how she likes to keep busy. (This is a saying coined by a 2009 Nominee named Patricia Springborn.) Shelley said, "I haven't done anything big, but I've done a lot of little things." She thanked her parents, husband, sister and friends in the audience and said, "You can never have too many friends." She said, "All of the nominees were asked to prepare an acceptance speech. I thought that was just too presumptuous. Besides, I've never been stuck for words." She described how her husband Al was asked to prepare a letter of support. She was reading it over and she told him, "You're laying it on a bit thick aren't you?" and he replied, "You want to win don't you?" The crowd laughed.

Other nominees included: Cherie Montgomery, Kath Raeber, Samantha Plovie, Angela Yablonski, Cheryl Schmidt, Daina Bull, Deb Stoddard, Michelle Antonation, Sharon Mackenzie

Shelley volunteered on the Woman of the Year committee in 2009 and 2008 when I was the Chair of this event. Her contribution during those two years helped grow the event and I've been very blessed to call her a mentor and friend.

Thanks for reading,

Courtenay Pitcher, Fan of Shelley Haslett
2010 Woman of the Year Event Committee Member
2009 and 2008 Woman of the Year Event Chair

3 creative tips for promoting your business with donations or sponsorships

Today I am collecting swag bag gifts for the ten women who have been nominated for Vernon's Woman of the Year Award. A swag bag is a bag of gifts that the Woman of the Year committee gives each nominee as a thank you for service they have provided to our community. It is part of the honour of being nominated for Woman of the Year, but it can only be done with your support since the event is run on a shoe string budget using volunteers like me and givers like you.

I am asking you to donate ten of the same item either from your business or to promote your business.

Here are some questions you might have about donating or sponsoring an event:

1) What is the difference between donating and sponsoring?

Donating is often providing something and expecting nothing in return except perhaps a tax receipt. Sponsoring usually means you provide cash or product in exchange for marketing promotion displaying your logo, web link or company name.

In  this case, the Woman of the Year committee will provide you with printed recognition of your company name in the programme on the night of the Gala (Thursday, May 20, 2010). So, in essence, although you are giving something away, it is not really a donation, it is a sponsorship.

2) How can I sponsor an event with product or gifts if I don't have anything?

Some companies keep a host of mugs, bags, pens, water bottles or other items in their goody bags so they can give them away at events. Often, they have the company name printed on them. However, if you do not have such a thing, then it means you need to be creative in order to support the event with your sponsorship and get your business name out there.

My husband and I own Rhino Curbing, a residential decorative landscape concrete curbing company. This year we are sponsoring the event at the Platinum level. This level required a cash investment. In return we receive marketing exposure with our logo on newspaper ads, email blasts through the Vernon Women in Business and the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce, website, poster, programme and nomination brochure to name a few. We jumped on board to sponsor the event early (we were the first), so that allowed us to negotiate another little perk with the package....wine sponsorship.

Our company name and logo will be on each bottle of wine on the night of the Gala. However, to get back to how you can be creative even if you don't have product, consider this: for the past two years, we gave each nominee a bottle of wine for their swag bag. Last year we attached a business card to each bottle along with a congratulatory note. I'm not sure if it got us any direct business, but I did receive thank you cards from some of the nominees. That sure felt good and it does create goodwill in the community and get our business name out there in a positive way.

My point is that you can think outside the box. If you are a concierge service, give away a free grocery shopping day, free house cleaning, free flower arranging or free home decorating. If you are a senior's care service, give away a free foot massage. If you are a Re/Max real estate agent, give away a gift certificate for a free cup of coffee or one balloon ride for ten in the Re/Max balloon. Be creative to come up with ideas to support your community and promote your business.

3) What's in it for me or my business?

If your business name or business card is on the item that you are giving away there is the potential for business. It is called promotion. The more your company name is out in the marketplace, the faster you will build momentum, good will, contacts and customers. Don't give away the farm. Be smart. Consider donating something you can give with your time, or something of low cost to you and high value to the receiver.

Who is nominated for the 2010 Woman of the Year?

The women are:

Samantha Plovie
Cherie Montgomery
Kath Raeber
Angela Yablonski
Cheryl Schmidt
Daina Bull
Shelley Haslett
Deborah Stoddard
Michelle Antonation
Sharon Mackenzie

Congratulations to all these amazing women!

Contact me at 250-558-1176 or by email info@vernongirl.com to sponsor this event with ten swag bag items. I look forward to seeing you all dressed up at the event on Thursday, May 20, 2010 for the event.

p.s. I have one free ticket to give away to the event (value $40) on behalf of Rhino Curbing to the person who donates the coolest ten items by May 1st.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Woman of the Year Committee Volunteer

 

Brother and Sister Re-united After Believing Brother Was Dead

 

Barrita Durward, Owner of Cotton’s Chocolates and recognized as Vernon’s Woman of the Year 2009 for her kindness, is on a cloud higher than cloud nine. She recently found out that her brother Tom is alive and they’ve re-united.

The last time Barrita saw Tom he was running away from home, down the street, in his baseball uniform when he was fourteen and Barrita was eight years old. Tom was running away from their mother, who was chasing him down the street with a two by four piece of lumber Barrita’s mother had just cracked over his arm.

For thirty years, Barrita believed that Tom had died in a motorcycle accident. That is what she was told by her mother and her uncle. “I believed the lie because a couple people from church told me he had passed away. Before my brother left home, he took our daily beatings for us. My mother kicked him out, disowned him and abandoned him.” Barrita said.

After Tom ran away from home, Barrita, her mother and sister relocated from Vancouver to Vernon. Tom went into Foster care. He moved from foster home to foster home and left foster care at age sixteen. He has been looking for Barrita for years.

A story done in October 2009 by Ross Freake in the Business Thompson Okanagan Newspaper about Barrita being Vernon’s 2009 Woman of the Year led to the reunification. Tom did a search for Barrita on Google. Freake mentioned that Barrita’s store Cotton’s Chocolates was named after her maiden name. That was the clue that Tom needed to find Barrita.

Tom contacted Barrita for the first time on Monday, March 8, 2010. Barrita didn’t know Tom was coming to her store. He walked in on Thursday, March 18th and she knew it was him. Barrita said, “As soon as he took his sunglasses off, I could see that the kindness was still there.

Barrita says “it’s been good, overwhelming and so amazing. If there is any cloud higher than cloud nine, that’s where I’ve been.”

Tom lives in Langley with his wife and three children. He is the owner of a shipping company.

There is a humanitarian parallel between the two long lost siblings. Tom has helped build churches and orphanages in Africa through humanitarian aid trips. Barrita just returned from Mexico. Her trip there was the result of her fundraising efforts through an event she put on last February in Vernon called “Valentines for Mexico” through Sweet Smiles, her non profit association.

$6381 was raised through the Valentines for Mexico fundraiser. Barrita raised over $3,000 by selling chocolates out of her baskets to local businesses over six months. $450 was donated by her rotary club.

Sweet Smiles aids the Upper Vernon Mission, Women’s Transition House, Teens Count Two, Salvation Army and orphanages internationally. Barrita says, “We also sponsor children in Mexico and Kenya.”


Barrita’s recent trip to Mexico was February 20 to March 7, 2010 where she visited three orphanages, two schools and even an animal shelter. One orphanage is known as the House of Hope and Faith in Bonfil (a suburb of Cancun). It was her second trip to Mexico, but her first time to this orphanage.

Sweet Smiles donated a laptop, scanner, printer, netbook and school supplies to another school. Altogether, seven hundred pounds of supplies were distributed including medical supplies, clothing, shoes, school supplies, skin care products, toys, stuffies, coats, raingear, boots, towels and facecloths.

“We flew down with Westjet. As a humanitarian gesture you’re allowed one extra bag, but they donated all of the extra shipping costs. That means more money I can spend on food and appliances while I’m there.” Barrita said.

Barrita also visited The Little Yellow School House on Isla Mujures, a school for special needs children. “We purchased a new air conditioning system for them.” Barrita said.

Barrita holds a special place in her heart for special needs children. Nine years ago her daughter was born with special needs. “When I was pregnant, my mother attacked me." Barrita said. This caused Barrita to go into pre-mature labour and resulted in the brain injury and near death of her daughter. Nine years ago was the last time Barrita spoke to her mother. “My mother is an unkind cruel person. It took something horrible for me to wake up. My baby girl saved my life.” Barrita said.

Barrita rescued her sister from her mother last Christmas. Her sister has her own apartment now and works with Barrita. Barrita said, “I’m really proud of my sister. She has come a long way. My mother was pretty much controlling her life for many years. It’s nice to watch her bloom, she has never been happier.”

“I’m not thankful for my past, but I am who I am because of my childhood. I like myself today. The next chapter in my life is to create hope in people and I’m so excited to do it. It makes me feel alive.” Barrita says.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher

Linkwithin: A free secret weapon for getting readers to stay in your blog longer.

Many bloggers ask the question, "How can I get people to stay in my blog longer?" Linkwithin (not to be confused with LinkedIn) is my new secret weapon for getting readers to stay on my blog longer. If you have a blog, it's something you may want to add.

It's free.

It's very simple to add.

It doesn't come with advertising (other than an unobtrusive linkwithin link).

I have been very pleased with how it looks, how it pulls related articles and how it makes my site more "sticky" (people stay longer).

Photos are so important to a blog, and this little widget drives that point home. Linkwithin automatically pulls suggested articles to the bottom of your most recent blog post, and all of your other posts, along with a thumbnail photo from each article. You can tell it to pull three, four or five suggestions depending on how you would like it to look on your site.

Platforms it works on include:

Typepad
Blogger
Wordpress
(Other) ie: your own site

It is so attractive that it entices readers to stay longer on your blog. Readers poke around in other articles you've written.

This is what the sign up form looks like.




Don't get confused when you're setting it up because the process is so easy and simple. It literally takes about 1 minute.

How to set it up:

1. Open your blogging platform.
2. Then open linkwithin in a new window.
3. Fill out the form.
4. Hit the "get widget" picture.
5. Finish the prompts in your blogging platform to complete the process.

Presto, it's in there.

Articles are pulled based on categories or tags. Voila, you've got yourself an automatic-article-suggester-of-sorts. Now, watch your pageviews per unique visitor go waaaaaaay up. (If you're not sure what pageviews or unique visitors are, read this article about google analytics.)

If you add Linkwithin to your blog, please let me know how you like it by leaving a comment on this blog post. I love to hear your feedback.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Blogger

p.s. If you would like to get a blog and have it customized to your other branding, please contact me for a quote.

Import a blog to Facebook and update Twitter to Facebook and LinkedIn

While training a group of professionals yesterday about social media, these questions were popular. I've linked to their answers:

How to import your blog or RSS feed into Facebook.

How to update Twitter from Facebook and Facebook from Twitter.

How to import Twitter to LinkedIn.

Thanks for reading,

Courtenay

Slideshow - How Social Media Can Help Your Career

This slideshow describes what social media is, some of the various types (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogs), statistics and how they can help your career.

How Social Media Can Help Your Career

View more presentations from Courtenay Pitcher.

