psychobabble

Oooh. I should write more. The lament of a universe of bloggers I'm sure.

I don't think I've fully mentioned it on here, but I'm unemployed. Yup - lost my job two weeks before Christmas. Shitty timing, no? So, I'm fighting back in my own way, and hopefully there will be some justice. Or, if not, hopefully it stresses the ex-employer out like he stressed me out.

Job hunting while unemployed is interesting - it's easier for sure - there's less 'work' in the way, but I find time is slippery when you're unemployed. Yesterday for example - the time slipped away and I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted to. I did however get a tae-bo tape in and showered, so I'm not in full recluse mode yet. I just find it off that all of a sudden I've lost 6 hours and have made no headway in my search for employment. I also create 'rules' for myself. Like I need to get so and so done before I can do something fun like crafting or watching TV or playing Xbox. And then I procrastinate, not meeting my goal and not getting my reward. It's like this self-reward-punishment thing going on.

I've also been thinking more about the essence of self-esteem. While self awareness is important, I think self esteem falls on either divide of self awareness. I'm betting that makes no sense. Let me explain. With zero self-awareness, it's easy to believe one is great or not great - you don't know about yourself and therefore what you think is reality (by extension, that's true in general for our whole existence, but hold on). With self awareness, we understand how we affect and are affected by the environment around us. We understand ourselves better and with that our good and bad traits. I think it's this knowledge that provides us with true self esteem - because through understanding comes affection and (without sounding too self-love-hippy like) it's easier to be confident in oneself when you generally like and understand who you are. Does that psychobabble make sense? Maybe - I'm no psychologist. At the end of the day, I think treating yourself well comes out of being self aware and valuing yourself. Something I know I need to work on.

Random Saturday Post - Cocoa thoughts

Delish is a mug.

1 tbsp cocoa powder
2 tbsp splenda
milk - to mix the above into a paste
boiling water - to fill the mug
marshmallows - 'cause they're yummy.
add in that order and you have something that solves the chocolate / sweet craving and isn't too bad for you.

Other than that, there's not much to post. Yesterday's meeting went well, although it's left me feeling drained today. Saw my girls for breakfast today which was lovely, and snuck a walk in then. Also managed to work out / watch a movie in the basement tonight which I'm kinda proud of actually. Day by day, right?

Sweet Relief

Phew. Tylenol + acclimatizing (or something) means a bit of relief.

The feeling after pain is something that fascinates me. I remember the seconds of relief after the end of a cramp when I was younger - it was like drinking sweet cool water throughout my entire body, and now that my headache is subsiding, I feel the same way.

Pain makes me appreciate how I feel when I'm not in pain. It leaves me in awe, and thankful and a bit humble. And somewhat philosophical.

Headboomer

Holy crap - my skull is aching to split. If none of this makes sense, it's cause I feel like there's a hammer in the right side of my skull. Happy times.

My theory when it comes to headaches is that I am a human barometer. There's a shift in the weather coming and literally, it's all in my head first. It seems like the really dramatic shifts in weather affect me the worst - this headache started yesterday morning and today is at a dull roar. Tomorrow Ottawa is supposed to get rain.

The skeptic in me is convinced this is a chicken and egg syndrome. I have headache and predict the weather or the weather shifts, I learn about it and psychosomatically give myself a migraine. Who knows. Just make the pain stop so I can get some work done.

New Years - Take 2

Ok, so I started a New Year's post, but didn't finish it because I guess it didn't feel genuine. Meh, oh well. What I wanted to say earlier was that 2006 was a big year - a difficult year that forced me to grow up, but when I look back at it, even though most people would say it sucked, I feel gratitude for having lived through it. The changes that I've experience have made me a calmer, happier person. Not to say I'm perfect, but I'm starting to feel more comfortable in my skin again. finally. phew.

So, with anti-resolutions in place, here's what I want to accomplish this year:

Since I'm turning 30, I'd like to drop some of the weight I've carried in my 20's both figuratively and literally. How am I going to accomplish this? day by day. I think committing to something day by day will help me make the changes I need to do. I'm going to try to use blogging as one of those tools (just like millions of others ;-)).

