Ramblings of TJR -- Marketer -- Mom -- TV Addict.

Eco-Friendly Traverse Trip - The garbage

2011-07-25T16:17:00.000-07:00

Following up on my last post on how eco-friendly a road trip can be vs flying, today I want to talk garbage. I know not a sexy topic, but we keep adding to our landfills and a lot of it is unnecessary.

What makes garbage on road trips?

food (and particularly fast food) containers
pop cans, water bottles, coffee cups, juice boxes (of which there will be NONE on our trip
paper goods like - kleenex, wet-wipes, napkins and paper towels
paper and plastic bags

Food - Now I'm travelling with a couple of Food Revolution folks, so we won't be eating much fast food. We'll be buying food in grocery stores (we have all the Trader Joe's on our route mapped out), and doing a bit of quick mixing in our hotel rooms at night. We will have a plug-in cooler to keep things cold. Karen is all over it. She will be using re-usable containers and plates/cutlery that she has in a picnic kit. I've been looking at some options that would reduce our use of plastic, like metal containers, but in the end it might be better to use something we already have vs buying new of any type. We will be avoiding plastic wrap, foil and plastic bags.

For other snacks we are trying to buy some of the things we like to snack on in bulk. So yes, there will be Hawkins Cheezie garbage, but at least it will be one big bag and not a bunch of small ones. And I'll be bringing some Hippie Chips along too. We might even put some of these snacks into re-usable containers to make them easier to pack. Or that might be just a bit too much like my mother-in-law.

Drink Containers - This is likely the easiest option as our Traverse has LOTS of cup holders, so we can each bring a re-usable water container and coffee mug. I'm going to fill our 10L camping water container and bring it along for the back of the vehicle, so we can refill our bottles and keep them in cooler if we like our water cold. The only thing left is pop-cans. I think there is only only person who drinks pop in our car and she recently gave up her Coke Zero habit - glad she did that well in advance of the trip or it could have gotten ugly. :)

Front seat cup holders

Door cup holders

Back seat cup holders

Paper goods - This one is probably the hardest. I can't imagine going on a road trip without wet wipes. But Nicole and I are both former cloth diaper parents and she suggested we use a cloth wipe trick. I have a large pile of small face clothes, and Nicole has some other cloth wipes. We'll bring them along with a little spray bottle of water, and a wet bag to store the dirty ones. Then when the inevitable Hawkins Cheezies accident happens we are prepared. I'm also going to bring some cloth napkins. We can rinse everything out in the hotel at night (I'll bring my portable laundry line too). For the car I have a great organizer that hangs on the back of the seats, which includes a cup holder to hold our spray bottle.

I have never been able to bring myself to use a hanky, and allergies are bad this year, so I think some kleenex will be inevitable. I'll try to keep them in a wet bag that can be deposited into a compost bin, if we find any along the road (like at Trader Joe's).

Bags - I'll bring along several cloth shopping bags. And I just picked up a great new collapsible box from Safeway. I actually picked up two - one is square and perfect for stashing all my car computer stuff nice and neat in one place. And the other is a rectangle and will be great for car snacks. They both have a stiff bottom and sides so they won't fall over and get sloppy in the car. When empty, we fold them down and stash under a seat.
Garbage vs Recycling - I have a couple of small flexible recycling type bags, which can be used for garbage and recycling (and to keep our Traverse nice and tidy). We'll keep the recyclable food packaging and any paper items. We should be able to find a place to put it - likely in our hotel blue bin. But I don't think anyone wants to keep food scraps in the car for composting. I expect we will be able to compost at Trader Joe's when we stop. Otherwise we'll be depositing those in the garbage bins when we stop, along with any other garbage that happens to make it into our car.
Isn't everyone excited to see my photos along the trip of how much garbage we have or have not collected. I know I am.

Anyone have any other eco-friendly road trip tips?

Eco-Friendly Traverse Trip

2011-07-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

I love summer road trips. And now that we have actually had a few days of summer weather it feels like we should be heading on our summer trips. I'll be heading on my big road #TraverseTrip to San Diego in just two weeks. It will be a great road trip with 3 blogging girlfriends Karen, Nicole and Alexis to Blogher '11 - no juice boxes allowed. We've had a few interesting reactions to our road trip... mostly words I can't repeat here about how long a drive it will be.

Yes, it will be a long drive! But there are some real environmental benefits to driving - besides being a great road trip adventure with my girlfriends. So besides discussing fashion and shopping along the road on Fashion Forward 40, I'm also going to see how we keep our road trip as environmentally friendly as possible.

Lets start with the biggie. Driving compared to flying. For those that don't love numbers I do apologize as the next part gets a bit like Grade 5 math.

A few facts/assumptions:

Number of travellers - 4
Vehicle - Chevrolet Traverse which gets a fantastic 8.4 L/100 km highway fuel consumption rating. For the sake of simplicity we used the highway rating for our calculations, but we know our actual consumption will vary, especially when we consider LA traffic. I'll track fuel consumption and do a final assessment at the end of our trip.
Driving Distance - Assumed direct drive from downtown Vancouver to downtown San Diego. I'll track our mileage and give a final assessment at the end of our trip.
Flight - Assumed direct flights from YVR to SAN.

Flying

A direct flight from Vancouver YVR to San Diego SAN return is 3,792 km (you can search distance between airports here http://www.world-airport-codes.com/). Thanks to my friends at Climate Smart, who helped me with the math, I know that a return flight equates to 1.13 tonnes CO2 equivalent. When flying each passenger is assessed a portion of the total carbon for the flight, so we must multiply that number by the 4 passengers Total 4.52 tonnes CO2 equivalent.

Driving

Driving from downtown Vancouver to downtown San Diego and back again is 4,494 km. With our Traverse highway fuel consumption, we should use 377.5 litres of gas which equals 1.0 tonnes CO2 equivalent. Since that is the total vehicle calculation, I don't need to multiple by the number of occupants. Total 1.0 tonnes CO2 equivalent.

That means we save 3.52 tonnes CO2 equivalent driving vs flying. Which means driving is 22% of what flying would be. Or in real terms that means:

CO₂ emissions from 133 propane cylinders used for home barbeques

Photo credit - Tomswift46 via Flickr Creative Commons

Greenhouse gas emissions avoided by recycling 1.1 tons of waste instead of sending it to the landfill

Photo credit - D'Arcy Norman via Flickr Creative Commons

Annual greenhouse gas emissions from .626 passenger vehicles - which would be like only driving your car 4.5 months of the year.

Other Considerations

So if we are taking an eco-road trip what else do we need to consider? Well garbage is a big one. And use of disposable products is another. I'll have more on our plans to reduce our garbage next week.

Would you consider driving instead of flying for a vacation to help reduce your carbon footprint?

Resources... http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-resources/calculator.html#results and https://climatesmartbusiness.com/

Disclosure: GM is providing us with a loaner Chevrolet Traverse and paying for our hotels and gas to travel to San Diego and back.

Back Alleys and Sunshine

2011-05-30T23:10:00.000-07:00

In the grey Vancouver winter my neighbourhood is quiet. We stay inside. We use our backyards to access our vehicles in the garages that line the back alley. We sneak out back to take out/bring in the garbage. We think of the back alley spaces as a means to an end. Then the rain stops and the sun starts to shine. And the beauty of our neighbourhood and our back alleys becomes clear.

I love the...

laughter of kids playing street hockey and the calling of "cars" in multiple languages
back yards of the Vancouver Specials, which are really just drive ways, lined on either side with thin patches of gardens planted full of tomatoes, peas and carrots
conversations with neighbours over the back fence
sound of multiple lawn mowers almost creating a symphony together
way kids don't see race, culture or religion, but instead see a friend to ride bikes with, even if they can't pronounce each other's names
water washing down the alley from cars being washed
laundry that appears almost by magic on the line the instant the sun peaks out for an hour
smiles and hellos as you walk along the alley
kids knocking on the gate asking if my son wants to play
sound of children yelling, screaming, crying and laughing
that the sense of neighbourhood and community is not lost

I love the back alleys of South East Vancouver.

Networking in Vancouver

2011-05-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

I recently joined Networking in Vancouver as a guest blogger. This is my first post To Live Tweet or Not Live Tweet.

Loyal Customers - true loyalists or just too lazy to change

2011-05-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Last week I attended a lovely event put on by Microsoft and the folks at Hotmail. I found myself sitting in a room of 20 women or so and feeling embarrassed to say "My name is Tracey and I've had a Hotmail account since early 1997." I was the only person in the room, who didn't work for Hotmail, that had kept their Hotmail account since the beginning. I was proud of my dedication to hotmail, even through the rough spam heavy years (although truth be told nothing will ever beat the spam-fest that my Telus email account has become). I stayed through the rise of gmail. In essence I stayed through the lean years when everyone else abandoned ship.

And that loyalty has paid off. Hotmail began a real shift in the last few years. They realize they took a lot of things for granted and dropped a few balls. And increased functionality in their product has been great. So over the past 2 years instead of choosing to open new accounts on other platforms I added to my existing hotmail world. I did have a gmail account for my other blog for a while. But it is now lives in my hotmail, along with my other 3 email accounts that all come into my hotmail hub. So instead of having to come back to hotmail, I'm still there. My loyalty has paid off with a better product. And I right where I want to be. Even if it makes me the only geek in the room.

But lets be honest. Did I stay with Hotmail because of a strong sense of loyalty? Did they give me fantastic customer service that I would never dream of leaving? Did they offer me discounts or loyalty offers? NO.
I stayed because, really I didn't want to change my email account. Yup, I was too lazy to change to something else.

Apparently this is true in many aspects of my life. If it ain't broke I don't go out of my way to fix it. I present the following as evidence:

Same bank since 1986. Yes, I've added other banking products at other banks/credit unions. But my main account is still with the same bank. Why? Well to me all the major banks come with their pros and cons. So why switch unless I really need to. I always figured I'd change when I bought a house and had to figure out a mortgage (but I live in Vancouver and lets be frank a house isn't going to happen soon).
Same hairdresser since 1999. Now I love my hairdresser and she continues to deliver a great product. She doesn't offer me price discounts. But I feel she takes care of me. I feel she appreciates my business and doesn't take me for granted. So I'm loyal. No cheating. Not even once in 12 years.
Same hotmail account since 1997.
Same car since 1999.
Same Internet provider since 2000.
Same cell phone provider since 2001.

I think you get the picture. I'm a creature of habit.

So does this mean these brands can assume I'm a true brand loyalist? No (except my hairdresser who I would recommend to anyone). It just means I haven't been given a reason to leave for someone else.

Unfortunately many brands read my loyalty as good points for them. And then they leave me alone. Well, except to perhaps offer me a discount to upgrade my service (and why is it I'm always suspect of their offer to help assess my products to make it better for me... always feel it is better for them). Yet, I see many of the same company's offering new customers a great bonus to lure them over.