Three lucky charms for thriving in a tough economy – Okanagan business style

Lucky Charm One – Keep Overhead Low

In these tough economic times, Tammi Berzins, co-owner of Berzins Designs in Vernon, B.C. says, “People are still building, renovating and doing a bit of everything.” Tammi has been in business for four years. She says, “I love what I do and enjoy working in the Okanagan.” Tammi and her business partner Carley Sawka travel to interior design related trade shows to make sure they are current in the design world.

Berzins Designs recently completed an FF and E (the interior design and installation of furniture, fixtures and equipment) at Firelight Lodge at Silver Star Mountain Resort, but Tammi does admit these times are difficult. Tammi says, “We try to keep things minimal, and not have a large overhead. We were fortunate that the (Firelight Lodge) hotel project happened at a good time. My best suggestion for business owners is to keep expences and overhead as low as you can.” 

Berzins Designs does commercial and residential interior design work for a handful of builders in the Vernon area.

Lucky Charm Two – Fill A Need, Even if it’s only temporary

Elizabeth Sweezie has a background in accounting and a Business Administration diploma from Okanagan College. She has been organizing offices and their paperwork systems for twenty years. She started her business Office 2 Office one year ago because she knew it could fill the gap for a “temp” service.

Now, she steps in temporarily to help small businesses who are bursting at the seams with paperwork, lack of efficient systems, or expansion to organize their offices. She does collection letters, customizes forms, creates invoices, puts payables and receivables into one place and labels it all so they can find it. She says that the companies she helps just need, “a little specific organizational business to be done. This frees owners up to take care of their business.”

To find clients, she keeps herself involved with several organizations including:

Vernon Women in Business (Website Director)
North Okanagan Referral Association
Toastmasters (Acting VP of Education)
Okanagan Business Exchange.

Next, she will look at helping bookkeepers and accountants.

Lucky Charm Three – Diversify

When Adrienne Harris’ phone stopped ringing, she diversified to survive in business.

Adrienne Harris has owned Lasting Impressions Home Staging and Design for four years and she helps the homeowner or real estate professional prepare the condition of a home or property to sell. She says, “This enhances marketing, because 90% of home buyers look on line before purchasing.” According to Adrienne, when a homebuyer works with a realtor, they look at location and what they can spend. Once those needs are met, they buy that home based on its condition….that’s where she comes in.

(Before shot)

Her husband Adam Harris is a real estate agent with Century 21. Her and Adam have been buying, renovating and selling houses (also called “flipping”) for the past three years. This has led to doing small renovations for others.

“To survive in business, we’ve had to diversify. My husband went from full time real estate to taking on more renovations. I’ve had to diversify too. I’ve had to recreate my business. My phone was no longer ringing. I may do the work myself rather than sub it out to a sub trade. I’m not going to hire someone to powerwash a client’s dock when I’m more than capable of doing it.” Adrienne remarks.


Recently, Adrienne and Adam combined two businesses they own, Lasting Impressions Home Staging and Design and Portico Property Concierge, into a corporation called North Okanagan Property Services. She says, “We want to be a one stop shop service for homeowners whether they need maintenance, renovations or want to sell their home.”

You can follow Adrienne on Twitter: http://www.Twitter.com/okanaganstager

What are you doing to survive or thrive in these tough times? I would love to hear from you. Comments can be left at the bottom of this blog by clicking the comments link below.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Business Survivor

Follow me on Twitter (@vernongirl) or subscribe to my blog.

Grow Your Business With Social Media - Workshop - Vernon - April 17

Grow Your Business With Social Media
A Workshop With Courtenay Pitcher

Saturday, April 17, 2010 - 8:30 to Noon
Schubert Centre - 3505 30th Ave.  - Vernon, BC

For members and future members of Vernon Women in Business

$20 for members.

RSVP by April 10, 2010.

Register for the workshop.

8:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.         Networking and Registration
9:00 to 12:00                       Workshop

Laptops are welcome. We will be working live on the internet. Wireless access provided.

Topics will include:

LinkedIn - Learn how to network with LinkedIn for advancing your career or small business. Create a LinkedIn profile, get and give recommendations, connect your LinkedIn profile to Twitter, customize your website link, start or join a group, share your blog or rss feed.

Blogs – You’ll see how cheap and easy it is to begin blogging. Learn how to post articles, photos and YouTube videos to your blog. Learn what a category cloud is. Understand why you should comment on other blogs to promote your business. Learn why blogging can leverage your marketing, earn trust, clients and credibility.

Twitter – Set up a profile, tweet, retweet, direct message, reply, customize your Twitter background, and schedule tweets. How to brand yourself using Twitter, increase traffic to your blog or website, build relationships and increase your profile. Learn how to use Hootsuite. Learn powerful automation tricks to save time.

Facebook – Set up a Facebook Fan page for your business. Learn how to engage people on your Fan Page. Get people to write on your wall, start discussions, and automatically bring in your RSS or blog feed.

For more information, contact me or Cindy Bertrand, Director of Education for VWIB education@vwib.com

Hope to see you there!

Courtenay Pitcher, Social Media Coach

How social media and government money can help your career in Vernon or Kelowna

How can social media help your career? If you are a client or an alumni of the CBD Network in Vernon, B.C., you can find out on March 25, 2010 from Noon to 1:00 p.m. when I speak to that group. If you are thinking of jumping careers, or if you are looking for work, you may want to consider becoming a CBD Network client and attending this event.

CBD Network stands for Career Business Development network. They help professional and highly skilled people find work. They are great at it too. In fact, I was a client in 1999 after I was laid off from a full-time marketing position. (My lay-off was a result of the restructuring of a majour ski resort.) I also became a client in 2006 when I decided to put self-employment on the backburner for a while and get a "job" with a regular paycheque. (Obviously, I got bored with a regular paycheque and returned to self-employment because here I am writing this blog and promoting myself as an on-line marketing coach.)

The CBD Network's process teaches you how to identify what you really want in a career and put this information into a resume that positions you as an expert in your skill set. Then, they provide coaching around how to network and market yourself to that perfect career, or one that will be the stepping stone at least. In my case in 1999, I chose a career of self-employment. With that choice, they referred me onto a self-employment program and I started my company Lava Marketing. In 2006, they were definitely instrumental in helping me land a great job that I enjoyed thoroughly and did well at until I got over my self-employment, life, baby-making, father-dying, fire-evacuating burn-out and got bored. (There are some stories there I will tell another time, or upon request.)

My career and self-employment transitions were made a bit easier with Government of Canada money that I accessed with the assistance of the CBD Network. And I didn't have to pay for the CBD Network's assistance because some government agency paid them.

The Okanagan is not exactly plentiful in the job department and finding a good job requires guerilla marketing techniques that you will learn as a client of the CBD Network.

In the one hour presentation on Thursday, March 25, 2010, I will review social media sites like LinkedIn and Twitter and provide some tips on how blogging can help a career.

If you are an out of work professional, contact the CBD Network in either Vernon or Kelowna to see if you are a good fit for their services. If you don't qualify as a CBD Network client or alumni, I offer one-on-one or group coaching on those techniques too.

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, not burned out, happy, professional job hunter

Vernon, B.C. Woman of the Year Nominations Open March 1 to 31, 2010

I like to support my community by volunteering and sponsoring events. I am a member of Vernon Women in Business and I currently sit on the 2010 Woman of the Year Committee. For 2009 and 2008, I was the Chairperson. This year, I stepped back as Chairperson to focus more on my writing. Rhino Curbing, a company my husband and I own, is proud to be a Platinum sponsor of this event.

Menza Bouwman of Triboda Printing Company in Vernon is the 2010 Chairperson of the Woman of the Year Committee.

“Woman of the Year nominations will be accepted March 1 to March 31”, according to Bouwman.

 

New this year, a five member judging panel from the community will be struck to determine who will be Woman of the Year. In previous years, the organizing committee determined the Woman of the Year. This new process is designed to streamline the decision-making process.

 

Bouwman says, “The Woman of the Year will be honoured with a Journey Pendant valued at $1495 retail.

 

 

 

 

The pendant is on display inside Gregory’s Fine Jewellery.

 

The nomination form is available by clicking any of the above images, on the Vernon Women in Business website or at sponsor locations including Triboda Printing, Kal Tire, Rhino Curbing, Scotiabank, Gregory’s Fine Jewellery, Shaw, Sun FM, The Morning Star, Kiss FM, Resort TV, Allan-Francis-Pringle, Harris Flowers and Brenda Hala Photography.

 

The Woman of the Year Gala is a community event designed to celebrate exceptional women. It is planned and executed by volunteer members of Vernon Women in Business.  The woman of the year:

1. Consistently displays and exercises leadership.

2. Demonstrates vision, initiative, creativity and courage.

3. Enriches and improves quality of life for others.

4. Has an impact in her chosen field.

5. Displays and sustains a continued commitment to her community.

6. Promotes and supports opportunities for females.

7. Has made Greater Vernon a better place to live.

 

In addition to the diamond pendant, the Woman of the Year will receive a one year parking pass for the City of Vernon, prizes, and the recognition and honour that comes with being the 23rd Annual Recipient of the award.

The Woman of the Year will be announced at the Woman of the Year Gala on the evening of Thursday, May 20, 2010 at the Best Western Vernon Lodge. Tickets for the event will go on sale in April. The 2009 Woman of the Year was Barrita Durward.  The deadline for nominations is 5:00 p.m.  March 31, 2010.

Woman of the Year Past Recipients

1988    Jean Koenig & Melanie Korol                   
1989    Daphne Thuillier       
1990    Claudette Everitt       
1991    Hedi Lattey           
1992    Colleen Vollan       
1993    Donna Mihalcheon       
1994    June Rigby           
1995    Ruth Wolfe           
1996    Joan Jacobi           
1997    Jane Lister           
1998    Liz McArthur           
1999    Betty Selin           
2000    Ann Powter           
2001    Marie Fleming           
2002    Phyllis Simon           
2003    Carol Williams       
2004    Marlene Stark           
2005    Carole Benz           
2006     Val Heuman           
2007    Michele Blais           
2008   Carol Wutzke           
2009   Barrita Durward           

For more information, please contact: Menza@Triboda.com phone: 250-549-2900 

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Volunteer and proud sponsor of the Woman of the Year Event

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Twelve lessons brands can learn from Tiger Wood’s apology Speech transcript

Tiger Wood’s apology speech can teach your brand lots about selling, evoking emotion and getting people on your side. The complete transcript of Tiger Wood’s apology speech is typed out (by yours truly) below. Here are twelve lessons we can learn from his speech in terms of branding and marketing:

1.    Broadcast your message on YouTube.

I didn’t watch the live speech on T.V.. I watched it on YouTube as a result of seeing someone tweet about it. Tiger was wise to employ one of the top social media platforms to broadcast his message.

2.    If you, your brand or product messes up, give a heartfelt apology.

The fourth sentence in Tiger’s speech is his apology. Tiger says, “I want to say to each of you simply and directly, I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behaviour I engaged in.” The beauty of apologizing is that it allows everyone to relax and listen to why you messed up and how you plan to fix it.

3.    Surround yourself with supporters.

In Tiger’s first line, he points out, “Many of you in this room are my friends.” In one of his last lines, he says, “In recent weeks, I have received many thousands of emails, letters and phone calls from people expressing good wishes.”

When your brand is in a spot of difficulty, it’s really important to show, explain or demonstrate that you still have supporters. It’s also nice if they pick you up and brush you off. It’s a time when you need cheerleaders, not detractors.