I'm going to work on my self esteem. I think it's taken a bit of a beating in the last 18 months and I've reflected how I feel about myself in the way I've treated my body and health. Gaining weight, making excuses not to exercise, eating more than my body needs, all of it a way to make the outside ugly, like I feel on the inside. Well - enough of that I say.

Day by day I hope to make small changes in how and what I eat, the WHY I eat and reform my behavior to reflect the person I am inside. Day by day I want to become more active, whether it's doing the silly Tae-bo tapes I found in the garbage or learning to enjoy running with the puppy or getting K to do yoga with me in the basement. (ok, that may be a bit of a challenge)

As for other 'resolutions' - meh. I hope to learn more, be a better person / friend / spouse / pet-parent (in no particular order) and to expand my horizons (not my pants ;-)).

Oh - and I hope to find a fulfilling job - since the fates have opened up other opportunities for me.

Happy New Year everyone.

Bad-blogger Poster Children

Eeek! This is the reason most blogs fail - there is a general lack of commitment to the blog and keeping it up to date. I am the bad-blogger poster child.

Hm. Let's discuss this in a corporate setting, because really, it's one thing if I get distracted and forget to post for a few days - I'm an individual who attempts to make time (sometimes, sometimes not) to put my two cents out into the collective Internet. If we go back to basics, my understanding of a corporate blog is to offer:

1 - A unique perspective that offers value to the reader. Who cares if it's the millionth blog about the company picnic. Tell me something I care about about the industry, the trends or something else related to your company / products.
2 - A non-sales message. If I wanted a sales message, I'd visit your corporate site. See point #1 - give me something I care about.
3 - Brevity. Like all good messaging, you want the reader to leave with a nugget of information and ideally the curiosity of wanting to know more. Less is more. If I want to learn more, I'll Google you.
4 - Updated material, ideally daily or every other day. Why else would I visit a blog unless there was new and interesting information there? (OK, I promise to try to be better about that ;-))

So, how can a business make a blog work for them? I think like in all marketing communications, there needs to be an understanding about why they're blogging, and what value it'll bring to the company. After all, time is money. If a blog is an attempt to be seen as cool, hip or somehow trendy then it is destined to fail. A blog needs to arrive from a genuine source and have a relevant message. Otherwise it's just some more hot air from talking heads.

Guerillas in the mist

"What is Guerilla marketing anyway?" I keep asking myself. What does it mean? why is it important and most of all, is it still relevant.

guerilla marketing

Unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources.

Information

Coined by Jay Conrad Levinson, guerilla marketing is more about matching wits than matching budgets. Guerilla marketing can be as different from traditional marketing as guerilla warfare is from traditional warfare. Rather than marching their marketing dollars forth like infantry divisions, guerilla marketers snipe away with their marketing resources for maximum impact.

Source: http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/guerilla_marketing/

Hm. ok. That's a pretty generic definition. Let's see what else I can find.

Wikkipedia:

Guerrilla marketing, as described by Jay Conrad Levinson in his popular 1982 book Guerrilla Marketing, is an unconventional way of performing promotional activities on a very low budget. Such promotions are sometimes designed so that the target audience is left unaware they have been marketed to and may therefore be a form of undercover marketing (also called stealth marketing). (italics mine - Nerdalicious)

It is up to the guerrilla marketer to be creative and devise unconventional methods of promotion. He must use all of his contacts, both professional and personal, and must examine his company and its products, looking for sources of publicity. Many forms of publicity can be very inexpensive, and others are free.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

So, the gist is that guerilla marketing is a) inexpensive, and b) unusual, c) geared towards small businesses with small budgets and sometimes d) unrecognizable to the target market. I think for all intensive purposes that we'll take item d out of our list since it's also considered stealth marketing. Therefore we're left with a catch-phrase that summarizes an approach that's friendly to small business and their constraints and implies creativity, but like my previous posting, there's no mention of metrics, strategy or actual tactics.

The next time someone wants to give you some guerilla marketing, ask for a couple of things. Like their definition of what it means, what tactics do they consider guerilla in nature and what will be the measurable results of the campaign. After all, a catchy name does not excuse a marketer from justifying why you're spending money.