Here is a novel idea. What about spending a bit of time really nurturing your existing customers to ensure they become true brand loyalists. Instead of just lazy customers. Hotmail is certainly an example of a business working hard to keep my business. They took a hard look at their product (and past mistakes), made some real customer focused improvements and are now reaching out to their loyal customers.

Everything I Learnt about Voting was from Survivor

2011-04-29T15:39:00.000-07:00

I have voted at every election since I turned 18. I always voted for the candidate in my riding that best fit with my personal beliefs. I figured that was the way it was done. Then I started watching Survivor. For 22 seasons I've watched the highs, lows, twists, alliances, cat fights, crazies, idols and of course the master of all hosts Jeff Probst. And as I prepare to vote in our upcoming Federal Election I realize my attitude towards voting has changed. And much of that comes from Survivor.

And while much of the voting in Survivor is against someone else, many of the theories still apply. So what have I learnt?

There is no fair way to vote. Dr. Sean Kenniff learnt that in Season 1 with his fair alphabetical system of voting. Almost all of his votes were throw aways and he still pissed people off.
The "Rats and Snakes" speech also applies to politics. Susan Hawk strongly felt that everyone in the game was either a rat or a snake. Political advertising often feels like the same speech, edited by highly educated speech writers.
No matter how much you like someone if they aren't in the right alliance then they don't get your vote.
Sometimes you can't vote for the person you want to win, but against the person you don't want to win.
Vote splitting is risky but can be used to masterful results. Of course there are no hidden immunity idols in politics, but after a number of minority governments it feels similar.
Tribal Counsel and a Candidates Debate are strikingly similar. Although the debates could really use Jeff Probst to mediate.
You want to trust, but really you can't.
Sometimes the tail coat rider wins.
Sometimes you can come back and win it all - Redemption Island, crazy twists where people get to come back or all-star seasons. You never know if someone is really out until the final votes are counted. Or after Jeff Probst does a crazy transportion montage to the LA studio.
Causing discord at camp can be used to your advantage.
The people who you may piss off while in office are also the ones who have to vote for you in the end.
You have to vote to stay alive in the game.

And that last one is the most important. No matter your alliances, strategies or beliefs you need to vote to stay alive in the game.

Follow Me on Twitter

2011-04-18T18:56:00.000-07:00

This phrase "follow me on twitter" is starting to bug me. It all started when The Bay (@thehudsonsbayco) radio ads added "..and you can follow us on twitter". I've tried to engage with their brand on twitter several times and have had no interaction. When I look at their twitter stream I see some interaction but they, IHO, are not truly engaging.

"Follow me" or the FB version of "Like me" infers a one way communication. You follow them , they provide information. Likely the same information they have traditionally pushed out through other channels - sales, events, new product info. It feels like the marketing department said we really HAVE to get on twitter - everyone else is there.   So they got an account. But they have not yet developed a true strategy to engage with their "followers".   They likely have in depth strategies on how they will position themselves in all their other channels - why not twitter too?

I've tried to engage with @thehudsonsbayco and several other brands on twitter over the past few weeks. I've asked very deliberate questions. Questions clearly directed at them, not just conversations where you flag a brand. I've asked questions that should be easy for the corporate tweeter to answer. None have been answered. Now I don't expect 100% of my mentions of a brand to get answered. But when I form a deliberate question directed to them I would hope that at least some would get an answer. Maybe not right away. I understand that many brands do not have 24/7 coverage on social media. But I do hope for an eventual answer.

The other end of the spectrum is @xboxsupport. I tweeted a comment about a problem with our kinect. It wasn't a direct question. So I wasn't expecting an answer. 10 minutes later I had a reply with a link to a potential fix to my problem. They then followed up with a DM to get my feedback on my level of service. If you check the @xboxsupport twitter bio it clearly indicates they are there to engage. It also includes the hours the account is serviced. Xbox clearly has a customer service strategy for their twitter interactions on this account (and they have other accounts that engage people in different ways).

Another brand that I've found a lot of fun to interact with is @canadianliving. I tweeted something about a recipe of theirs I was trying. They replied, pretty quickly on a Sunday, that I should post photos. We had a little conversation about muffins. And then I asked if the recipe could be done with whole wheat flour. The tweeter told me she'd check with their test kitchen the next day (it was Sunday). On Monday I had an answer and suggestions. The next time I made that recipe I tried their suggestions and then I posted photos. Not only was I happy with the customer service, but it increased the perception of their brand with my followers. Many of whom piped in about the muffins and the recipe.

It takes a clear engagement and positioning strategy for twitter. Just opening an account, telling people to follow you and then using it to push corporate announcements isn't enough today.   Yes it takes a lot of work to manage a successful brand twitter account.  But it has always taken a lot of work to build relationships with your customers. I don't understand why brands seem to think social media is going to be any different.  Their is this "get rich quick" mentality to using these free tools. But twitter isn't a Kevin Costner movie, if you build it they will NOT necessarily come.

So don't just tell me to follow you. Give me a reason to have a conversation with your brand.   Even the pied piper gave people a reason to follow him.

Do you favourite brands you follow in social media?   Do you have examples of brands who seem to get it? Or those that are just hoping for people to show up. Feel free to answer in the comments or @tjrossignol. I respond within normal waking hours.

Buying Both a Business and a Brand

2011-04-11T12:57:00.000-07:00

It seems logical common sense to me that when you decide to buy an existing business that you realize you are buying more than just a business. You are buying the existing business' product/service, as well as its brand, its reputation and its relationships with its customers. But this is apparently NOT common knowledge. I've seen several cases recently that make me shake my head.

There are some real benefits to purchasing an existing business. They have done the initial set up for you. They have an existing (and assuming successful) product/service, clients, processes, etc. But you need to look beyond the balance sheet to see what makes that business tick and why its customers give them their business vs their competitors.

As some of you might have heard Vancouver is a bit of a coffee city. In fact there are 4 independent coffee shops within a 3 block radius of one of my client's offices. And there are 3 Starbucks within an extra block walk. Each of the independent shops has its own unique brand. Something that differentiates them from the rest. The three that I frequent regularly include:

Coffee culture place - They have the single estate roasts. Their staff compete in the regional barista competitions. Little chit chat here, unless you are talking the merits of coffee. They offer high quality, and really just a bit too highly priced sandwiches and goodies.
Caterer that could pass for your "local" if it was a pub - they love their food here and their kitchen is just as big as the coffee shop. They know my name, they know my order before I walk through the door, they know that one of my coffee cups has a lid larger than my head. There are regulars sitting there that must have jobs, but how can they because they are always there. I half expect a "Norm" to be called out Cheers style as people enter.
Funky coffee shop with unique sandwich and soup combos. This is where I go to get my flavour shot coffees, with a tuna melt and some crazy soup. I chat with the owners about vintage jewelry and make sure my coffee card gets stamped. The owners are relatable and friendly.

Part of my consumer behavior is the location for each of these shops. The "local" is close to the parking lot and gets my morning visit where I pick up my decaf mocha, a great bran muffin (developed from the owner's grandmother's recipe) and sometimes a cool and yummy salad for lunch. Then the funky coffee shop is closer to the office and easy to pop into for my afternoon jolt, or perhaps lunch once or twice a week. The coffee culture spot is left for the days I want an excellent Chai NOT made from some super sweet mix. Note that the coffee culture is the closest to the office. But I frequent them the least.

Now the funky coffee shop was recently sold to a new owner. While she has kept all the products the same, she started putting her stamp on the business right away. The obvious is the new artwork -- and a wall fireplace. These changes are (I'm assuming) supposed to make the place more high class. But what made its customers love this place was its funky, arty, community vibe.

Then there is the staff. The old owners had a great balance between chatty and leaving you to your business. And they really set that funky, art, community vibe of the place. The new owner is not chatty, and while she smiles a lot she isn't really that friendly. Now that in itself is fine, because if she understands the brand of the business she bought she can hire staff that can help make up for her weaknesses. But she hasn't.

There was also an old fashioned neighourhood feel to the place. I forgot my wallet at the office one day. No problem. Catch them tomorrow. I caught up the next day. Apparently a few other people ran a more regular tab (a rare thing in this day and age). They must have been slower to pay than the new owner liked. Because there suddenly appeared a list of outstanding tabs on top of the loyalty card box. Nothing like publicly shaming regular customers to lose customers.

There also appeared a new hand written note on the cash register noting that debit transactions less than $5 would incur a 20 cent charge. The new owner has clearly, and quickly set up her top priority, profit! Not relationships with her existing customers. It is no longer a funky, alternative place to get a great sandwich (at a good price). The sad part is she clearly doesn't understand the brand she has purchased. I know that some of the regulars from my client's office are going there less often. They aren't boycotting the place, but one or two less visits a month by her regular customers is going to eat into her profits.

And she isn't offering anything "new" that sets her apart from her competition. She bought a great niche business and is whittling away at that difference.

Unfortunately I predict that as her traffic counts decline she will start to "adjust" her product mix to make up for it. And once those yummy sandwiches and unique home made soups change her business will eventually be lost.

The other example I have is more extreme. Vancouver is also know for their bubble tea. People are really passionate about their bubble tea. There is a lot of bubble tea in this town. But only a few places doing it really really well. Places where you can get a fresh fruit bubble tea, with perfect pearls These places have line-ups from the moment they open to the moment they close. One of these has clearly been sold to new owners. The signage still indicates a list of fresh and powder bubble teas. But the "fresh" fruit now tastes like syrup. And when asked if it is fresh you get these blank "yes" of course looks. But they clearly are no longer fresh. And the pearls are mushy. The product is so bad and the change so obvious that long time customers are refusing to go EVER again after just one visit.

In the case of the coffee shop you could argue that the new owner understands some of the core pillars to the business (the product quality has not changed) and is trying to elevate her new business to represent her vision for its brand. But if you are going to do that you better be clearly defining a new brand differentiation for your business. And not making yourself more like the rest.

In the bubble tea example the new owners don't even seem to care about the existing business they bought. Neither really understand the brand they have purchased. And that puts both of these businesses at risk.

The Politics of Pink

2011-02-21T13:52:00.000-08:00

My son is a stereotypical boy. He is into trains, trucks, robots, lego, excavators, dinosaurs, concrete mixers (don't dare call it a cement mixer in our house). He is a high energy boy who runs, jumps, dances (like Maniac from Flash Dance), roars like a monster, growls like a pirate and does a perfect impression of a transformer transforming. And his favourite colour is pink.

So yeah that last part isn't so stereotypical. But I love that he loves pink. And while I'd like to take all sorts of credit for being a gender neutral mom. It is his two girl friends at daycare that are likely the reason. They like pink. So he likes pink.