4.    Make sure everyone knows that mom still loves your brand.

Tiger’s mom was prominently placed for the video cameras in the front row when he delivered his speech. She was the first to hug him at the end of it too. If mom trusts and loves your brand, who can argue with that?

5.    If the product is broken or recalled, don’t return it to the shelves until there is more research and development, but do tell everyone that the product will be new and improved and it will return soon.

“I’ve learned to seek support from my peers in therapy and I hope some day to return that support to others who are seeking help. I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behaviour more respectful of the game.”


6.    Show the “gladiator-shield-wielding-strong-side” of your brand.

Tiger says, “Despite the damage I have done, I still believe it is right to shield my family from the public spotlight.”

This sets Tiger up as a fighter, a hero, a champion for his family, rather than the villain who brought it down.

7.    Ask your customers to overlook your weaknesses and focus on what you’ve learned from the experience.

Tiger says, “I once heard, and I believe it’s true, it’s not what you achieve in life that matters, it’s what you overcome. Achievements on the golf course are only part of setting an example. Character and decency are what really count.”

This is the classic red herring that says, forget about the past (how he messed up) and focus on the future (what he has learned from this experience and how it has shaped him into a man of character).

8.    Underscore the charitable side of your work, brand, or product.

Tiger says, “Thirteen years ago my dad and I envisioned helping young people achieve their dreams through education. This work remains unchanged and will continue to grow. From the learning centre students in southern California to the Earl Woods scholars in Washington, D.C., millions of kids have changed their lives and I am dedicated to making sure that continues.”

In talking about his foundation, it shows that Tiger could still be likeable because of the charitable work he does for his community.

9.    Reveal an intimate secret value that people can connect with.

“Part of following this path, for me, is Buddhism which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.”

The phrasing “people don’t realize it” says, “Listen closely, I’m going to tell you something intimate about myself.” In this “reality-show-day-and-age”, people want to know the intimate secrets and values of your product or brand. Give them a taste of it, and they’ll be coming back for more.

10.    Assure everyone that you will play by the rules.

Tiger says, “I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone, apply to me.”

This is a clever way to assure everyone that Tiger is not above everyone. He can still play in the same sandbox and get along.

11.    Make sure everyone knows you still have a spine.

Speculation that Elin beat up on Tiger made Tiger look like a weakling. Tiger had to put that fire out by saying, “Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame.”

What a clever way of phrasing it. He was made to look like a hero for defending Elin, when in fact this whole statement was designed to show he still has a spine and wasn’t emasculated by his wife.

12.    Ask for the sale.

Tiger says, “Today, I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again. Thank you.” This is the classic trial close to see if you will buy.

Here is the complete transcript of Tiger Wood’s Apology Speech on February 19, 2010:

Good morning and thank you for joining me.

Many of you in this room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me, many of you have cheered for me, or you worked with me or you supported me. Now, everyone of you has good reason to be critical of me.

I want to say to each of you simply and directly, I am deeply sorry for my irresponsible and selfish behaviour I engaged in. I know people want to find out how I could be so selfish and so foolish. People want to know how I could have done these things to my wife Elin and to my children.

And while I have always tried to be a private person, there are some things I want to say. Elin and I have started the process of discussing the damage caused by my behaviour. As Elin pointed out to me, my real apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behaviour over time. We have a lot to discuss. However, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us. I am aware of the pain my behaviour has caused to those of you in this room.

I have let down. I have let down my fans. For many of you, especially my friends, my behaviour has been a personal disappointment. To those of you who work for me, I have let you down personally and professionally. My behaviour has caused considerable worry to my business partners. To everyone involved in my foundation including my staff, board of directors, sponsors, and most importantly the young students we reach, our work is more important than ever.

Thirteen years ago my dad and I envisioned helping young people achieve their dreams through education. This work remains unchanged and will continue to grow. From the learning centre students in southern California to the Earl Woods scholars in Washington, D.C. millions of kids have changed their lives and I am dedicated to making sure that continues.

But still, I know, I have bitterly disappointed all of you. I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did. I am embarrassed that I put you in this position. For all that I have done (long pause) I am so sorry. (pause) I have lot to atone for. (sigh) But there is one issue that I would like to discuss.

Some people have speculated that Elin somehow hurt or attacked me on Thanksgiving night. It angers me that people would fabricate a story like that. Elin never hit me that night or any other night. There has never been an episode of domestic violence in our marriage, ever. Elin has shown enormous grace and poise throughout this ordeal. Elin deserves praise, not blame.

The issue involved here, was my repeated irresponsible behaviour. I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated. What I did is not acceptable and I am the only person to blame.

I stopped living by the core values that I was taught to believe in. I knew my actions were wrong, but I convinced myself that normal rules didn’t apply. I never thought about who I was hurting. Instead, I thought only about myself. I ran straight through the boundaries that a married couple should live by. 

I thought I could get away with whatever I wanted to. I felt that I had worked hard my entire life and deserved to enjoy all the temptations around. I felt I was entitled. Thanks to money and fame, I didn’t have to go far to find them. I was wrong. I was foolish. I don’t get to play by different rules. The same boundaries that apply to everyone, apply to me.

I brought this shame on myself. I hurt my wife, my kids, my mother, my wife’s family, my friends, my foundation and kids all around the world who admired me. I have had a lot of time to think about what I’ve done. My failures have made me look at myself in a way I never wanted to before.

It’s now up to me to make amends and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I’ve made. It’s up to me to start living a life of integrity. I once heard, and I believe it’s true, it’s not what you achieve in life that matters, it’s what you overcome. Achievements on the golf course are only part of setting an example. Character and decency are what really count. Parents used to point to me as a role model for their kids. I owe all those families a special apology. I want to say to them that I am truly sorry. It’s hard to admit that I need help, but I do.

For forty five days, from the end of December to early February, I was in in-patient therapy receiving guidance for the issues I am facing. I have a long way to go about taking my first steps in the right direction. As I proceed, I understand people have questions. I understand the press wants to ask me for the details of the times I was unfaithful. I understand people want to know if Elin and I will remain together. Please know, that as far as I am concerned, everyone of these questions and answers is a matter between Elin and me. These are issues between a husband and a wife.

Some people have made up things that never happened. They said I used performance enhancing drugs. This is completely and utterly false. Some have written things about my family. Despite the damage I have done, I still believe it is right to shield my family from the public spotlight. They did not do these things, I did. I have always tried to maintain a private space for my wife and children. They have been kept separate from my sponsors and my commercial endorsements.

When my children were born, we only released photographs so that the paparazzi could not chase them. However, my behaviour doesn’t make it right for the media to follow my two and a half year old daughter to school and report the school’s location. They staked out my wife and they pursued my mom. Whatever my wrong doings, for the sake of my family, please leave my wife and kids alone.

I recognize I have brought this on myself. And I know, above all, I am the one who needs to change. I owe it to my family to become a better person. I owe it to those closest to me to become a better man. That’s where my focus will be. I have a lot of work to do and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it.

Part of following this path, for me, is Buddhism which my mother taught me at a young age. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised a Buddhist and I actively practiced my faith from childhood until I drifted away from it in recent years. Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security. It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint.

Obviously, I lost track of what I was taught. As I move forward, I will continue to receive help because I’ve learned that is how people really do change.

Starting tomorrow, I will leave for more treatment and more therapy. I would like to thank my friends at Accenture and the players in the field this week for understanding why I’m making these remarks today.

In therapy, I’ve learned the importance of looking at my spiritual life and keeping it in balance with my professional life. I need to regain my balance and be centred so I can save the things that are most important to me, my marriage and my children. That also means relying on others for help. I’ve learned to seek support from my peers in therapy and I hope some day to return that support to others who are seeking help.

I do plan to return to golf one day, I just don’t know when that day will be. I don’t rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behaviour more respectful of the game.

In recent weeks, I have received many thousands of emails, letters and phone calls from people expressing good wishes. To everyone who has reached out to me and my family, thank you. Your encouragement means the world to Elin and me. I want to thank the PGA tour, Commissioner Finchen and the players for their patience and understanding while I work on my private life. I look forward to seeing my fellow players on the course.

Finally, there are many people in this room and there are many people at home who believed in me. Today, I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again. Thank you.

(sniffle, hugs his mom and front row supporters)

Thanks for reading.
(please subscribe to receive this blog by email.)

Courtenay Pitcher, Skeptic

A poem called Hugs. Please share it.

This post goes out to my father, Laurence Ross Mottram, who wrote this poem "Hugs" before he passed away. He would have loved the photo of this little boy that I took in Phoenix, Arizona at the Indian Festival in 2008.

Please share this image with your friends and family today.

Hugs to all of you who read my blog.

Cheers, Courtenay Pitcher, Daughter of a poet

 

How To Track Your Advertising and Social Media Efforts On-line

This article has been adapted and updated from chapter three of my book Secrets of Internet Marketing: Streamline, promote, communicate and sell more effectively on-line.

Tracking programs


 

As you know, it is imperative to track your advertising – whether it is website banner advertising, television or print. With the advent of social media, it is also good to know how much traffic is coming into your blog or website through Facebook, Twitter, Delicious, YouTube or other sites. You must know where your business is coming from. If you have a banner ad on a website that is costing you big money and your referring URLs from that site are low, you have choices. (More about URLs below.) You can pull the ad, change the ad, change the location of the ad on the site, or negotiate a better rate or location for your banner ad on their site.

Tracking programs or website statistics are excellent for monitoring visitor and customer behavior. With them, you can track where your customers come from, where bottlenecks occur in your site, which content, products or services visitors prefer, how you can improve your customer support, the best way to convert a visitor into a buyer and which advertising campaigns are working.

I use Google Analytics to track my blog traffic. The best part about it…it is free.

Hits

Hits, also called a page hit, are the retrieval of any item, like a page or a graphic, from a web server. For example, when a visitor calls up a web page with eight graphics, that's nine hits, one for the page and eight for the graphics. For this reason, hits often aren't a good indication of Web traffic. Anyone trying to sell you on-line advertising based on hits should be asked to get out of the ballpark.

Page Views
A page view is a web page that has been viewed by one visitor. Rather than hits, page views are a much more reliable measuring tool for evaluating where to place your online advertising and/or your website traffic. You'll see by this image below, how my page views skyrocketed when I added K. D. Lang to my site immediately following the 2010 Winter Olympics.



Search Engine Reports

Software (like Google Analytics) that provides search engine reports can tell you which search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) visitors are using to find your site. By knowing which search engines people are using to find you, you’ll be able to tell which search engines aren’t working for you. Then, you can attempt to fix your ranking in those search engines where you need improvement.

Keyword Reports
See which keyword combinations people are entering in search engines to find your site by looking at keyword reports. Keyword reports tell you that you have content in your blog or your site around those keywords. However, if you want to bring visitors to your site or blog with other key words, and you are not getting traffic from them, you’ll know what kind of content you should add.

Here is an example of my keyword report. Recently, I posted a YouTube video to my site and ever since then, my traffic has gone through the roof for K.D. Lang Olympic video searches.

Referring URLs (or Referring Sites)
A URL is a Uniform Resource Locator. It is a very complicated way of saying ‘website address’. Referring URLs are the websites that refer, send, divert or direct business into your site.

By tracking your referring URLs, you can determine which websites (in addition to search engines) are sending you business. This is extremely valuable information because it allows you to determine where your advertising is, or isn’t, working.

As you can see by this image below, top referring sites to my blog are Twitter, Kelly Diels, Facebook and Hootsuite. (That goes to show the power of blogs and social media to generating traffic.)

Return on Investment Calculation
Compare referring URLs to determine the percentage of traffic each URL brings. Track return on investment for each URL by assigning a dollar figure to the percentage and dividing it by the cost of your advertising. This method is used for comparison purposes. It doesn’t actually assign a real dollar value.

For example: let’s say you are a photographer and you have banner advertising on two sites:

Kodak.com
Gettyimages.com

Kodak is bringing you 50% of your visitors, but the ad cost you $500. Getty images is bringing you the other 50%, but the ad cost you $1000.

Return on investment (ROI) is calculated strictly for comparison purposes – the dollar figure means nothing in this case.

Your return on investment for Kodak 50/500 = 0.1

ROI for Getty is 50/1000 = .05 (half).

While they bring you the same amount of traffic, the traffic costs you twice as much with gettyimages.com.

Therefore, you may want to consider reducing your investment with gettyimages.com to see if you get the same amount of traffic for the same price, or negotiate with Getty to keep the same ad, but at half the cost based on your knowledge of Kodak’s results. As long as all other things remain equal, you may be in a very good negotiating position with Getty. Do you getty what I’m saying?

Most requested pages
Tracking programs also allow you to track the most requested pages on your website. The most requested page on your website is often your home page. But which page do your customers visit next? Is it your contact information, jobs, or what? This is useful information to know.

This is important if you are trying to convince a supplier or associate to buy advertising space on your website. You can indicate where the best place to advertise will be.

When I had a contract with a community Internet portal to sell banner advertising, we sold all of the advertising at the same rate – regardless of whether it was a busy page or a slow page. However, we quickly sold out the busy pages because we were able to prove to our customers that they could capture a portion of the traffic we were getting just by placing banner advertising on those busy pages. Interestingly, some of the busiest pages were bus route schedules on BC Transit, movie listings, and the ‘image of the day’ (a nice picture of the local scenery that the webmaster took each day). Accommodation was hugely popular in the tourism section and the news continually drew visitors to the site.

Tip: Movie listings are a great place to advertise on line if you are targeting teens. Facebook, is another. Ironically, Facebook is also great for advertising to grandmas!

The most requested pages are one of the first things you should ask if you are considering advertising on anybody else’s website. If it is a high traffic site, place your banner advertising on their most requested page, and you’ll see results!

Use your most requested pages as a place to put announcements and news, or move product. If you know it is a well-visited place on your site, use it to your advantage.

Average time spent on the site

    “The 'Net is a waste of time, and that's exactly what's right about it.”
      -William Gibson

A good tracking program can provide you with the average amount of time that your visitors spend on your site. If your visitors are not spending much time on your site, maybe it is not very interesting, maybe your pages download too slowly or maybe your shopping cart package is not user-friendly. Tracking this information allows you to re-think your site layout and/or content. Increase the amount of time a user spends in your site and you will likely increase the amount of money that they spend with you.



Unique Visitors
Unique visitors are measured according to their unique IP addresses. IP addresses identify each computer or computer network that is connected to the Internet. IP addresses have a unique four digit number that identifies a particular network and a host on that network. Except in special cases, one IP address equals one unique visitor no matter how many times they visit the site within a given period. The only flaw in tracking unique visitors is that one IP address can be assigned to a network having 500 employees on it – so the unique visitor will be counted once while up to 500 employees may have actually visited your site.

Unique visitor statistics can be useful if tracked on a daily basis to tell if more people visit your site on a Monday or a Sunday, or in August than March. They will indicate when your traffic increases or drops.

It is also important to know what this term means when you are sourcing information from advertisers about their unique visitor traffic so that you can compare ‘apples to apples’. It is better to ask ‘how many unique visitors do you have’ than it is to ask ‘how many hits do you get’ as an indicator for their amount of traffic. 

Path Reports
Statistics or tracking programs can monitor path reports. These indicate where visitors entered your site, which paths they took and where they exited. This is useful information for determining ‘jumping off’ points that may need to be re-designed. They will also tell you how people travel through your site which can arm you with information on how to improve your navigation.

Return frequency
See how many visitors have returned to view your site a second time, and how long they waited between the first and second visit. If visitors return to your site daily, you know you’ve got an interesting site. If they return monthly, you may need to reach out to your customers electronically more often with an e-newsletter, blog or special promotional deals by email.

Other Items Which Can Be Tracked

Software can track everything from the most common monitor resolution settings used by your visitors to their language setting, country and operating system.

Email Reports

Once you have set up Google Analytics, you can also set weekly or daily email reports to send to you in .pdf format.




Summary

*Tracking programs or website statistics can help you monitor customer behavior and traffic to your site

*Hits are a common, yet unreliable measuring tool

*Use page views to guide you in placing your advertising or to determine the most popular pages within your own site

*Keyword reports help you optimize your content

*Referring URL’s help you determine which websites (in addition to search engines) are directing traffic into your site

*Use referring URL’s as a measuring tool to determine your advertising return on investment

*Put your most important information or product offerings on your most requested pages

*Invest in advertising on other websites on their most requested pages

*Knowing the average amount of time that visitors spend on your site can help you provide better site layout or content

*Unique visitors are a better tool than hits for measuring traffic to a site

*Path reports tell you how people travel through your site and where they leave, giving you hints on how to improve your navigation

*If customers return to your site frequently, you have great Internet marketing. If they don’t, you need to reach out to your customers more often.

*Tracking programs can track just about everything. Focus on the tracking information that helps guide your Internet marketing the best.

More Information

If you would like coaching on how to set up and interpret Google Analytics to track your on-line marketing, please get in touch.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Google Analytics Cheerleader

How my blog made number one on Google because k.d. lang sang Hallelujah at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Opening Ceremonies

When I posted the video of k.d. lang singing Leonard Cohen's song Hallelujah, I never dreamed my blog traffic would explode, it would make it to number one one Google and I would be having a discussion on Twitter about its relevance to the 2010 Olympics.

But that's exactly what happened. If you're interested in how I got traffic to my site, read on. If you're interested in my deep philosophical thoughts as to why I think k.d. lang's performance was completely relevant to the 2010 Olympic Opening Ceremonies, read on. And if you would like to see lang sing Hallelujah, read on.

How my blog traffic rose

Look at this picture of how my blog traffic rose yesterday (February 12, 2010). As you can see, my visitor traffic has always hovered well below fifty visitors per day. Probably closer to thirty. But yesterday, there was a spike. Above 200 visitors. Amazing!

Now look at this image of my number one placing out of 6,750 on Google for a search "kd lang sings at olympics". This is only one search term. There are over 250 search term combinations that people are finding my blog through that are related to lang's performance at the Olympics....and growing.

Those are only the statistics from yesterday. Today, my traffic is even much higher, but I will not know exactly how high until the day is complete and I can check my Google Analytics report.

How easy is it to post video to your blog?

It's easy. Very very easy.

It's free.

It takes only minutes.

How do you do it?

First, find a video on YouTube that you like.

Second, find the "embed" html code that is located to the right of the video as highlighted in yellow on the right of this screenshot I took from my vernongirl YouTube channel page.

Then, cut and paste that "embed" code into the html code (sometimes called the source code) of your blog post. It is that simple. And, it's legal. If someone who has posted a video on Youtube chooses to share their video, they will make sure that the "embed" html code is accessible to you. This allows you to cut and paste the code and use their videos on your blog or website. Now, how great is that?

There is advertising that comes up on the video that you have no control over, but it's worth it.

Blog about current topics and trends

This experience has taught me that it is a very good idea to be on top of current topics and trends, and to comment on them quickly on your blog if you want traffic. Sometimes it can pay off. I've been wondering when this day would come.

But it's also important to go with your heart. And since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, what a great segue into my next point about heart in sports and life and the relevancy between Cohen, lang, Hallelujah and the Olympics.

Why are k.d. lang and Hallelujah relevant to the 2010 Olympics?

This morning on Twitter, someone tweeted to me that they didn't see the relevance in lang singing about biblical infidelity.

This sparked a big discussion between me and my husband over morning coffee. He didn't see the relevancy either. So I looked up Leonard Cohen on the internet. I was pretty sure he was Canadian. (I'm not saying this tongue-in-cheek either.) Yes, I was right. According to the LeonardCohen.com website ....

"Cohen ironically describes himself as “the little Jew who wrote the Bible,”.

....He has immersed himself into Jewish culture, Christian imagery and Buddhist detachment. He believes that our human imperfections are finally what will bring us whatever transcendence we can attain." (I edited.)

Human imperfection seemed particularly relevant to me since the Georgian luger flew off the track yesterday and slammed into a pole, killing him instantly. I watched the video on the internet just before I sat down to watch the opening ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics (but refused to send out links to it.) Human imperfection is apparent in the design of the track and the execution of the luger. Poignant. Plus Cohen is a celebrated poet and songwriter. Here is a link to Leonard Cohen's biography. 

k.d. lang grew up in Alberta, but now makes her home in Los Angeles, California. An incredible talent, she is no stranger to adversity. Being a lesbian in Alberta, I'm sure, had its challenges. (I grew up in Calgary.)

But overall, Canada is an amazingly diverse country. Not only is our landscape diverse, but so are our people. We are a cultural, religious and idealism melting pot. So to have k.d lang singing a song written by a self-proclaimed Jewish poet is completely relevant.

It celebrates diversity, art, expression, freedom, overcoming obstacles and choice. Choice in religious beliefs, sexual orientation and how you will triumph over human imperfection. Isn't that what Canada is all about?

Here is a link to the original blog post that sparked this story, and my blog traffic, where you can see the video of k.d. lang performing Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen. Enjoy!

p.s. I have to give credit to Danielle Laporte’s White Hot Truth blog for giving me the idea to put this video onto my site. One day, I was looking through her blog and I came across this inspirational video of k.d. lang. (I read Laporte's blog for creative inspiration.) I love inspirational women. Laporte also writes about sex. I love that in Canada you can do that. And Danielle is from British Columbia too. Go Canada!

Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, Born in Canada

Related posts: Automated reply system for Twitter: Antique collector and web designer unite to brand Twitter.
 

If you liked k.d. lang singing at the Olympic Opening Ceremonies You'll love this.

Video tutorial: How to add a Facebook Fanpage to Hootsuite.com

Here is a video tutorial on how to add your Facebook Fanpage to your Hootsuite.com account so that whenever you send a tweet from Hootsuite, you can update your Facebook Fanpage automatically.

Or, here are the written directions:

Open Hootsuite.com

Go to settings > social networks > add a social network




Click the “pages” icon. (as per the image above) Note: Do not click the "Facebook" icon.

Connect with Facebook (It will open Facebook and you'll have to type in your Facebook email and password).

It will bring up a list of Fan pages you have set up on that account and so you can tick the Fanpage that you want to come up.

Cllick "Allow Publishing".

If you're getting this post by email, you can watch the video at this link here.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher
Social media trainer and Hootsuite Fan

What if all wineries had their own reality T. V. series?