Personally I love a man in a pink button down with a matching tie. But there are no pink clothes for boys. And most of the girl t-shirts in pink, also include some sort of princess element. And when I suggested a pink shirt that had a princess he emphastically said NO. During a recent trip to Old Navy he picked out flip flops, blue with grey stripe track pants, Ewok t-shirt, 2 soccer balls and a stuffed Penquin. Since we weren't shopping for clothes (or toys), we compromised with the Ewok t-shirt. We were there to buy new underwear. We found it all in the girl's section. His pick - pink girl's underwear.

Was I an open minded parent? No. I distracted him with some blue stripes. I worried about what people might say if they see him wearing pink girl's underpants. I didn't worry about what they say to me. I worried about what he would hear them say about him. I've already had a few discussions with people I know about whether I should be concerned about his love of pink. And for the record I'm not worried about that.

What I don't want is him thinking there is anything wrong with liking pink, just because society says pink is a girl's colour. I'd love him to have the option to pick shirts or sweaters that include pink. But pink underwear seemed over the line to me. It seemed too open to critism from others. Other kids and other adults.

So for now, until someone designs some boy's clothes that include pink. I'll be on the lookout in the girl's department for cute pink/non-princess items that Lil T might like. That is, of course, if he still likes pink next week. As things change fast at 3.

The Moment of Un-Truth

2010-10-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

First I have to say it is obvious my plan to post at least once a month on this blog has failed. So I thought it was about time to take a break from my fashion blogging to talk a bit of marketing.

A few weeks ago I went to Victoria for Social Media Camp to see Scott Stratten of @Unmarketing fame speak. He didn’t disappoint. He is engaging. He is funny. He is really funny! And he makes a good point. Actually he makes many good points.

Scott isn’t necessarily telling us anything new. But he is certainly giving us a well needed reminder.

The basics of marketing, according to Scott, are that it is not a task. It isn’t a role, title or action item on a to-do list. It is every single time you engage with your customers. And building relationships means building business. Because as we all know that people do business with people – particularly people we know, like and trust. Scott reminds us that this is just common sense – too bad more of us don’t use it.

Marketing really is simple, but we make social media and marketing so complicated. One of my favourite comments was “We’ve had social media for decades it was called talking.” Social media is a tactic that allows you to build relationships!

When I rewind my career to 1992 I had the privilege to work on an innovative brand called Saturn (we can debate why Saturn failed in the long run on another day). This was my first job out of University and I was just happy to have a job in my chosen field of advertising – in a time when there were few jobs at all. I realized later what a great first job this was. Besides being a car company trying to introduce the innovative idea that a car company could be fair, they were smart marketers. They knew that all the millions they spent on starting this new car company from scratch would be lost with just one poor interaction – one grumpy receptionist, one mechanic that thought he could make a few extra bucks. They knew marketing wasn’t just your TV advertising. They knew that EVERY touch point with a consumer was a “moment of truth”.

This truth is even more true today in the world of instant worldwide social media conversations. So it is even more important to understand your brand and its differentiation in the marketplace. Keep it simple and deliver it at EVERY customer touch point. Build relationships and don’t try to hit people in the face to get them to buy now (you’ll need to read Scott’s book, aptly named Unmarketing to understand this comment).

Scott will be appearing in Vancouver in early December, on his UnMarketing book tour. Be sure you don’t miss him.

The future of cars

2010-05-09T21:39:00.000-07:00

We had friends over last weekend and I was surprised when they said they had driven to our house. This young urban couple with no kids are avid transit and environmental supporters and have no car. So I was surprised to hear they had driven. But they had had some special errands to run that day and needed a car. They are members of the Co-operative Auto Network. So they had a snazzy red hybrid for the afternoon and evening.

I thought great on them. I know when I first started my career in TO I went without a car for years. It was especially funny as I worked on the Saturn, Saab, Isuzu advertising account. But I was a junior and couldn't afford to have a car. So the guys could laugh all they wanted. If they weren't going to pay for me to have a car, I wasn't going to pay for one myself. If I had to drive out to GM in Oshawa, I rented a car and expensed it. It was cheaper than taking a taxi. But today it would have been much smarter for my company to have been part of the co-op. I also would have LOVED a car co-op for those big grocery shopping, errand running days.

With a young toddler and both my husband and myself currently self employed (and always on the run to one side of town to the next) a car co-op at first seems unrealistic for us. I initially have visions of me on the bus, with a toddler and a car seat, making my way over to the co-op location about 12 blocks from our house.

Most of the time we have 2 cars. One of which is very busy running one of us across town for work or errands. The other is used a lot less. In the summer we have 3 cars, as my husband has a vintage 1975 MG convertible. In those months our "2nd" car is very much under-utilized. Unfortunately the MG can't be used when running a toddler around. So thus we have kept our second car. We have considered selling it, but weren't sure how we'd coordinate on those days when we need 2 cars.

I'm beginning to wonder if a car co-op might be a better 2nd car option for us. It might require a bit of coordination. And perhaps one of us driving the other over to the co-op location. But it could be a viable way for us to reduce our car load, be more environmental and reduce our budget.

What about you? Could being a member in a car co-op allow you to get one (or more) of your cars off the road?

Multiple Twitter Personality Disorder

2010-04-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

I recently attended a Canadian Society for Marketing Professional Services (CSMPS) luuncheon featuring
Craig Faulkner speaking to social media. His presentation gave me a few tips on how to adjust my social media thinking for my 'day' job.

But it also got me thinking that perhaps I'm suffering from multiple twitter personality disorder. And I don't think I'm alone. I was chatting with a couple of other twitter friends on the weekend - and by chatting I mean in person sitting next to each other talking (which to me is the real value of twitter... but more on that another day). My 2 friends are entrepreneurs and both had a personal and business twitter account. We laughed about creating a unique voice and audience for each of our accounts. Then I rather sheepishly admited to managing four (4) twitter accounts.

Somedays having 4 different and very distinct accounts is a challenge. But I still seem to be in control of them all... well except for those few times when I click the wrong personna on tweetdeck or hootsuite and I tweet something about diaper training on another account.

First there is my personal account @tjrossignol. This one is the most complex cause it is the personal me. It is the mom, wife, marketer, tv viewer, lover of gossip, toilet training triumphs/failures, sci loving, sort of sarcastic account. Lots of topics open to discussion just like this blog and ME. Pretty much anything I'd say at a cocktail party after a glass of wine is fair game on this account. I have a good group of twitter friends on this account. We get together in person for family outings, playdates, tweet ups, vancouver mom's night out, marketing events, etc. They are great supportive pals and lots of fun to chat with online and in person.

Then there is the @WIL_Fdn. This is the Women in Leadership Foundation account, which I manage with some help from a couple of other lovely volunteers. This account is all about inspiring and celebrating women. Bringing women together and helping them empower themselves. Topics include Women's leadership, professional advice, entrepreneurial information, research, what other women's groups are doing and of course information so we can meet up with some great inspiring women at our events. We follow and are followed by some very interesting and successful women. So I need to think networking profesional, and remove the glass of wine from my "voice" on this account (and I apologize for those few training updates from @tjrossignol by mistake).

@Fashion_frwd40 is the side of my personality that has always loved fashion. I'm sharing the details of my adventures in rediscovering my love of fashion after 40. Just like the http://fashionforward40.com/ blog I tweet celebs over 40 fashion, my own experiences, great trends and tips from other fashionable tweets. Now the people watching, slightly catty girl, with 2 glasses of wine (or perhaps a cosmo or two) comes out. I'm still in the community building stage here. I've started attending more local events and meeting people in person always seems to benefit my twitter relationships.

My final account is my work one. I do the marketing for a professional services firm. This one is the hardest as I'm not an expert in the service we offer. So I'm listening more than talking. We are a creative thinking firm, so I use that as my guideline for content. But so far I listen and RT more than I provide original content.

Confused yet! Me too. I guess as long as the accounts don't start chatting amongst themselves without me, I think I'm okay.

So how about you? Do you have multiple accounts? How do you create a unique voice for each?

Happy Green Day!

2010-03-17T19:16:00.000-07:00

St. Patrick's Day!!! One of the my favourite holidays. Not sure which part of me is Irish but I know somewhere after the Scottish and the Chinese comes a blend of Irish, Welsh and English. My grandmother used to call us the "Heinz 57 of the Commonwealth" (that was when Hong Kong was still part of the commonwealth).

It is funny looking back on how much this day has changed with my life. This year I almost forgot about it. I was lucky to read someone tweet about it yesterday so I could change out of the green top I had on and keep it for today. Then we celebrated with an "Iceholes" beer and some burgers and fries out tonight as a family.

Then I rewind 11 years and remember the craziest St. Patrick's Day ever! We arrived at the Irish pub a few blocks from my office in downtown Toronto at about 11:30am. We had planned ahead and made reservations, but we still needed to get there early. The whole office was there (we were a small firm with an average age of 20 somewthing) and had planned a fun lunch. I stumbled out of that pub sometime around midnight that night. About half the company never made it back to work that day. And some were even late the next day. Other than when I worked in a pub I don't think I've ever spent half a day in one.

Now - burgers with a 2 year old. Then - a week's grocery budget spent on beer and a few pissed off clients.

Things I Learnt as a Volunteer

2010-02-27T15:57:00.000-08:00

Today I finished my last smurf shift. In case you've been avoiding any Olympic news these past few weeks, a smurf is a Vancouver Olympic 2010 volunteers in the turquoise blue jackets (You see them everywhere). Some of the volunteers starting calling themselves smurfs and the name stuck.

So I know little to nothing about curling, but I learnt a little spending 10 of my 12 volunteer’s shifts as an Event Services Team Leader at the Vancouver Olympic Centre - the curling rink (the other 2 shifts I did at BC Place for the Dress Rehearsal and Opening Ceremonies). On each of my shifts I had a team of 4-10 volunteers’ hosts who held all sorts of positions like marshals, ushers, ticket scanners, access monitors, etc. Generally we dealt with the public to ensure they got where they needed to go as quickly and as easily a possible.

I learnt a few interesting things from my experience and I thought I'd share them....

1. Hydration is a double edged sword - you need to drink, but that means you have to pee... usually when you have several thousand people standing in front of you at the security gate. Lesson: time you’re drinking carefully.

2. I did two shifts at BC Place for the Opening Ceremonies. It rained. I was outside. Lesson: My running shoes aren't waterproof.

3. Your job is to help run the event. Lesson: PVR it and watch it when you get home!

4. As volunteers we are happy to provide feedback to our supervisors about something that is not working as it should, or if someone has a particular grievance. But when someone doesn't like that particular "rule" (that the volunteer didn't create, but has been asked to enforce) and starts yelling at you don't take it personally... it only proves they are the ass. Lesson: be nice to volunteers.