In reading Mitch Joel's article about how there will be no websites, only publishers (which essentially says that brochure-like websites are a thing of the past and companies need to realize that unique, creative, relevant and fresh content posted onto social media sites is the now of marketing), I got to thinking....

What if all wineries had their own Reality T.V. series? For that matter, any business could have their own Reality T.V. show, but because there are several wineries in the Okanagan Valley where I live I will use examples from the wine industry.

In this YouTube age, where you can launch your own YouTube channel in seconds, it is really quite easy to post a video. Flip cameras are cheap. If the reality show host plans well, editing could be kept to a minimum. However, if video editing is required, Camtasia Studios software is available and they have developed a host of on-line training.

What would it look like if the winery's Marketing Director , Winemaker or Owner (because often the winery Owner is the Winemaker and the Marketing Director) became a Reality T.V. show host on YouTube?

It could be interesting. We could gain insights on:

• how to sip wine properly
• how to pair wine with food
• behind the scenes marketing meetings that the wine industry is involved in
• how grapes are grown or picked
• how to pronounce the different varieties of wine (like Gewurztraminer for example)
• events like the Spring and Fall wine festivals
• what kind of people work at a winery (their culture or educational background)
• interviews with tourists that visit the winery
• controversy, like legal issues with the liquor control board
• other winemakers
• the geography where the grapes are grown and the wine is made

Have wineries and other businesses really sat down and thought outside-the-box regarding marketing in this on-line-marketing-YouTube-Twitter-Facebook-easy-to-become-a-publisher-using-a-Wordpress-blog-iphone age?

I really think that businesses need to embrace the idea that we live in a video age. With a creative approach using video, wineries could market themselves on the internet in a whole new way. The call-to-action could still be to visit the winery and buy the wine. With video, it could all be so sensory.

Winemakers....what do you think?

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher

Related posts:

How to Create A Picture In Picture Video For Your Blog For Under $400 USD 

Intoxicating Liquors Act Doesn't Prevent Gray Monk Estate Winery From Marketing Online

Get your tickets for The Valentine Fundraising Dance & Silent Auction in Vernon Feb. 10

Wednesday night, February 10th, from 7:00pm - 11:00pm Sweet Smiles & Vernon's Small Business of the Year, Cotton's Chocolates will be hosting a Valentines Fundraising Dance & Silent Auction to benefit rescued children of the streets. 

Barrita Durward will be traveling to Mexico on Feb. 20th to aide three different orphanages and two schools.  This fundraising event will help aide these schools and orphanages.  This orphanage, along with the other two orphanages, rescue children off the streets who have been exploited, abused, and abandoned.

Esther, who is the house mom of the "House of Hope & Faith," in Cancun Mexico is quite ill, with cancer.  She continues to take care of the children to the best of her ability, but she and the children are in desperate need of our help.  She never sends any child away.  Her home is always open.  She began this orphanage 20 years ago, after an infant was left at her door step.

According to Barrita Durward, "She is truly an amazing soul."

Please open up your Wednesday evening and attend this charity event, held at Moejoes Night Club.  It will be a great evening filled with complimentary chocolate-dipped strawberry's, great music and a fantastic Valentine's silent auction filled with beautiful jewellery, Belgian chocolates, amazing perfumes and much, much more.

Tickets are $10 each in advance, or $15 at the door.

Tickets can be purchased at Cotton's Chocolates, Mojoes Nite Club, International Trendsetters, and Harris Flowers.

With the money raised from this event, Barrita will be purchasing food (six month supply of food & dairy for each orphanage), medical supplies, freezers, fridges, good shoes, school supplies, clothes, cold medicines, and vitamins.

For Tickets;

Cotton's Chocolates - 250-503-2535 & 250-275-7711

Harris Flowers - 250-545-0379

International Trendsetters - 250-558-3330

Mojoes Nite Club - 250-549-2332

Jay Rosen's Video Tea With The Economist: Media After iPad

How to create a picture-in-picture video for your blog for under $400 USD

Dear Varada:

Thank you for your question:

    “How did you create the video overlapping the background demo on
    Socialoomph presented in your blog.”

Adding video has been an excellent strategy for adding personality and credibility to my blog and getting people to stay for longer. It has also resulted in exposure through Youtube and now my blog has been bookmarked on the site Delicious which pushes traffic into my blog.

Here is how I do it:

First of all, I believe that the video example you are referring to is this video on how to upload tweets and schedule them using Socialoomph.com.

I use two tools to create my demo videos:

1)    A Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 / QuickCam Pro 9000 that cost under $99 USD.

and

2)    Camtasia Studios 5.0 Screen Recorder Software that cost under $300 USD.

I launch the Camtasia Studios Screen Recorder Software and set the recorder to make sure it is using the Logitech® Webcam Pro 9000 to record my face and my voice at the same time that I am clicking on the screen. In the settings of the Logitech Webcam Pro 9000, I ensure that it is tracking my face. This image demonstrates what the face tracking settings look like:

Logitech® Webcam Pro 9000 has exceptionally great audio quality, so I recommend it. And it sits right on your computer screen which means that you don't need a cameraman (or woman) to operate it. You just have to make sure to check that you are centred in the viewer.

For lighting, I have two small table top lights that I set on either side of my computer screen. They seem to do the trick.

In the Camtasia Studios Screen Recording Software, I also make sure that I set the “cursor effects” to highlight the clicks of my mouse with a yellow circle so it’s easier for people watching my video demonstration to know where I’m clicking.

The Camtasia Studio Screen Recorder software records what I am doing on my computer screen at the same time it is recording my face. It essentially makes two video files: one of the video of me and one video of what I’m clicking on my computer screen. It calls this picture in picture (pip) and when you are editing the video, you can decide if the videos will lay side-by-side each other, or one overtop of the other. In this case, I've laid one over the other.

To prepare to take the video, I practice what I am going to do and say a few times before I go through the “real” demo. This is like a sound check to ensure that my audio is being recorded and to see how the video is looking. After practicing, I do the demo in one take so that editing is kept to a minimum. The only editing I do after that is to fade in and fade out the video of me so that the screen recording demo can be seen. Sometimes I also enlarge my video.

When I began producing video, I noticed that my computer was quite slow and this was effecting the quality of my video and causing it to be somewhat stilted. It also took a very long time to render the video, which is also what Camtasia Studios terms as the "produce" phase. So I upgraded to a faster computer. The processor speed is most important. I use an Intel Core 2 Quad Processor Q9300 - 8 Gig System memory - 1 Terabyte hard drive. (I haven't included the cost of my computer upgrade in the $400 USD.)

Occasionally, I will get "chipmunk" voice when I record a video. This is when my audio comes out really fast and I sound like Alvin and The Chipmunks. When this happens, I close all of my programs and restart my computer. This takes care of the problem and then I start the process all over again.

Here is a video from Camtasia Studios that shows you how to place videos through pip (picture in picture).

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher

Newspapers are out, on line marketing is in for Vernon, B.C. Realtors

Social media is changing the way that real estate agents advertise. (Photo credit: The Salt Team Re/Max Real Estate Agents at The Rise overlooking Okanagan Lake in Vernon, B.C.)

Lisa Salt, Re/Max Real Estate Agent in Vernon, B.C. says, “Social media is the main focus of the speakers and panels right now at all of the industry trade shows and conferences I’ve attended. Everybody is using it to differing levels. The people who are doing it well have a system in place to make sure everything is updated every few days. They have information going on everything: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc..”

Re/Max has brought in a number of social media professionals to give people an idea of what users of social media are expecting, who the audiences are, and a little idea of how to start with it.

“I’ve had a few realtors call me and pick my brain. We’re starting, but we’re still feeling our way around. We could do so much better. I can’t say I’ve had x number of sales from social media. Two people contacted me directly through Facebook. One Re/Max referral came directly from LinkedIn. We’re in the beginning stages. It’s a long term effort.” says Salt.

Salt is using Youtube to post video tours of houses she has listed. She says, “Sellers are impressed when their house is on Youtube.” She also posts other videos about local schools and is slated to post videos with beaches, parks, golf courses and lakeshore developments.

“Social media helps us create connections and give our listing clients more exposure. We’re able to contact way more buyers. If you’re not there, it’s going to be a problem.” she says. “The realtors who use social media will be the ones that shine in the next five years. Then it’ll be something else, or it’ll look different in five years.”

That being said, Salt knows realtors who have advertised on Facebook, but have discontinued it. She hasn’t made a commitment to advertising with Facebook yet. But she has been using Twitter and blogging for around the past six months. She is following Steve & Greg Hamre Re/Max agents out of Ottawa on Twitter because she thinks they are doing a good job.

As far as her predictions for Spring/Summer real estate in Vernon, B.C., she says, “I think the market has stopped falling. We’ll see a more balanced market with a one to three percent growth. More back to what we would consider to be normal. Nice and calm. Not a buyers or a seller’s market.”

In terms of traditional marketing, she comments, “Some sellers expect us to have their houses in the newspapers. It’s tough to get rid of what we’ve been doing. Social media doesn’t cost a lot in dollars, but it does cost in time. Re/Max is looking at putting out a monthly booklet rather than have it hodgepodge in the paper every week. It’ll help with the transition to get away from the paper and move forward with online and social media. We’ll advertise with them [the newspaper] in a different way.”

There are six licensed realtors and two unlicensed realtors with The Salt Team (including Lisa Salt and Gord Fowler).

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher

Lannie Houle Set To Carry Olympic Torch For Vernon, B.C.

Lannie Houle (pictured here at Wesbild Centre last week in Vernon, B.C.) will carry the Olympic Torch tomorrow, January 26, in Vernon.

Lannie wrote an essay about how she wants to play on the Women's National Hockey Team and win a gold medal at the Olympics. She has been playing hockey since age five. She now goes to school in Vilna, Alberta. When she wrote the essay, she was living in Vernon and going to Seaton School.

You can listen to me interviewing her here (it takes a moment to download). Interview with Lannie Houle, Olympic Torch Bearer for Vernon.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher

Get your tickets for a world of dance: Sat. January 30th Vernon Recreation Centre

I am a member of the Hula Halau Ke Aloha Dance Group. It stands for the Hula School of Love. We will be performing at the Vernon Recreation Centre on Saturday, January 30, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. as part of the Vernon Winter Carnival festivities.

Join me for an amazing kaleidoscope of world dance that will blow your mind! We are doing it to benefit the students of the four dance schools (to provide money for costumes and competition).

Dance performances by:
Aviemore Highland Dancers
Zirka Ukrainian Dancers
Hula Halau Ke Aloha Polynesian Dancers
Silhouette Dance Studio.

$10 kids and seniors
$15 adults

On sale will also be:
Tea, coffee, pop
Beer and Wine
A taste of food from each of the cultures represented.

Silent Auction.

Tickets can be purchased through me at phone: 250-558-1176

Thanks for reading,

Courtenay Pitcher

Mitch Joel Video about social media, privacy, equilibrium, group expression

An interview with Mitch Joel, President, Twist Image and Author of "Six Pixels of Separation" as part of the TVO series in an online Podcast called Digital U. 

In this video, you can hear Mitch Joel’s discourse about:

• Group expression: it’s different from a one way or two way conversation.

• How social media sites allow people to congregate and activate their passions.

• How social media sites like blogs or Twitter are creating an equilibrium between “regular people” and large budget advertisers.

• How social media brings transparency. Credibility is hard.

• How “being in the loop” is attitudinal, not generational.

• How it’s a challenge to manage technology and not let technology manage you.

• Privacy and evaluating your public versus private relationships. Your life is being recorded. Anybody can take a picture and upload it to anything without any ramifications.

• How a laptop is no longer needed for travel now with the Blackberry and Iphone.

• Snaptel. Take a picture of a product code, find out where you can buy it, get prices, get a review, and find people to help you buy it.

• Augmented reality: point your phone at a house and see its real estate agent, price and a virtual tour. 

• Meet ups, “Thriller” and facilitating better relationships.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Digital Facilitator

Super Affiliate Handbook Review - Monetize and supercharge your website or blog

Have you been writing articles and posting them on your blog and not getting enough traffic to it?

Are you a traditional brick and mortar business who has a website, but wants to add revenue streams to it?

Are you an entrepreneur thinking about starting a blog?

Do you have a website with good traffic, but are you having a difficult time selling advertising on it?

Do you want to start a business with minimal risk and financial investment?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, you’ll want to purchase and read the Super Affiliate Handbook, by the “Affiliate Queen”, Rosalind Gardner.

What percentage of visitors to your site will become your customers?

How much is each visitor to your blog or website worth?

How much does it cost to bring a new visitor to your site?

This book teaches you how to answer those questions.

I’ve been marketing on the internet since the late nineties, but this is the first book I’ve read that really explains in detail how to profit from a website or blog and how to promote a website or blog with software I had not considered.

The Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner was published in 2003, but it has been recently updated. Since internet marketing is evolving with the addition of social media and new technology, I was happy to know that the book wasn’t a dinosaur. It’s current and relevant. In fact, the book even lists changes and improvements since 2003.

First, you’ll learn seventeen benefits of being an affiliate. What stands out for me in this section, is how inexpensive, simple and virtually risk free it is to begin an affiliate progam.

Gardner explains:

 “An affiliate program is a program that facilitates the relationship between online merchants and their affiliates – allowing the affiliate to promote that company’s products or services for a commission. Affiliate programs may also be referred to as:
    *Associate programs
    *Referral programs
    *Bounty Programs
    *Partner Programs
    *Revenue Sharing Programs."

In the book, Gardner, who is a successful webmaster, online entrepreneur and affiliate marketer, shows and links to her own website examples so you can see live working affiliate websites. The well-written book reads like a full-fledged business and marketing plan. She tells you the software and tools needed, the process and steps to take, ways to stay organized, ways to identify a profitable niche, short-cuts, how to evaluate market demand and competition, how to choose a domain name, how to choose a web or blog host, design rules-of-thumb and how to build a website or blog with, or without, a webmaster.

Software she reviews in enough detail to really understand them are: Google Adsense and Keyword Tool, Wordtracker, Google Toolbar, Microsoft Excel, Eudora Email Client, File Transfer Software, Paypal, Wordpress, and Aweber Enewsletter Software to name only a few.

She explains how to create or find content, which content is essential for an affiliate blog or website, how to write product endorsements, secret ingredients every article needs, and how to make your site “Google” friendly. 

The meat of the book is in the middle where she goes into ways to monetize your site simply by adding small snippets of code to them. And, she shows you step by step how to do it and which ones to add. She explains how to evaluate affiliate programs and which ones are profitable and easy to work with. Recurring sales, commissions, lifetime commissions, multiple-tier programs, sales tools and sales statistics are covered. Page 132 of her book has a gem so good, I was too excited to sleep the night I read about it.

After she explains how to fill your site with content, she details thirty-one ways to market your site on-line. I’ve known about many of the tools and strategies she lists here, but she goes into them in detailed ways that shifted my perspective. Also, she reveals software on page 138 so powerful and effective (I watched the video) that I’m scheming of ways to afford it. After all, my internet marketing plan is ever-evolving too. That’s why I read great books like this one.

Like adding icing to a delicious cake, she puts a section at the back of the book called “Evaluate Your Site’s Performance” which explains how to determine:
1.    What percentage of visitors to your site will become your customers.
2.    The conversion rate for each Affiliate program.
3.    How much each visitor is worth.
4.    How much it costs to bring a new visitor to your site.

This section also teaches you how to assess individual product performance (clickthroughs, number of sales, commission amounts), compare products side-by-side for performance, evaluate monthly trends, grow commissions and profit from error pages and exchange rates. The number crunching techniques on these pages will keep your Banker and Accountant happy for sure!

The book is topped off with problem-solving and prevention tips plus a glossary of terms. “Twenty-five mistakes to avoid” is the maraschino cherry of this affiliate marketing masterpiece.

Rosalind Gardner lives in Penticton, B.C. Canada, just down the road (two hours) from me. Her book is 210 pages long and it took me six hours to read. I jumped over some sections I already felt I knew, but took longer on some of the links. This book comes as an e-book. After reading it, I printed it and put it into a binder that I will keep on my shelf and refer to often.

At just $47 USD, this book is excellent value. I give it 10 out of 10.

Buy a copy of The Super Affiliate Handbook here


Thanks for reading.

Courtenay Pitcher, Aspiring Affiliate Marketer

Intoxicating Liquors Act Doesn’t Prevent Gray Monk Estate Winery From Marketing Online

Despite an eighty-two year old law that prevents cross-provincial shipping of wine in Canada, Gray Monk Estate Winery in Okanagan Centre, British Columbia is focusing more marketing dollars to Twitter, Facebook and on-line publications and cutting back on traditional marketing like magazines and newspapers.

Steven Heiss of Gray Monk Estate Winery says, “We are changing our focus. It’s instant, you don’t have to wait to get the information on line. Plus there is the green side of it too, saving some paper and ink.”

A prohibition law from 1928 called “The Importation of Intoxicating Liquors Act” means that it is illegal to cross-province ship wine (and other liquor) unless it is authorized by the receiving province’s liquor board. “If you look it up, you’ll have a good laugh.” says Heiss. The law didn’t used to be a problem until recently when the Alberta Liquor Board started making threats against BC Wineries. So Heiss is watching WineLaw.ca for updates on a solution, which doesn’t seem to be in sight.

“It’s a pain for tourists” he says. Tourists usually visit the winery, purchase wine and then, in the past, Gray Monk would ship it home to them so they didn’t have to crate it around on their trip.

Although shipping is up in the air, and this does effect on-line marketing, Heiss is working with a Kamloops marketing company to develop a new website, brochure and marketing plan. One topic that came up during strategizing was social media.

Now, they have a Gray Monk Estate Winery Facebook fan page and  have jumped onto Twitter (@GrayMonkWinery). Heiss jokes, “Even our Sales Rep Rainer Wilkins was asking about Twitter." Heiss has given Rainer access to the account to make updates also. 

“The hardest part is what to put on there. I always think to myself, nobody wants to know about that. I already know it, so I don’t think it will be interesting.” Heiss is watching what notable wine and food writers are tweeting like: @NatalieMaClean, Jim Martin (@MetroLiquor) and Tony Gismondi  (@TheSpitter). “I’m finding it interesting.” he says.

Gray Monk Estate Winery plans to participate in local on-line tourism marketing through Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association (@totamedia) and Tourism Kelowna. 

Many traditional marketing initiatives will continue. Chef Willi Franz (above) of the on-site Grapevine Restaurant is preparing a list of events for Gray Monk Estate Winery’s participation in the Okanagan Spring Wine Festival Apr 30-May 9, 2010. Those events will be announced in the upcoming weeks. Plus they will attend the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival (delayed this year due to the Olympics) on April 23, 2010.

When I asked Steven Heiss for his official title, he said, “That’s a good question. Janitor to President as my dad would say. Or you could say Sales and Distribution.”

That’s a very humble statement from a third generation member of a very successful and respected wine-making family. His parents Trudy and George Heiss established the Gray Monk Estate Winery in 1972 and his grandparents started a vineyard, first, up the road. The family produces some of the world's finest wines from a breath-taking fifty acre vineyard overlooking Okanagan Lake. The Grapevine Restaurant has a seating capacity of 50 patrons. There is an on-site gift shop and wine tours. It seems to me, they have plenty interesting stuff to tweet about.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, lover of anything Gray Monk and wine writer wannabe

Follow me on Twitter @vernongirl

 

Automated reply system for Twitter: antique collector and web designer unite to brand Twitter

On Twitter, what if you could brand your tweets, follow key phrases and auto-reply to them in real time from your desktop?

TweetBrand is a free mini application launched just over one week ago that allows you to brand your tweets with a company name, your name, tagline, or message of your choosing and link that branding right to a specific web site or landing page.

This majour breakthrough allows you to take back the valuable impression space on each tweet from Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, Ping.fm, Twitterfeed, and other companies promoting themselves on your tweet.

Listing your website on the tweet saves your followers, or potential followers a step or two in getting to your website, thereby increasing traffic.

TweetBrand is the tip of the larger iceberg, a product (to be named soon), which will launch the third week of January 2010. Both applications are part of the company MarketMeTweet.

According to Tammy Kahn Fennell, Co-Director of MarketMeTweet, “our product, will be the ultimate Twitter marketing application.” she says.

The product, will combine some of the very powerful features of Socialoomph (like scheduling multiple tweets, automatic link shortening, and basic management to organize friends and followers) with TweetBrand’s ability to brand tweets from multiple users and multiple brands.

The titanic revelation here though, is the product's ability to follow key words or key phrases in real time with the application on your desktop, and auto-reply once with a specific phrase. It will also track how those keywords are performing measured by which tweets are turning into followers, potential customers, or buyers.

Yes, it’s an automatic conversation starter for Twitter. A robot engages people with an @reply and then you take over the conversation as a live person.

It’s powerful call centre-like technology for Twitter users like those automated telephone systems that phone you. When you pick up and say “hello” there is a pause and then someone comes on the line with you, surveys you or tries to sell you something.

Say you sell sneakers. You may do a phrase search for "Nike 701". Bob in Nebraska tweets, "Deciding if I should buy the Nike 701.” You will use the product to reach out to him and say something like, "Saw u tweeted about Nike shoes, do u use them for running?" or "I own Nike 701 and love them."

Tammy says, “our product will cut through the clutter and allow conversations to happen. You will be able to add “negative” keywords to filter out subjects you’re not interested in.”

Let’s say you are in the antiques and collectables business. You would set up “German figurine” as your key phrase to follow. Then, you would write and automate a specific reply to that keyword tweet. “I saw you tweeted about German figurines, which type do you collect?” If there is a response, you now have a conversation to get personally involved in.

Tammy Kahn Fennell knows it works. From Long Island, New York, she is also the owner of Vintage Rare Stuff, a business she operates with her father. The technology has allowed her niche business to get out in front on Twitter. No stranger to E-Bay, Tammy says, “I’ve been doing the collectables business for five years. One year ago, I started to understand the power of social networking, Twitter and blogging. Collectibles Corner T.V., a web T.V. show, was my first step away from dealing with physical antiques and collectables and doing more internet stuff.”

While helping some people manage their sites, she met Alan Hamlyn, her business partner who is based out of England. His company is a website design and development agency Wuup Media.