5. It is raining on us too! And we've probably been standing in it longer. Lesson: Consider the other guy's POV.

6. Wearing your radio on your belt might feel like you've become a Grade 10 AV club geek, but it far better on your back, shoulders and jacket. Lesson: Learn this lesson before Day 5

7. I was so proud of learning how to pee without taking off my radio, backpack or jacket. Until I realized #6 and had to move the radio to my belt. Thankfully the bathroom floor was dry when I dropped my radio (actually I should be thankful I only dropped it on the floor). Lesson: hook radio on stall door not smurf vest.

8. Everyone gets excited about getting their picture taken with Quatchi. Lesson: There is a kid in all of us.

9. When they warned you not to forget your accreditation because it will be pain they didn't lie. Lesson: Don't forget your accreditation.

10. Don't get too cocky if you don't get selected for a random security check for a few days in a row. As you WILL get "blue" four times in a row on the day you have volunteers working the security gates and you are in a hurry. Lesson: Taking off your radio, backpack, accreditation and jacket is a pain and the wire in my bra makes the machine beep.

11. The day you are supposed to ensure the bathrooms are secured and locked outside the spectator area 30 minutes before the game ends, the game will end suddenly while half your volunteer team is still on lunch and you will be stuck trying to lock bathrooms with a large crowd proceeding at you full speed ahead. Lesson: There is a cop there when you need help.

12. My body feels like it has just finished a swing dance camp. Except at swing dance camp I'm up dancing until 4am, and not getting up at 4am. Lesson: Start taking Ibuprofen on day 1.

13. If people show up 20 minutes before an event it is likely a lot of other people thought they could do the same thing... so there will be a line up for security and they will miss the beginning. Lesson: It isn't the volunteer's fault that you didn't plan better - get there earlier.

14. Getting into a uniform everyday makes it easy to get dressed everyday, especially at 4am. Lesson: See my fashion blog for discussion on merits/challenges of uniforms.

15. We had lots of training, but really until you do the job you know nothing. And the first day you do ANY post it is ALL new. Lesson: Fake it until you make it.

16. Volunteers love snacks! Lesson: You can buy the adoration of your volunteers by bringing them cookies, snacks and candy!

17. You will forget at least one volunteer host on a particular post for too long. Lesson: Remember you are also a volunteering trying your best and get over it... if that doesn't work try candy.

18. The Olympic EVS Team Leader Diet of 8 hours of walking supported by cookies, sandwiches and soup works. It may not last but my clothes fit great! Lesson: I won't be eating any sandwiches for a few weeks.

19. You WILL run into someone you know, usually as you are loudly explaining the "express" lanes to a large number of people. They will recognize you in your smurf uniform. And it will likely be a former boss or boyfriend. Lesson: Laugh and tell them how much fun you are having.

20. Things aren't always named accurately. Lesson: "Express" isn't necessarily faster.

21. The Madonna headset on your radio will mess up your hair. Lesson: Get over it.

22. Life goes on while you are at the rink. Lesson: Return library books and pay bills before Olympics.

23. With the exception of cold, wet, late people at security EVERYONE in Vancouver was nice for 2 weeks. Lesson: Keep it up.

24. My 2.5 year old will say to Daddy every morning "Mommy no go volunteer Olympics. no go work, come home". It makes my heart break. Lesson: My husband rocks for watching a very active toddler while I volunteered!

25. Volunteers, supervisors and event management at Canadian Olympic Centre are AWESOME. I had an opportunity to work with some truly fun, unique and smart people from all across country (and the world). Each brought their own unique talents to the role. And anyone who can be friendly and still smiling after 8-9 hours standing on concrete (sometimes in the rain) is one hell of an awesome person!!! Lesson: Never judge a book by its cover.

I did have tickets to a couple of events to watch Canada win gold (Free Dance and Women's Hockey). And I did get to stop by one or two of the free Olympic events on my day off. But in general my Olympic experience was different than many others and in some ways I felt disconnected to the actual games as I was 'back of house' helping things run smoothly. But I wouldn't trade the experiences or the people I met for anything.

Now bring on the Paralympics!!!

Adventures at 5:30am

2010-02-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

I was woken up this morning at 5:30 am by the door bell. You know a 5:30 doorbell is got to be bad news OR something crazy.

So my husband had gotten up just before 5:30am to go to the bathroom, he found my Mom was in the bathroom. Not knowing how long she would be in the bathroom and being in rather desperate need he went out into the back yard. My Mom came out of the bathroom to discover the back door wide open. She closed, locked it and went back to bed. My hubbie dressed only in his housecoat was now locked outside. So hence the doorbell! At least 1 person in the house slept through all the fun and that was the 2yo.

Where did I go?

2010-01-30T22:24:00.000-08:00

I have not abandoned this blog. I intend to continue blogging about my life in marketing, as a mom and as a tv addict. But I might be doing it a little less. I took on a new marketing contract a couple of days a week and I started a new blog focused on fashion after turning 40. I hope to continue to post here at least once a week... it just might take me a bit of time to find my balance. Thanks for your patience.

T

Lilli'Q Cafe and Playhouse

2010-01-15T14:17:00.000-08:00

Had a playdate today at the new Lilli'Q Cafe and Playhouse in Yaletown. Great idea considering the number of parents living downtown and the number of truly kid friendly options in the area.

I had a nice chai latte - disappointed my 'to stay' cup was paper - and a couple of mini muffins. Nice quality products but would like to see more selection of food for both young and old. Just a wider range of baked goods would be great.

Was offered a free massage - great, but not the right day for me as I was there to meet and chat with my friend.

My son happily played in the toys amongst the other kids. Which was a nice break for me. My friend's son who was older at 4 was quickly bored as most of the other kids were between 0-2.

We didn't need a potty break while we were there, but saw a lovely open change area with a stool to the sink. And it worked well with multiple people in the area at one time.

The biggest challenge I saw was the space for strollers. There is a great stroller parking area but you have to go all the way through the space to get to it. And it is a skinny space. I watched about 10 minutes of stroller traffic jam when a number of people were arriving and leaving at the same time. This is a challenge that will only get harder as more people frequent the cafe.

Will I go again - absolutely. Will it be a destination for a morning out - probably not.

Spring has sprung

2010-01-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

January 6th, 2010 Vancouver

Looking for fashion survey - look to next article below!!!

Survey

2010-01-05T00:33:00.000-08:00

I'm developing a business plan for a new entreprenuarial project. I would love if you would take the time to complete my little survey about fashion. If you feel I missed a question or have something to add please feel free to add it in the comments below.

Christmas is a time for giving back

2009-12-21T14:34:00.000-08:00

My husband's family has a great way of celebrating Christmas. They are a large traditional divorced family with fantastic family occassions on both sides.  My husband has 2 parents + 2 step parents + 3 grandparents + 3 sisters, 2 brother-in-laws & 3 nephews + 1 Uncle, his wife and their 2 grown kids.   Plus me and the little monkey.   We are a blessed family and in need of little.

Every couple of years we do a family ski trip and enjoy some time together in the fresh air. The 3 oldest kids (spouses and their kids) usually get a condo for the entire time, and the parents and grandparents split their time so we get to enjoy both sides of the family. No matter where the family is celebrating they have some great traditions for young and old. The kids usually have a bit of a show - singing or dancing for us. Oma usually does her felt puppet "Christmas story" and of course we have lots of songs and hymns.

You can image buying gifts for that large of a crew would be a lot of work. So they like to focus the holidays on the togetherness, the occassion, the food and photos (we have more than our fair share of shutterbugs) - not the gifts.   We all get gifts for the kids, of course. But then we draw names and each person buys a gift for only one other adult on each side of the family. This lets us focus on our time together and not spending a lot of money or time on gifts (although my husband usually still buys lots of fun German treats - he says he isn't technically cheating as they are meant for everyone's stocking).

Charitable giving also has an important part of their Holidays. A few year's ago we gave a goat in Opa's name to a family in South America. As 2009 has been a tough year for many the family decided that there would be no adult gifts at all. The family drew names and donated to a charity in that person's name.

So hubbie and I decided to do the same with my family this year. We have told everyone over 13 to expect small fun holiday gifts and then we were giving the rest of our Holiday budget to charity. Since Vancouver has the highest child poverty numbers in the country we decided to make our donations to:

In spirit of full disclosure we did do a special gift for Daniel's Omi who flew us out to Calgary as a surprise for the family this year. She gave us the gift of time with our family, so we put together a nice little memory of her Great Grandson. But as it technically won't arrive until January we didn't really cheat. Since she doesn't read my blog this should be a nice surprise when it arrives.

Follow Friday

2009-12-11T17:23:00.000-08:00

So last week I missed my follow friday blog, as I was stuck in rural Alberta in a snow storm with dial up... yeah I know "do I want some cheese with that whine?"...

This week I thought people might be looking for practical organizational advice - unless you are one of those people who finished your Christmas preparations in August. My friend Christa Wagner is a professional organizer, and a fantasticly upbeat outgoing lady. Her most recent blog is about Holiday Organizing for Practical User - particularly relevant to those of us who have left most everything to the last minute.

Christa is a busy lady, who blogs almost daily with practical tips & advice for us busy people trying to organize our homes, lives and meals. And if you need more than just advice check out her Savvy Solutions website.

The Perils of a Big Surprise

2009-12-09T12:46:00.000-08:00

So over the weekend we flew to Alberta as a surprise for my hubbie's family. His grandmother really wanted us there for her Christmas dinner (this is the year everyone is going away for Christmas so family dinners were scheduled earlier).    So she decided to fly us out as a surprise.

Surprises are always somewhat complicated - what is the cover story/what are the real details/who knows/who can't be told for any reason????? But for us the surprise was further complicated by social media, forgetfulness and the weather.

Who was in on it? Omi, me, hubbie and his father (as this was a celebration with the mom's side of the family we felt he would be a good reliable conspirator)

#1 - Social Media Silence

Why social media? While my hubbie's family couldn't be told, his friends could. But hubbie didn't think he needed to tell his friends it was a surprise, as they don't talk to his family. He forgot about that big melting pot of friends and family... facebook.  So I kept getting facebook wall questions about our trip. Thankfully they all got removed before they were seen.

Then there is my affection for twitter. After I tweeted about waiting on the phone for West Jet for 2 hours, it occured to me I would have to go into "twitter radio silence" about our trip. Now my brother and sister-in-law aren't super active on twitter, but they might notice if I was tweeting about a trip to Calgary.   And since I tweet about almost everything it was hard to keep my big mouth shut for 2 weeks.

#2 - The car seat

Got to the airport and as we were checking in we realized we had left the car seat in the car... which had by now left and was driving home. PANIC!!! Now my sister-in-law (SIL) in Calgary usually has an extra seat... but we can't call her or we'd give up the surprise.

So my father-in-law had to stop and buy us a new car seat on his way to airport to pick us up.   Now we really didn't need a new car seat, as we already have 2 at home. But he didn't have time to rent one and couldn't figure out a viable lie to get the one from SIL.

So with our brand new car seat we were driven to Red Deer, met by Omi and then drove out to her place at the lake. Got settled into the house... realized how dreadful the dial-up internet was and waited for people to start to show up the next day. But they didn't!!!

#3 - The Storm

A huge snow storm hit Southern Alberta on the Friday and highways were closed or labelled critical.

Now what do you do when you are stuck inside in a snow storm? Go online is likely a common answer. Besides it being painfully slow, I also couldn't bitch about the weather or the family will figure something out. So what do I do? I gloat about the Vancouver weather of course!   Hey I had to do something... Mommy boredom mixed with a toddler going stir crazy is a bad mix. Something had to be done.

#4 - The Dinner

The big dinner was planned for Sunday and the fingers were all crossed that the weather would clear. It did. But then the family started to talk about car pooling... well that would 'kill' our ride back to Calgary.   Again we couldn't ask anyone to leave space in their car for the 3 of us and our luggage.   Thankfully Omi talked them out of that without giving anything away (that woman really does lie well on the fly... kind of scary reall).

#5 - The Surprise

Hubbie's mom arrive at the house a few hours before the dinner. Omi told her she was babysitting a neighbours kid and we let the little guy run into the room. She stared at him and said "Boy does that little kid ever look like T". Then I stuck my head out and my MIL's jaw dropped to her knees. The best part of a surprise is when it is a real surprise. Same went with her husband as he arrived from the car a few moments later.

The rest of the family was met at the restaurant with similar surprise and excitement. I can't believe that Omi had done such an excellent job at lying that there were even gifts for us there (she had told everyone she was coming out to vancouver on Dec 26th for the holidays and to bring our gifts with them.... she really really is a good liar).

Dinner was fantastic. Seeing everyone was fantastic. Omi was so happy with everything. Plus because of the storm she got to spend a very intimate weekend with her great grand son.

As for us. Thankfully we were able to squeeze our stuff (split between 3 cars) and ourselves back to Calgary, where we had a little after party at my SIL's house. It really was a lovely Christmas family celebration.

And then we realized bear and bunny got left behind at Omi's house.... but that is another story.

Bright Nights Vancouver Tweet up

2009-12-01T10:14:00.000-08:00

I think our little guy is big enough to enjoy the Christmas train at Stanley Park this year. So I'm trying to organize a tweet-up. As the train sells out early, I thought it would be good to organize and purchase tickets early.

Please indicate in the comments below if you are interesting in coming, the time that works best for you, the number of adults/kids over 2 and if you are interested in purchasing advance tickets as a group or will arrange your own.

Date - December 18th (alternate date Wed December 16th)
Time - Meet at 4:00 and get tickets for the (a) 5-5:30pm slot or (b) 5:30 - 6pm slot. We can visit the children's farm and other attractions until our time comes up. And those that are working can still meet up with us before the train time slot.
Cost: $8 adults (+1.6 convenience fee) and $5 kids 2-18 and seniors (+1 convenience fee)

As tickets will sell out quickly for a Friday night I suggest we try to buy a group of tickets in advance - will need to confirm numbers for advance tickets by Monday Dec 7th. Then if others decide to come along last minute, they can take make arrangements for same day tickets.

Update Dec 7th - So I left the advance ticket purchase too late. It was looking fine before I left for the weekend trip to rural aka 'dial-up hell' Alberta. But yesterday 5 and 5:30 were gone. Going to try through ticketmast phone line one last time today, but likely I'll be purchasing tickets at noon on the 18th at the box office (they keep a good chunk of tickets for same day sale).

I made it

2009-11-30T21:49:00.000-08:00

I made it! Today is November 30 and I made it! 30 posts in 30 days. Yeah some days were lighter than others. But I made the effort to come up with ideas and write or post a thought everyday. And that was my objective. I hope to continue to blog more regularly, and in particular hope to keep up with my follow blogger friday posts.

Moms in the media

2009-11-30T16:31:00.000-08:00

It was so nice to attend Momcafe last Friday without having to worry how my little guy was settling in with the child care. After two experiences of him having to sit with me through the presentations, I made other child care arrangements (convenient that Grandma was in town that day). So I was able to network with other moms and enjoy the presentations without distractions.

Today’s speakers were Moms behind the Headlines: Andrea Vance, Publisher of WestCoast Families; and Tamara Taggart, CTV Weathercaster.

Andrea talked about her path to becoming an entrepreneur and publisher. Tamara talked more about how she makes it work today.

It was interesting to hear Andrea talk about her late days and nights working at EA. How that lead to a late night life discussion over Rum and Cokes, with her now husband. And how that led to her quitting her high paying job with nothing to go to and no plan.

The biggest transitions for her were:

Learning to work from home. How to get out of bed and out of your PJs everyday. She realized she had to think about it as ‘work’ and to prepare herself for each day, as she was going to the office. And some days that might mean staying in her sweats for the day.
Thought she could plan her transition to being a parent. She had 9 months to get organized. She isn’t a big planner, but feels that her work plan went well. The home plan did not go to plan, and the anticipated labour distribution plan had to be adjusted after the baby was born.

For her balance is about dealing with whatever has to get done and that she goes to bed feeling like she (and her child) ate and that things got done that needed to be done.

For her the question should not be what is next? But what is next next? What is the passion or ultimate goal?

It was interesting listening to Tamara and really relating to a number of the things she said about her life. She works in the ‘soul sucking business of TV’ (I used to work in the soul sucking business of advertising). And she waited until she was older to have kids, only because she didn’t meet the right person until she was older (same story for me). She is a worry wart and had challenges realizing that when you have kids you have to give up some of the control (amen sister).

She believes she can have it all. You just have to prioritize differently.

It was interesting listening to her story about her oldest child Beckett who was diagnosed with Downs Syndrome 5 days after he was born. Her pregnancy had been easy, and all the tests had been good. So she and her husband were completely unprepared and knew nothing about downs syndrome. She had to learn fast. The difference in her situation is that she had to go through it in front of the public.

She addressed why she went back to work after 4 months after both children - “because they needed the money”. It is the most expensive time of your life and you only qualify for EI. So she went back to work. I appreciated that while not everyone in the room would agree with her, she was unapologetic. It was her choice for her family. She doesn’t judge others decisions and she doesn’t expect anyone should judge hers. (note to those who want to express their opinion to her in the grocery store – make sure she isn’t holding a jug of milk).

She talked about the Regis show as a ‘big show with a small town mentality’. They really made her feel comfortable and she was surprised by how laid back they were. And that helped revitalize her idea of what she does. And to her it is very important to love what she does.

How does she manage with her busy schedule?

She has a team. Her mom, a part time nanny and of course her husband.
Being home for bedtime is mandatory. Most nights both parents are home for bedtime, but there is always at least one of them there.
Prioritizing her time – cause frankly she’d rather shop for the kids than herself these days.
Nothing comes before her family. And work knows this. "It is what it is". Although she does have to remind herself of that every so often.

One of the questions for Tamara was how she handles privacy for her family. She is a pretty open person (says she answer anything but her weight). She doesn’t want to hide her children, nor make Beckett a poster child for downs syndrome. But he is fantastic and wants other people to see that. Of course being in the public she does have to consider safety issues, and has had stalkers.

Like all parents she doesn’t seem to have a concrete answer to all the questions. She notes that she replaced her Us magazines with mommy blogs and loves to learn from them. On the flip side she doesn’t have the answers, but if someone can learn from her then great.

Both Tamara and Andrea seem, like most parents, to take it day by day and try to make the best decisions for their families and themselves. Doing something you are patient about is key no matter what you do.

Blue Rodeo

2009-11-29T22:40:00.000-08:00

Hubbie and I had a date night last week. My mom was in town and so was Blue Rodeo, so we took advantage and had a night out.

I've seen Blue Rodeo about six times in my life, and they never fail to please. My first time was during University and I don't remember too much about it except that I loved loved loved Greg Keeler's voice (Diamond Mine is still my favourite song).

Then there was the time we saw them in Malkin Bowl at Stanley Park. We were in the 6th or 7th row and we arrived just as Blue Rodeo was taking stage. I watched Jim and Greg eye my 9 month pregnant belly as I sidled into my seat. Luckily for everyone there wasn't an unexpected and unticketed guest delivered that night. He waited another week to arrive. But boy did he ever dance around in my stomach that night.

And then one year later, we celebrated one of our first night's out without the little man with another Blue Rodeo concert.

This time we saw them at The Centre. It is a lovely venue, but in my opinion too stiff for Blue Rodeo. I want to DANCE when I see Blue Rodeo live. And there is no dancing at the Centre - unless you have tickets in the rafters. You can dance at Malkin Bowl, but only on the sides. I want to stand at my seat and dance (well except the time I was 9 months pregnant and then I was happy everyone in front of me was sitting until the encore).

Jim Cuddy doesn't age. The only thing that seems to change is that little bit of extra grey at his temples. And in case you didn't notice how attractive he is, he wears the skinny jeans to ensure you notice. Then there is Greg Keeler, who has that really charming I don't give a f@*ck attitude. Funny thing is that given the chance I'd rather pinch Greg's butt.   But this night Greg didn't seem quite himself. He tripped over an amp in the first song, was chewing gum, and looked grumpier than usual through much of the night. His voice still sounded great, and he seemed to warm up a bit by the end. Still LOVE LOVE LOVE him though. We all have nights when we leave our sense of humour at home.

The surprise was the new harmony guy Wayne Petti (from Cuff the Duke). He is "all over the new album" to quote Jim. I really loved how his voice mixed with the rest of them. And he was a really nice piece of eye candy on stage (and I know I wasn't the only one who noticed).   But he seemed uncomfortable of his place on stage. He stood on the side until it was time to sing, then he slid into place. He had a few laughs with Bob Egan, but generally seemed like the
'new' guy who wanted to fit in, but didn't want to disturb the status quo. Then he put on his guitar and it was like night and day.

Quick note about the opening act. The Skydiggers is one of those Canadian bands I used to love, and had completely forgotten about. What a charming, funny and entertaining opening act. Still think the lead singer is doing an Austin Power impression when he dances, but that just added to his charm.

Lucky day

2009-11-28T09:55:00.001-08:00

IMG_5848
Originally uploaded by tjrossignol

As my hubbie tells it the story is long and involved. I just say he was the right guy, at the right place at the right time. And all that equals Lego windfall.

More photos of how full hubbie stuffed our vehicle with Lego.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/17030737@N06/sets/72157622883243346/

Follow Friday

2009-11-27T15:01:00.000-08:00

This week I have three mom focused blogs to recommend.