Tammy says, “I said to Alan that I love Twitter and I’m getting lots of interviews to my shows. He said that if I could think it, he could create it.” So they developed the product and tried it for his business. “All of a sudden he went from 10 followers to 1000 followers. So we said, let’s form a company. Now, I handle all the marketing and he does all the development.”

Alan is twenty-one years old. Tammy says of Alan, “He is so incredible, a boy genius. He is wise beyond his years.” Alan and Tammy have created the application face to face on webcam using Skype. She’ll be seeing Alan for the first time in the flesh in April 2010. “I feel like I know him and his whole staff. We’ve toured each other’s offices on Skype.” Tammy says.

Along with her father, Tammy also works with her husband in the antiques and collectables business. Her husband is from England and the two of them recently had a baby boy. Tammy says, “My husband and I are firm believers that people should make it in this world. It’s a cool world if you use ethical Twitter marketing. You can use this tool to make connections. Oh, and we’ve banned words like "it" or "the" to keep spammers out. I hate people who spam on Twitter, it drives me nuts.”

Pricing for the product will start at $14.99 and up per month for a personal account. Professional unlimited accounts will be available too. Tammy says, “Updates will be included free. We will have a feedback section directly from the application. We want the community of users to tell us what they want and we’ll build it. We don’t think those other brands like Tweetdeck, will allow you to brand your tweets anytime soon, so get on board and support us. Within the first two months, we may add statistical link tracking.”

MarketmeTweet.com has an Affiliate program with a 40% payout. In one week, they have seen more than one thousand downloads of their TweetBrand free product and Tammy is scheduled for various internet blog site interviews. 

The Market Me Tweet blog  will keep you updated on new feature launches and Beta tests. Follow them @marketmetweets on Twitter.

Do you think branding and automatic reply technology on Twitter is a good thing? Or do you oppose it? I would love to hear your point of view. Please post your comment. There is a link in the footer of this blog.

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Twitter Conversation Starter

From Florence to Facebook: Calgary leather handbag designer's career is launched

 

Sabra Mottram is a Designer who makes earrings, cuffs, one of a kind handbags and moccasins out of leather. She launched her design career, Sabra Mottram Designs, a little over one year ago on Facebook. She says, "I started off displaying the things I make on Facebook for my own satisfaction in an album called: Things I Make. I made a bag for a friend on her birthday. Friends of mine would say, "I want one." The more bags that I put up on Facebook, the more orders I got." Now, she has a website, Facebook Fan page, Twitter account and blog. Avenue Magazine, last October, featured a bag of Sabra's as part of the Style section. Calgary Fashion has accepted her as one of their top designers. (Pictured above: Littlest Hobo Airporting Bag by Sabra Mottram Designs. Photo credit: Sanja Lukač)

In 2010 she plans to be part of Alberta Fashion Week and Vancouver Fashion week. "I will have two launches this year. I am going to be adding some clothing to my collection. Most likely some leather, but other fashions as well. The clothing line will be extremely small to start, but it will grow." she says.

Sabra Mottram's current collection is the Fall/Winter 2009 Collection. She hopped a plane in Calgary last Fall and flew to Italy where she hand picked the leather hides at Primorepelli, a leather distributor in Fucecchio (about half an hour from Florence) in the heart of the tannery district of Tuscany where fine Italian leather comes from.

"I picked good Fall/Winter colours I like and staples like black. After my trip to Italy I came up with new designs and decided to change the style of the bags slightly. I created three new patterns, cut out templates and starting sewing. I made a Hard Bag Overnighter style, Saddle Bag style and a completely Hard Bag which is a men's style. I also use Lindsey handbags which are Tandy Kits I stamp and carve myself with designs I make or use stencils for." she says.

(Pictured above: Swallow Lindsey handbag with custom design by Sabra Mottram Designs. Photo credit: Sanja Lukač)

The collection has a lot of appliques, which is the biggest change from the last collection. The collection was inspired by Nice, France and Pisa near Florence, Italy. Sabra says, "I went to Pisa and looked at the architecture in Florence. The architecture was classic looking and there was lots of French influence. I started the collection with one I made for myself, the Fleur de Lis of Florence. It has Fleur de Lis pull tags for the zippers and a large Florence Fleur de Lis on the side of the bag. It is named in French because I was going to France and Italy. I kind of tie things together."

 

(Pictured above: Larsen B Saddlebag by Sabra Mottram Designs. Photo credit: Sabra Mottram Designs)

All of her bags are named by their unique attributes. For example, she made a bag with white patent leather with holes and a turquoise back side. It reminded her of the Larsen B Ice Shelf that dissolved recently. It comes with wooden nautical-looking accoutrements for the zipper pulls.

She purchases all the material for the satin and lace interior linings of her handbags in Calgary. She  chooses lace that accentuates the satin and buys enough satin lining for two or three bags only. "I don't purchase too many materials at once because I do things as one of a kind, so it doesn't go out of fashion. I get bored with styles rather quickly." she says.

Most of her bags have been sold to friends and family, but recently a Calgary Flames player's wife purchased one and and she sold two custom ordered bags to a company as parting gifts for two male employees. "I had one men's bag already made, and I got the call. I asked the client what the bags were for and she told me she wanted a unique one of a kind gift. I ran to Tandy to purchase some leather that was more metropolitan and less rustic to show her. She ordered two."

Sabra has received many orders through Facebook from friends and family. Sabra remarks, "People want to buy local and from people they know. They like to support the Arts Community in Calgary, small endeavours, and the barter system."

Using Facebook, she announces art and fashion shows that she is at or is involved in. "Facebook events are easy because I can upload a picture, give all the details and send it out to everyone in my Facebook, as well as people in my email who are not on Facebook."

She has a Facebook Fan Page for Sabra Mottram Designs in addition to her personal page, which is only for close friends and family. "I have 51 fans. It has brought people from the public into my circle who are not my friends or family. They are friends of friends who I wouldn't normally have access to."

The barter system also works for Sabra. She put a request to exchange photography for a handbag on Facebook. "I got 5 replies immediately and the first I liked I went with." she says.

Using iWeb on her Mac laptop, Sabra created her website through painstaking hours of trial and error. The website features a Gallery to view her handbags in a slideshow format and Shop where purchases can be made by Paypal. Instead of going through MobileMe for hosting, she purchased hosting through Go Daddy. The clean design templates of iWeb suited her style and matched her brand which is her SM signature stamped on all tags and dust jackets for each handbag hand-sewn by her. Every bag is named individually, so it is a one of a kind collector's item. "Most designers use their name as their brand." she says.

Her fan page on Facebook automatically updates her Twitter. If she posts photos to her Fan Page on Facebook, a tweet is sent. For example: I posted 13 photos on Facebook in the album "AW09" http://bit.ly/8YdHw.

Fearless in the social media realm, she just launched Sabra Mottram Design's Blog on Wordpress  discussing the archaeology of style. Sabra is a University of Calgary graduate with a B. Sc. in Archaeology. She says. "Nothing is really an original idea in reality. Styles change through time, they come and go, ballooning out like a battleship curve and then fading away again. You can see aspects of certain styles that have carried through more than just costuming, but in small elements as well."

Sabra's designs are featured on a blog for a store called Worth. She keeps the bags in that store to sell at retail but if one sells through Facebook or other methods, she can pull them out any time because they are on consignment.

"When I was a little girl, I was sick a lot, so I used to stay at home with my mom. My mom taught me how to use a sewing machine.I always wanted to make drawstring handbags like Polly Pocket or Anne of Green Gables. I stopped sewing things for a while because I had so many problems with the bobbins. Instead, I began to bead things and make costumes from scratch." she says.

Sabra was an Account Manager for a sub-prime lender up until about a year and a half ago. When the financial crises hit, she was laid off immediately. She took a watercolour painting class, woodworking class and ceramics class. She says, "My creativity spilled out into new areas where I wanted to work with leather. My grandfather on my mom's side was a leather saddle maker, and on my other side of the family, the Mottrams, they were leather makers. I bought a turquoise deer hide to make a vest and couldn't find a pattern I liked, so I got bored and decided to turn it into a handbag. My friends on Facebook wanted me to make them one."

Sabra follows Fashion Television on Twitter so Jeanne Beker will some day find out about her. There is lots on the horizon, so it's really exciting. And this is just in one year. In three years, I'll be in London."

Sabra's website: http://sabramottramdesigns.ca/Sabra_Mottram_Designs/Home.html

Sabra on Twitter: http://twitter.com/sabramottram

Sabra's Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sabra-Mottram/117153635506

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, Sabra's biggest fan

Follow me on Twitter

Kelowna International Airport (YLW) takes flight with social media

Jenelle Turpin (pictured above with MP Ron Cannan in front of an Antonov) is the Airport Communications Coordinator, Community & Media Relations, for the Kelowna International Airport. She is at the forefront of her industry for using Twitter as a communications tool, pushing the envelope of this medium to make a difference in the government sector to the airport’s passengers and business tenants, the economic development of the Okanagan region and even brides and grooms who want to be married at the airport.

Her experience with traditional media, organizing events for dignitaries such as Wayne Gretzky, Desmond Tutu and Adrienne Clarkson and her determination to find a way to get the job done (learned while wearing Army boots), help her find and implement creative social media techniques like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr for public relations, airport communications, emergency response, marketing and customer service.

Before taking the leap into social media, Jenelle wrote up a social media plan. “I needed to explain it and get the buy-in from management which at the airport was an easy sell.” she says. She started Twitter on September 8, 2009 and her goal was to have one hundred followers by October 30^th, 2009. “By October 1^st I had my first one hundred followers. It’s a strange concept, this social media, it’s like you’re asking for stalkers. If I have five hundred I’ll be so excited. I think five hundred is a good sampling of people using the airport.”

Frustration with Facebook’s inability to provide customer service on setting up a simple fan page for the airport has moved her social media efforts into communicating in 140 characters on Twitter. Although she is disappointed in Facebook, who she has been emailing since September 2009 to get approval as an airport organization, and with no response from them, she likes using Twitter.

“I’m not promoting Facebook as much as Twitter. I’m surprised, because I wanted to focus on Facebook, but it’s not as easy or convenient. I like to explain things [she says putting the emphasis on explain, as if it’s a very long word]. I’m long-winded so it’s hard to explain in 140 characters. Writing on Twitter is still is a whole new culture and this is one portion of my job.” she remarks.

Jenelle says, “I saw not a negative side, but a surprising side of Twitter when we had an incident. A while ago, a Cessna crashed just outside the property at 9:59 a.m.. Thirty-one minutes later when I got back to my computer, I realized a media outlet had heard a radio transfer about the crash and they started tweeting at 9:59 a.m. Then others started tweeting. The media outlet suspected a death. It was twenty-five minutes before it was clarified by the same media outlet on site that there was no death or injuries. That can be dangerous, because what if the family saw that? In future I know to keep a closer eye on it. If I have a majour incident, I will have a staff person assigned just to watch social media outlets and get direction from me. If out of context they can let me know.”

Jenelle proves that social media really can build relationships. Jenelle was seeing complaining tweets from an influential person who follows the wine industry quite closely, about flying in general. “I tweeted to her that there is wine tasting in the wine shop or she could buy a flight of wine at the Wine Café – a new expansion we added in. She was much happier and it turned a negative into a positive.”