Raspberrykids.com Run by Sue Sinclair this blog provides helpful tips, news about interesting products and the odd update on Sue's crazy life as Chief Executive Mom of Raspberrykids.com. Sue is one of the few people I have met who really gets customer service. She is all about building relationships. To many it may seem she spends a lot of effort of 'non-sales' oriented relationships. But this is what she gets that other don't. She is building loyal relationships and that always translates into a stronger business in the long run. Plus, she is just so darn nice. @raspberrykids

The Yummy Mummy Club. This blog was founded by Erica Ehmn of Much Music fame. Erica and her group of real life mommy bloggers provide a wealth of topics and blogs that all mommy's can relate to. We are all moms, but we are also women, wives, girlfriends, daughters, party goers/givers, runners, dancers, wine appreciators, readers, etc. Join the club and follow all the ladies on twitter @yummymummyclub, @ymcbuzz, @sharondv, @earnestgirl , @ymcbookalicious (the book club) and many more. If you are a member of the yummy mummy team add a comment with your twitter handle.

Notes from the Cookie Jar. Another west coast mom. Scattered mom is a mom to a teenage boy, and I look to her and see my future. Her stories make me laugh and I see there is hope for those teenage years. She also posts the best recipes (of course mine never turn out looking like her fantastic pictures). @Scatteredmom.

Back from Adventures

2009-11-26T17:27:00.000-08:00

My girlfriend Amy came back from her 2 month adventure in South America today. I love my life, but I have to admit I'm rather jealous is her ability to take off for 2 months on some crazy adventure. She posted FB pictures along the way so I feel I have a bit of insight into her trip. But hearing her talk about it today made it all real for me - she really was on this adventure and not just in Vernon for a few months. Her favourite moments were paragliding, hiking the Inca Trail and seeing the Bolivian desert & salt flats (she stayed in a hostel made completely of salt blocks - even the tables the chairs).

On the other side it was an adventure tour and I'm a girl who likes a shower now and again (even if I have to clear out the toddler toys first). The tour stayed in hostels, and home stays and camped along the Inca Trail. So very few of our usual amenities. When asked what she missed most it was regular hot showers, vegetarian food options, tap water and sane drivers.

I'm happy she is home. Can't wait for the long picture slide show to come - really truly because the FB pictures from her phone were so fantastic I can't wait to see what her camera captured.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-25T20:08:00.000-08:00

Not a pure wordless wednesday, as this links to a video. All I have to say is I 'heart' lindy hop and So you think you can dance.

http://vodpod.com/watch/2572597-sytycd-season-6-top-12-ellenore-and-ryan-lindy-hop-by-carla-heiney-ive-got-to-be-a-rg-cutter-by-the-boilermaker-jazz-band

Thanks also to Mary Murphy for giving props to Frankie Manning.

Toilet Training Update

2009-11-24T09:16:00.000-08:00

Once again I'm blogging about toilet training. To try and keep this blog as poop free as possible click my cloth diapering blog for further details.

Inspirational Women

2009-11-23T11:14:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I did a fun yet superficial blog about shoes at the Women in Leadership Foundation SuperWomen & Friends Gala. I had not planned on blogging about the event, as I was volunteering and figured I'd be too busy. But the keynote speaker was so awesome and so funny I found myself taking out my notebook and writing some things down.

The keynote speaker was Andrea Holmes, a 2010 Paralympic Alpine hopeful. I instantly liked her as we sat in the mini touch up bar (how fabulous was it to have a mini hair and make-up bar before the 'red carpet' photos). She and my friend were having their hair done and we all easily laughed and joked about how 'only women' would think of such a thing.

Andrea's quick wit and sense of humour makes it clear she often uses humour to make other people comfortalbe with her disability. She easily jokes about herself refering to wearing 3" heels with her prosthetic leg; her leg & ski dropping off a ski lift; beating the girl in Grade 6 at track after she and her mom dismissed her because of her disability; and how going through an airport security with her can be a disaster.

She spoke of her immense pride of representing Canada in games around the world; walking into the arena for the Paralympic opening ceremonies in Athens; and being 1 of 10 Canadians to carry the paralympic torch in Beijing.

It is clear that Andrea is a very determined focused woman. She sets unattainable goals for herself and goes for them. She decided she was going to compete in Athens Paralympic games just 2 years before the games, and had no coach at the time. And she decided to switch to winter sports when Vancouver was awarded the 2010 games. She knows it will take a lot of work to make the 2010 alpine team, but she is determined to make it.

She noted a favourite quote... " When you wake up in the morning, you have two choices - go back to sleep and dream your dreams, or wake up and chase those dreams!" -- Author Unknown ---

Andrea's choice is obvious. As I wake up tomorrow I hope I'm awake enough to chase mine.

Running

2009-11-22T19:31:00.000-08:00

So I wrote the post below on Saturday and thought that I posted it. It is a lame post, but I want to show that I had actually done the post on Saturday and didn't miss a day of Blog a day November.

-----

Today I'm just running. Last minute pieces to organize for any media attending tonight's Women in Leadership gala and none of the technology seems to be cooperating. Thankfully FedEx Kinko's is open on Saturdays.

Off to iron dress, hair, make-up, dress and then run downtown.

Tomorrow I'll hopefully have some fun pics and highlights of the evening.

Shoes, shoes everywhere

2009-11-22T15:53:00.000-08:00

Last night was the big Women in Leadership Foundation gala I've been working on for months. And the dress that I hand tailored Friday night didn't come up to snuff, so a bunch of other dresses got reviewed and finally one chosen. A pretty (if bit boring) black dress was chosen in the end. And all because it went with the all important red shoes! So it was the winner.

And while a lot of other women were dressed in black, there was a great array of lovely dresses at the event last night. But top of mind for me was checking out all the fantastic shoes. So this is a picture blog of the gala in shoes. Early in the evening all the shoes are women I know... but after a drink from the martini luge I started asking strangers to take pictures of their feet. The biggest trends seemed to be the pointy toed black, followed by red shoes with a black dress.

Couldn't figure out how to get the flickr album to show up inside the blog, so just click below to find the album. Flickr Shoe Set

Follow Friday

2009-11-20T10:06:00.000-08:00

The November rain seems to be getting to me more than usual these days, and I woke up with a headache. So today's blog follow friday will be all about the escapism blog.

I love the pop culture analysis at mamapop.com and snarky comments about silly reality stars or strangely dressed celebrities. Run by and contributed to by a great group of parents. Somehow their analysis and comments seem to hit home more for me than lets say some other bitter bitchy gossips - can you say Perez 'get a life'. These are people who love pop culture. Plus I never really feel that they cross the line into what isn't really my business. For those on twitter you must follow their updates @mamapop.

Plus you have to LOVE any sight that has herbadmother.com as a contributor. I will follow that bloggess to the ends of the earth. She gives her take on motherhood and life with her usual biting humour intact. Be warned this one is not for the faint of heart. She always lays it out there with honesty and if it too hard for you to read... well that would be your problem. @herbadmother on twitter.

What to wear

2009-11-19T08:41:00.000-08:00

For weeks I have had my new black chiffon dress hanging at the front of the closet. The purpose was to remind me to get it tailored before the Women in Leadership Foundation gala this upcoming Saturday. The dress isn't exactly new... it is over a year old. But I've never worn it because it needs to be taken in. So I put it out front and centre to make sure I remembered to take it to a seamstress.

I didn't!

Gala is now in 2 days. So my choices are:

Hand sew it myself (my sewing machine is broken).
Find something else to wear. And yes, I do have other dresses, but I've worn them lots of times and really wanted to wear my new dress.

To add insult to injury I actually bought new shoes to wear with the dress. Now lets call a spade a spade here. I haven't bought new shoes since last spring (those awesome orange fluevog sandles). And these snazzy red shoes called out to me. So the gala might - just might - have been an excuse to buy new shoes. But they are comfortable which is important when you are standing at a gala for several hours. And most importantly they are red. And now darn gone it I want to wear them out.

So I guess I'll be spending Friday night taking in my own dress... the old fashioned needle and thread way. Hopefully my hand sewing will last until my second martini.

Wordless Wednesday - Memories of Summer

2009-11-18T11:32:00.001-08:00

Warning warning - diaper content below

2009-11-17T20:33:00.000-08:00

I decided to write about experience so far with toilet training. As I try to keep this blog as poop free as possible I did it over at my cloth diaper blog.

Doctor Who Fix

2009-11-16T19:56:00.000-08:00

Last night I got my Doctor Who Fix by watching the Doctor Who special "Waters of Mars" last night. We had a couple of other Doctor Who fans over and it was great to watch with others who are long time fans.

This was an exciting episode, with lots of action, gross looking villains and lots of running (although they never run like they did in the classis series - where they would run up and down the same hallway but they would try to make it look different cause they couldn't afford the extra sets). While I love the funny, witty Doctor. I also love it when they show the potentially dangerous Doctor. He really does need a companion to help keep him back off the edge. I mean who else is there... there certainly won't be a "Trial of the Time Lord" anytime soon. There really is nobody to stop him from doing what he wants. Who policing the last of the time police? Really 'Doc' you need someone to talk some sense to you.

Great action and I can't until the Christmas special. Sadly this also means only 2 more Tennant specials. I'll miss him.

We finished off our evening by watching 2 parts of the original original (pilot episodes) Doctor Who. It always amazes me to see how far the series has come. And I don't just mean the improved sets.

To stroll or not to stroll

2009-11-15T15:38:00.000-08:00

Today I decided to go the aquarium with the little guy. It was pouring rain. We spent most of the day at home yesterday. Hubbie had been out late last night, so I thought the little man and I would get out of the house and give us all a break. I have a membership at the aquarium, but it my first time going on a Sunday. I can go any day of the week I want. WHY did I pick a Sunday?

So yeah, it was a bit busy. Mostly with parents (and a large percentage of Dads) getting out of the house with the kids. First stop was the kids area for the family time at 10:30 - and stroller parking.

The stroller seemed like a good decision when I was racing through the wet rainy parking lot. It helped us keep up a decent pace. I didn't have to chase him everywhere and he could sit and snack between attractions. But I had to lift him in and out of the stroller a lot of times. Plus it was crowded and waiting for elevators is annoying. There were a lot of other young kids running/walking/being carried around without a stroller. And I wondered if perhaps that would have been a smarter choice.

We aren't stroller dependent folks. And our little guy likes to walk. What do you think? With a 2 year old. Do you take the stroller or go free at the aquarium?

The unique mind of a 2 year old

2009-11-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

I started taking notes on the cute and funny things our little guy does... in part so I won't forget, as I seem to have stopped updating the baby book and realize I have forgotten a lot of fun details.

So today's blog will be a list of little things our little guy is doing that make us laugh.