“I try to follow every one of the airports we fly to [on Twitter], all airlines as well as other airports to see what they’re up to. Horizon Air, Air Canada and Westjet promote their last minute deals.” she says. She tweets those out to give added customer service to people thinking of flying who want to get the last minute deals.

She communicates with other airports on Twitter. One day the weather was bad and snowing in Calgary and flights were delayed. “I sent a tweet to one of my contacts at the Calgary airport and within moments he posted photos to Flickr. I was able to tweet out links to those pictures that explained the reason the flights were late coming from Calgary.

If I notice people talking on Twitter, I see how flights are running. I will tell them if they are late or on time and remind them that if they are picking people up or dropping off that there is free fifteen minute parking in the short term parking lot. I will tell them if it’s raining or cold to remember the free courtesy ride to the terminal when parking in the long term lot. And with the holiday season what they can or can’t take on the flights, packing smart links, and shuttle rides right from Penticton, Salmon Arm and other locations.”

Jenelle uses Twitter to send media releases. “Media are great ones to follow and they follow me. Don’t just send your media release out by fax or email, but link them and have an attachment on Twitter.” she says

Jenelle will also take photos of their new gift shops and drag them onto Tweetdeck.  And she tweets out links to their Kelowna International Airport Magazine YLW Connection.

In traditional media for years, Jenelle began her career with the Military Police. She was with them for six years and she found herself speaking to school and youth groups and doing many public relations related roles with the military. That positivity appealed to her so she did some research and determined to take a career path that would offer her the chance to make a difference. She then became Public Affairs Officer.

When she was with the Edmonton Army/Airforce base, which was becoming the western headquarters for the Army, the business community tapped into her military knowledge. She said, “I found there was great opportunity to work in business. I was expecting my first child. Wearing army boots and going away for six months didn’t appeal to me.”

After ten years with the military, she began working for the Alberta government gaming and liquor commission and later worked for the Edmonton Mayor’s office in Corporate Communications. Her role involved looking after special events like Desmond Tutu’s visit to Edmonton, Adrienne Clarkson’s inaugural visit to the City of Edmonton as Governor General and the retirement ceremonies of Wayne Gretzky. Little did she know that the Wayne Gretzky event would see 10,000 people and lots of national media coverage.

Her proudest moment was her role in the Desmond Tutu event. All of the events planned for his visit were paid venues. The Edmonton Mayor at the time wanted Desmond Tutu to hold a public event. So Jenelle proposed the idea to invite school children to ask questions to the Nobel peace prize winner. She said, “Questions were submitted and vetted, and they would get up to the microphone and ask questions and Tutu would respond. He accepted only our idea and ours was the only free event to the public. It was a phenomenal event. School children across the city were invited.”

(photo above: Jenelle Turpin at a Valley Wide Chamber event promoting the Kelowna International Airport)

With family obligations in Kelowna, she later returned to Kelowna where she had grown up in her teen years. “I’ve been really fortunate. I did a stint with Tourism Kelowna / Kelowna Chamber and then Pacific Safety Products in public relations, marketing and sales. It was a great opportunity to see what a publicly traded company goes through. But my passion has always been in government.” she says.

About six years ago she landed a short-term contract with Kelowna City Hall which led to a full-time permanent position and then now into her permanent role with the Kelowna International Airport for the past three years.

“The travel industry is constantly changing. I work with three levels of government and the business community who are our tenants. We need them and they need us. For example, Kelowna Flightcraft brings in revenue and employment. When we extended the runway, the Antonov (in this case the world's second largest fixed-wing aircraft) flew non-stop from Russia containing 3 helicopters that needed to be retrofitted. That couldn’t have happened if the runway couldn’t have been extended.

We also have our passengers. They live here [in the Okanagan] for the lifestyle, but they work elsewhere. One point four million passengers go through Kelowna International Airport in one year. Only fifty percent are from Kelowna. The rest are from the catchment area of the interior including Kamloops, Revelstoke and Penticton.

Many go at 6:00 a.m. Monday to Seattle or Calgary, working the week, and then coming home Friday.” Jenelle says. One passenger lives in Penticton and her husband works in South Africa for three months. Even Jenelle’s spouse was working one month in Kelowna and one month in London. “We have the best of both worlds. It wouldn’t be so easy if we lived far away from the airport.”

In January, Kelowna International Airport will be hosting two weddings right at the airport on the mezzanine level. Jenelle says, “In early January, one couple wants to get married here before they fly to Mexico. The couple says that it’s easier to get married here, so they are bringing the Minister in front of twenty friends and family at 6:30 in the morning to toast to coffee and Timbits and then catching their departure at 8:00 a.m. The bride will wear her veil, but the full ceremony, event and costumes will be in Mexico. Usually it’s a happy place. You occasionally see sad. Every day, I see families saying hello or goodbye and they are crying. Sometimes I walk up to my office with tears in my eyes.” (If you’re a chick, this is a good thing.)

Jenelle is a graduate of Grant McEwan University and a member of the International Association of Business Communicators, BC chapter. She says, “It’s a great organization of communicators.”

Thanks for reading! I look forward to your comments on this article.

Courtenay Pitcher, Travel wannabe and Social media maven

Find me on Twitter

 

 

Video: auto follow and auto direct message in Twitter using Socialoomph

Here is a quick Twitter video (less than four minutes long), showing you two time-saving automated features you can tap into through Socialoomph online software:

1. Auto Follow: automatically follow any new followers.

2. Auto Direct Message: send a quick welcome message to new followers.

My personal philosophy is to follow everyone who follows me. I think it is a nice courtesy. So the auto follow feature in Socialoomph's online software is a great tool for me.

As for Direct Messages, some people don't read them, but some people do (maybe 10%). So if you want to send one, automating them is convenient.

Do you think either of these tools are useful? I look forward to your comments.

Here is the video:

If for some reason, you can't see the video, click into my Youtube site.

Thanks for watching and reading!

Courtenay Pitcher
Twitter efficiency expert

Find me on Twitter @vernongirl

http://www.vernongirl.com

Related posts:

Video on how to upload tweets and schedule them later using Socialoomph.com

Why you should follow absolutely everybody on Twitter - even the annoying ones.

Video Case study on how to find targeted Twitter followers using ski as a key tweet word

Greater Vernon Chamber Manager Touts Twitter

Driving economic development, promoting members, attracting new members, getting donors and sponsorships, selling event tickets and building relationships are just a few ways Twitter is helping Val Trevis, General Manager of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce in Vernon, B.C.

Val Trevis, Manager of the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce (GVCC), started looking at social media (Facebook, Twitter) at the end of 2008. The GVCC signed up for Facebook, but ran into issues about privacy and posting pictures. So they kept the Facebook site active, but not proactive.

Then, she signed up for Twitter and said, "I don't get it."

A local GVCC member and an early Twitter adopter, Brenda Ellis (known as Brell), met with Val in July 2009 and told her about a Twitter business day that was happening in Kelowna. Twitter business day was the brainchild of Nick Kellet. He had a vision to have Kelowna business connect on Twitter.

The Kelowna Chamber got involved and Connecting Kelowna became the Twitter business day that Kellet envisioned.

In visiting this site, where Kellet posted 722 Twitter Feeds for Kelowna and Okanagan Valley, and information on how to use Twitter, Val then said, "Hey, I get it."

She began using Twitter in August 2009 more seriously, and created Vernon biz day, a day designed to connect greater Vernon area businesses on Twitter. She put an article in the local paper, and got some response.

It was slow to start. Then on October 20th, Scott Davis came to Vernon and showed her group Tweetdeck. Val said, "That's when the light turned on.

With the various columns in Tweetdeck, she could see what her various accounts were doing. The GVCC has accounts for membership, chamber, Val and eco business (@gvccmembership, @vernonchamber, @valtrevis and @ecobizniz).

Val says, "One of the most valuable things I learned from Scott Davis, is that you have to be human on Twitter." That is one of the reasons why Val did not set up an automated message on Twitter, why she does her own tweets and why she often retweets her members and, even, non-members.

She also realized how Twitter could be an opportunity for some of her staff, including herself, to connect personally with members and potential members and for businesses to connect with each other.

"Twitter brings out electronic conversations. Then, they are connecting physically and it's much easier for them to talk to each other in person," Val said. At a Vernon Women in Business function, one Twitter follower even said to Val, "I feel like I know you because we've been Twittering." Val was at a meeting and a man stood up to introduce himself. She thought, "Hey, I Twitter with that guy." Afterwards, the conversation with him was warm and friendly, like they already knew each other.

Val attended some Canadian and BC Chamber functions last September and October and quickly realized that the GVCC is an early adopter of Twitter and one of the Chambers taking off with it in BC.

Val says, "I help a couple businesses each week by showing them what they can do. First, Twitter, then Tweetdeck. That's when most businesses get it."

One comment to Val from a member was: "We've been able to connect to business up and down the valley using Twitter." One Twitter follower recently mentioned to Val that he is hearing great things about the GVCC, and its use of Twitter, in the south Okanagan.

Val says that it has also created a network in Vancouver who want to have accessibility to the Vernon market. One Vancouver company sent two gift certificates worth $1800 when Val put a call out for donations on Twitter for GVCC's upcoming Christmas party. She says, "I've done over $2200 worth of business this week alone, selling tickets for the Christmas Party and getting door prizes for the Chamber, on Twitter."

Val is now working on a "Tweet Up". This will be an event to get members and non-members into one room to discuss Twitter and how it can benefit their businesses, provide Twitter training, introduce the Chamber benefits to non-members, get examples of how Twitter has helped local businesses and allow the Twitter community to connect with one another.

"One of my mandates is to drive economic development in the community." Trevis says, "Twitter is a free way of doing this."

"I throw up questions on Twitter and get answers now to help my members. We feature new members that join the Chamber. This is marketing that our members can do. And our non-members are helping us too," she remarks.

She says, "I tell businesses that you can isolate yourselves. Or, you can expand and look outside your boundaries of who can support. I am a huge proponent for shopping local, but try to draw people to your business from outside your community."

One board member asked Val why she was spending so much time on Twitter. Val asked the board member to try to understand Twitter, think about the role of the chamber and connect the dots. The board member got it.

"My husband says I'm a Twitter junkie. It's social. I don't have TV. I look for news on Twitter, email or the web. In that way, I'm never really off the clock," Val says. The GVCC just hit one thousand tweets, something Val is very proud of.

Val says, "We are looking at working with a social media college student to help us with Facebook and Twitter. We want to know what else we can do that we're not already doing." Val, at one time an anti-blog proponent, is also looking at blogging as a potential social media marketing opportunity.

A couple of weeks ago, Val wrote a Morning Star Article called "Unsung heroes" about how volunteers are the backbone of our community. She said, "I tweeted out a link to it and got two responses from New York, one from Columbia, one from Boston and one from the UK. They all said it was a great article. To think that people retweeted a local column written for our little Chamber in our community makes me think that blogging is no longer a bad idea too."

Membership has its benefits. Join the Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce. (I just joined today.)

Thanks for reading!

Courtenay Pitcher, brand spanking new Greater Vernon Chamber of Commerce member and Twitter touter too.

http://www.vernongirl.com

http://twitter.com/vernongirl