His relationship with his stuffed animals has recently ramped up to BFF... although the actual BFF changes several times a day. He seems to take at least 1 stuffed animal everywhere. He will go from putting a diaper on his purple monkey, to having a tea part with his bear in an instant (my favourite is when he takes the stuffed animal to the toilet with him, and they have to sit right beside him and 'try').
Begging for a treat and then not eating it - he carries it around like a little treasure. Which is okay if the treat is an organic oatmeal cranberry mini cookie, but not when it is one of the few Halloween treats he has been given.
He is careful to avoid any misunderstanding saying 'in his mouth' and pointing to it at the same time when he asks for a treat.
His favourite thing to read while sitting on the toilet is the lego holiday catalogue.
He LOVES his books. He loves to take them all off the bookshelf and then sit and read... he is sometimes happy to sit and read his books to himself for 15 minutes. 15 wonderful, quiet and blissful minutes. (he also likes to rip all the adult books off the shelf in the hallways. His favs are harry potter and anne rice - for some reason the tolkien doesn't appeal to him. )
Loves to sing... he knows enough words and melody for us to know when he is singing twinkle, twinkle.... old mcdonald and zoom zoom zoom
Whenever he counts to 3 he ends it with 'blast off' and a jump in the air.
He cries like the world is ending when he gets a booger.
He wanted to walk my Dad's dog when we were in Victoria last weekend. So cute the little white Bijon Frise pulling the 2yo along.

Follow Friday

2009-11-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

I've caught my son's cold. Not a big surprise - but the timing sucks. I also have an interview this afternoon, so my blogger version of follow friday is going to be short and sweet.

One of my first bosses - Chris. Always sees the glass half full. Never does anything half way. Always makes me laugh. He has 2 blogs. One is a lifestyle focused blog. Although these days it is mostly about his upcoming Marathon in Jamaica. He has been training for months. But more importantly he isn't just running for himself. He has set a goal of raising $10K for Canadian Diabetes in honour of his Dad. His blog talks about how he stays inspired and motivated - lessons for us all on how to attain our goals. What has been working for him in his training and his fundraising. Check out That Running Guy: Races to Finish Optimistic observations and commentaries on life from my interconnected worlds of running, driving, working, cooking and giving.

Chris is also a very astute marketer. Check out his observations on the marketing world at Morales & Associates. His specialty is building brand value by creating breakthroughs for his clients.

You can also follow Chris on twitter @Chris_Morales.

Mini Rant - sometimes it isn't just a shopping cart

2009-11-12T17:43:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I read this blog post from the Church of the Customer blog about fees being penalties. In this case they were relating a lack of baggage fees with increased business. They make a good argument - one with which I very much agree.

As I searched frantically in my wallet for my loonie to get myself a shopping cart (while restraining my rampant toddler who wanted to run amok through the store), I thought this might be similar. Why am I paying a fee to get a shopping cart? A basic necessity when shopping for more than 1 thing (leaving the other hand free for restraining said child). I know the argument from stores is that it saves them money and in the end keeps their prices down. Frankly it seems a cheap way to put the onus on the customer. A penalty for being their customer. And frankly a real pain in the butt for parents shopping with children (and who might not be so organized as to always have a loonie at the ready for the store).

The assumption is that a loonie (or a quarter at some stores) is enough money to ensure I take my cart back OR that I don't steal the cart. This policy assumes I'm guilty before I even come into their store. And if I really wanted to steal the cart would the loonie really stop me????

When I fly I need to take baggage, so I don't expect to have to pay for that 'extra'. When I shop I want to buy more than one thing. And I don't want to have to pay a 'deposit'.

Sure I get the money back for good behavior. But that isn't the point.

Wordless Wednesday

2009-11-11T09:47:00.001-08:00

PB070699
Originally uploaded by tjrossignol

Wordless Wednesday - practising celebrity incognito walk.

What was I thinking?

2009-11-10T15:18:00.000-08:00

Today I met with two of my Women in Leadership volunteers. They are helping me with the PR and marketing for the upcoming SuperWomen & Friends Gala - NEXT Saturday. What was I thinking deciding to blog everyday AND do final planning for a gala. So my blogging may have a distinct Women in Leadership/Gala slant for the next 2 weeks.

What is left to do? Everything it seems. Media pitches for pre-event interviews. Media invitations to attend the event. Design and assemble media kits. Finalize signage. Finalize program. Confirm guest blogger (done @lovesocial is confirmed). Tweet. Twitter contest. Facebook updates...... Thankfully I have two passionate and energetic volunteers who take direction well and work well on their own.

The last few weeks is always a rush of adrenaline.... then event night... then the post event let down.

The event is shaping up to be a really fun night of washed hair, adult shoes, a pretty dress, inspirational speaker (Andrea Holmes of the 2010 paralympic alpine team), celebration of SuperWoman of the year award winner, fashion show, drinks, dinner... and oh yeah celebrating the SuperWoman in each of us!!!

Get together some girlfriends and buy some tickets. 4 or more tickets are $145. Okay so I switched from blog to sell mode. Sue me - I have a lot to do. http://www.womeninleadership.ca/.

Is it Monday again? What I did this weekend.

2009-11-09T16:53:00.000-08:00

On the weekend the little man and I took a trip over the Island to visit some of the Grandparents. This was my first experience travelling on my own with a toddler.

The trip didn't start out well when I bought tickets for the wrong ferry. Thankfully Dad had walked us to the ferry and could watch the little man. Meanwhile I SPRINTED back to the ticket desk to get them fixed before the 10 minute cut off. I don't sprint often and certainly not that distance, so I was pretty out of breath. But I got there in time. I guess the run must have dried my throat out because as we were standing in the cafeteria line up I started to cough... just that gotta get that tickle out of my throat kind of cough. Which of course only goes away when you either get out a really good cough. Or you get water. So the people around us in line gave us lots of space, leary that I was going to give them some plague or something.

For both ferry rides we rode one of the new ferries. It certainly was fresh and shiny new. Not sure that I love the layout. But I may just need to get used to it.

Some pluses on the new ferries:

2 separate play areas
seats within the play around and just outside so those of us with smaller kids can stay close
parents room - was nice to have a larger space washroom to take the little guy when he said he had to go (of course once there he was much more interested in the shiny new bathroom. And then the flush scared the crap out of him - I had to laugh as he jumped).
Sun deck was fun, although windy.

The downside:

You have to walk outside a pretty long way when you enter/depart the boat. Not a big deal normally, but when you have a 2yo dying to touch everything and everything blowing in the wind it was a pain in the butt.
Seemed like I had to walk a lot of stairs.

I sat in the cafeteria on our return trip - while the 2yo tested out a new theory on maximum blast radius of a muffin - and watched the cafeteria staff. The cashier that had served us was very efficient, courteous and nice. First he was patient with us - me balancing a 2yo in one hand, a tray with soup and a muffin in the other and somehow managing to pour myself tea and then pay. Then I watched a lady return her sushi because the rice was hard. He quickly and politely told her to replace it with something else. And then when she came back he refunded her the price of her original purchase and compted her replacement salad. I didn't see him run off to get permission. I didn't see a big fuss made. He simply took care of an unhappy customer. WOW! A true customer service experience on BC Ferries. Of course that immediately got offset by my grumpy and useless cashier in the gift shop (another story for another time).

The big lesson is that a 3rd or 4th arm is really helpful when dealing with a toddler and travelling.

Hungover Sunday

2009-11-08T20:54:00.001-08:00

PB070655
Originally uploaded by tjrossignol

A few too many glasses of wine with some good friends last night and the blog inspiration seems to be a bit dehydrated today.

So thought would be fun to post a picture from the very wet park near my Dad's place in Victoria. How the little guy kept his socks dry I'll never know.

Why I hate November

2009-11-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago I moved out to Vancouver, or the wet coast. I love it here. I even love the drizzly winters. The one time of year I hate though is November. It is so dark early! And because of the mountains it is often that pitch black dark by dinner time. And it rains - not the grey, drizzly weather we get the rest of the winter. But pouring cats, dogs and other small animals kind of rain.

So we fill our November with activities to keep us extra busy. And we try to enjoy the nice periods when they come. All we have to do is make it to that first Holiday party or activity and we are usually golden.

Follow Friday

2009-11-05T23:34:00.001-08:00

I thought I'd take the twitter idea of Follow Friday into my blog world and recommend a couple of bloggers to follow each Friday.

The first is a regular blogger - I don't know how she does it while chasing 2 young kids around - but she blogs almost everyday. She stirs the inner hippie in my urban girlie girl and she is just so darn smart. And real. The tagline for her blog is "keeping it real in the suburbs". http://www.strocel.com/

The second blogs infrequently, but when she does it is so worth it. She is a writer by trade, having just finished her first novel (to be published in 2010), so she has that working for her. But if can you read her recent blog about her library escapade without peeing your pants you are a better woman than me. http://savingtheworldinsensibleshoes.blogspot.com/

Finally, my favourite daddy blog. Often short in delivery. But always a great slice of Daddy life offered straight up - no mixer or ice required. http://jasperchronicles.blogspot.com/

And I thought I would be remiss if I didn't include my fellow brave NaBloPoMo bloggers.

@Nicole013 at http://resolvingtimelineissues.wordpress.com/.

@miss_Scarlett99 at http://rogoclan.blogspot.com/

Until tomorrow.

Doctor – Who??

2009-11-05T14:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I got quite excited when twitter friend @jonbreisnes informed me the latest Doctor Who special will air Nov 15th in the UK. I met Jon in a photography class and bonded with him and his wife over our mutual love of Doctor Who. We will probably have a small Doctor Who tweet-up at our house to watch it.

Then I began to wonder when this city girlie-girl got so hooked on sci-fi. Sure sci-fi isn’t new to me, I was a dedicated Buck Rogers, Star Trek and Battlestar Gallatica fan in the 70’s. But I never considered myself a sci-fi fan because I never read a lot of sci-fi, I was more likely to be pouring over a Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys book.

But when I look at my favorite tv shows today it runs like a long list of sci-fi and fantasy (with a little vampire thrown in for fun).

Those that know my husband well will likely blame him. One of my favorite memories is him walking down the aisle at our wedding doubled over laughing, because I played the Doctor Who theme for his procession (and yes it was at that moment that his family knew he had married the right woman). While he may have introduced me to the Doctor - he didn’t force me to watch close to 30 years of episodes.

So when did I become such a fan? I’m the one who follows the Doctor Who fan groups and surfs online to find out the next bit of news or future air dates. I’m the one who reports updates on new companions. I’m the one who reminds hubbie to download the latest Sarah Jane Adventures. I'm the one emailing my MIL dalek cake pictures for little guy's next birthday. I’m even the one who suggested if we had a girl we’d call her Teagan, after my favourite companion. I even looked for a Doctor Who related boy name (never found one we liked). I can name my favourite Doctor (Jon Pertwee, followed closely by David Tennant), my favourite villain (The Master), my favourite cheesy effect (the actors jumping around the set whenever the tardis crashed).

My sci-fi geekiness has gotten so bad I have a Red Dwarf quote on my facebook profile (and I know I own my geekiness because I’ve watched every episode of Red Dwarf – many of them twice).

Why volunteer?

2009-11-04T11:02:00.001-08:00

I realized today it has been about a year since I started working with the Women in Leadership Foundation (WIL). I saw an online ad looking for volunteers for their SuperWomen and Friends gala. I volunteered and I was swept up into the details of managing a silent auction for the gala.

I had been volunteering at a variety of different events for different organizations, trying to find an organization where I wanted to dedicate my volunteer time. So when WIL asked me to take a role on their advisory board and help with their marketing & communications I said yes.

Why did I agree to give up some of my valuable time to volunteer? I had both personal and professional reasons.

Personally I have always had a strong affinity to supporting and mentoring women. WIL is a young dynamic organization that does not ‘preach’ down to its members. Its mission is to advance women’s leadership. They have a positive, collaborative approach which allows every person involved to inspire, support and empower each other. I sum up the essence of their brand as “inspiring each other”.

Professionally this gave me an opportunity to exercise and grow my marketing muscle, which grown a bit sluggish while at home on maternity leave. I’m passionate about marketing and this gave me opportunities to do what I love. In addition to developing WIL’s brand strategy, I built and grew a volunteer team of 10 young, passionate, smart women. I am inspired by each of them every day.

I have also been able to grow my communications skills with more PR focused projects and social media. The social media in particular allows me to combine my planning skills with my new passion for writing. All new skill sets for my resume. But more importantly, as I see our success growing our following through twitter / facebook / linkedin and building a blog content plan, I’m excited about the future of WIL and women’s leadership in Canada.

Volunteering is also a great way to network. I’ve never been a fan of traditional networking events. And getting involved with such a diverse organization provides me with the opportunity to meet all sorts of like minded women in Vancouver and across the country. This, I believe, will provide me with the foundation I need for a long and interesting career. We are here to support each other. And I know I get back what I give in so many different ways.

For more information on Women in Leadership Foundation visit their website. Or follow us on twitter (@WIL_Fdn).

Power Struggles

2009-11-03T08:51:00.001-08:00

Day 3 of National Blog Month

We have been watching an interesting power struggle in our house recently. I never knew the policitics of stuffed animals could be so interesting.

Since the little man was 6 months old he has slept with a little brown bear. Around a year a little bunny joined the ranks. These are his sleeping friends. He also plays with them around the house. They do not go outside to play. They stay at home. (seen at right trying to escape outside through the cat door)

In the past month or so the little man has discovered more of his other stuffed toys. There is now big brown bear who likes to eat breakfast with the little man. The monkey with the long arms and legs that likes to 'hug' the cat. And the giraffe that enjoys juice and cookies. None of these are sleeping friends. Just casual play buddies.

Until 2 days ago. When he discovered yellow bear. Yellow bear became his new BFF. And when it came to nap time he wanted him with him. Not wanting to add to his already large assortment of sleeping items I said yellow bear wasn't for sleeping. The little man started to cry. He didn't pitch a fit just started to cry. And I just knew that no sleep was going to happen without yellow bear. So I offered a trade - bunny for yellow bear. No go! Then I suggested brown bear for yellow bear. And faster than you can say brown bear he was OUT!

His loyal friend of 1.5 years was sitting out a nap, so the little man could sleep with his new BFF yellow bear. I felt bad for poor brown bear so quickly pushed aside.

Then just as quickly as it happened it changed back. Yellow bear was back in the toy box and brown bear was back in the bed. Haven't seen yellow bear in 2 days, but brown bear has been up to his usual antics and fun. Currently he is helping the little man fill his dump truck with lego pieces.

Why I LOVE Mondays!!

2009-11-02T12:34:00.000-08:00

Monday my son goes to Montessori. He spends the whole day with his friends playing, learning, listening, sharing, laughing – generally growing into an independent little person. He LOVES it!

And so do I! It give me time to get some things done –job searching, networking, blogging, volunteer work and yeah sometimes even housework.

Yes I miss him. But I know that he gains a lot being there.

He is around other kids and is learning key social skills early in life. I am also an only child and I know he is already better at sharing than I ever will be.

His teacher is better at some things than I am. She is consistent. She sets a structured set of boundaries. The kids know what is coming next and what is expected of them. I know it is because of her that he is such a good listener. He understands that certain behavior is unacceptable and he is much easier to manage at home.

She works with us on behavior issues. When we came home from a recent trip he had picked up a few things from his cousins/friends. We alerted her and she helped us stop them before they become a regular occurrence.

He learns positive behavior from the older kids. They listen, they help, and they share. He wants to please his teacher and the older kids. This includes learning to be polite. We laughed with pride yesterday when he said ‘sorry thomas’ after he bumped into his Thomas lego on the floor.

He is growing his creative side through singing, crafts, dancing, colouring, books, etc. He is comfortable in his environment and feels safe to imagine what he will. Yes – we do much of this at home. But I don’t seem to have the same patience and creativity to keep him interested and challenged each day.

Most importantly he knows he is loved whether at home or at school.

My job in all this!! Not to mess up his teacher’s work during the rest of the week. I try to focus on staying consistent, providing a structured loving environment and giving him opportunities to grow his creative interests.

So I LOVE Mondays! Because both of us win!

A blog a day - aacckkk!!!!!

2009-11-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

Realized today my blog was pretty much non-existent in October. Why? Busy traveling, visitors, lack of ideas, lack of time. The real honest answer is lack of discipline. Writing to me is a muscle that works better when it is exercised regularly. Upon the suggestion by a fellow twitter and mommy blogger @miss_scarlett99 I have signed up for National Blog Posting Month.

The idea of writing a blog everyday scares the crap out of me. My little inner voice asked…. How would I find the time? How would I come up with ideas? Who would want to read me for 30 days straight?

But then I asked myself why I write. Writing everyday would help me develop my muscle. Plus, if one of my goals is to write books someone might actually publish for people to buy and read – then I MUST write regularly.

Plus if it scares me the crap out or me. So it MUST be worth doing!!! So here I am. Already 1 day behind.

Sweet Talk - a sweet, stylish networking event

2009-10-06T14:35:00.000-07:00

I was invited to do a guest blog for Women in Leadership Foundation for their recent Sweet Talk networking event. http://www.womeninleadership.ca/sweet-talk-a-sweet-stylish-networking-event/

I met Erica Ehm

2009-09-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

So yes the title is a bit sensationalist. But it sounded much more interesting than A Feminist Self Analysis. And meeting Erica Ehm is what started it all.

So the story begins the evening I met with various other Moms from the Yummy Mummy club. The occasion was the founder of the Yummy Mummy Club Erica Ehm was in town. We had a lovely dinner, mostly with women who I had met on twitter but never met in person before. Dinner, like the yummy mummy club, had interesting and varied conversation. We were empathetic, supportive and cheerleaders for each other. We were women, who happened to be Moms, having nice adult conversation.

The night got me thinking though (stewing for several weeks actually). I consider myself a feminist that respects and supports the decisions of other women. I spent volunteer time supporting and mentoring young women and an organization committed to promoting women in leadership (Women in Leadership Foundation). But when I think back to the time when Erica was breaking ground at Much Music I certainly wasn’t supportive - nor were many other young women I knew. My teenage friends and I gave Erica a pretty hard time (not directly of course). Instead of realizing how great it was to have a girl playing with the boys at Much Music. We gossiped about everything she wore, said, did or didn’t do. I don’t know how I would have held up under such tough scrutiny when I was in my early 20s. But Erica excelled and grew in her career. She paved the way for other women to follow their dreams. Today she continues to support other women through her Yummy Mummy Club. (and NO I didn’t have the balls to admit this to Erica or ask her about those early days in her career)

Of course it is easy to look back and say that was over 20 years ago and times have changed. But have they?

Think about when Katie Couric took over the anchor desk at CBS Evening News. The news and media were skeptical. She was scrutinized for everything she wore, said, dated, did and didn’t do. I’ve never seen such a critical analysis of a male anchor before. But Katie must be doing something right because another major network has decided to take the “risk” on a woman at the anchor desk. Diane Sawyer, one of the most respected women in journalism, has finally been offered the ABC anchor desk. That is now 2/3 of nightly network news anchored by women.

And look at Hilary Clinton in the news this summer about her trip to Africa. She is the US Secretary of State and was asked what her husband thought about a specific policy. The media focused on that one incident for weeks. The reason behind for the trip lost while they raked her over the coals – she was even accused of having a bad hair day.

I guess the short note is that women continue to break ground, paving the way for the future. And while we have come a long way, we have a long way yet to go. And we need to start with ourselves. Do we support the women in our lives? Do we support the ones breaking ground in your community? Society? Country? We need to stop judging each other. And like the yummy mummy club start listening, supporting and cheerleading each others dreams and choices. It is that sort of positive support that will only make it easier for us to realize our individual dreams. And lay an even stronger foundation for ourselves and the next generation of women.

What does your retail staff say about your business?

2009-09-08T15:15:00.000-07:00

I worked a few retail jobs during my youth from local grocery store, to a toy store, to fashion boutiques. All of them were small businesses with an interesting assortment of hands-on owners. So I understand how difficult and boring these jobs can be. But the owners of this type of business need to understand both their customer and their staff.

As a marketer I have a new perspective of these jobs and their role in marketing a brand. The people that are in your stores are not just sales people or cashiers. They are the living breathing version of your brand. Every single time a customer comes into contact with your brand they leave with a perception of that brand – whether they buy something at your store or NOT.

This is particularly important in a slow economy. Customers have a choice and those that treat their customers and staff well should weather things long term. Pushy, gossiping, upselling, policy pushing, corporate robots can do a lot of harm for your business. Training and managing staff is hard work, but it is a core part of your marketing plan. They need to understand your brand and your priorities. And it shouldn’t just be SELL more product.

This seems like Sales 101, but a few things I’ve learnt…

Not all customers WILL buy from you.

I had a boss that was convinced that you could sell something to every single person who came into her store. She was a very fashionable boutique situated in a trendy ‘lets hang out and wander around on a Sunday’ part of town. These people were NOT actually shopping. They might buy something on impulse, but generally they were not going to drop $400 on a dress. These people did not react kindly to the high pressure sales tactics we were told to use. So as an employee I was constantly getting cranky customers telling me they were ‘just looking’ as soon as they came into the store. The owner was well known for her tactics and locals knew to enter the store with their guard up and ‘no thank you’ at the ready. I wasn’t pushy enough as a sales person so I didn’t last long, but then again neither did her business.

You need to know who your customer is and adjust your sales pitch accordingly. Not all customers are the same. Most would like to be greeted warmly and then allowed to look around. Staff should be approachable and helpful. While they may not buy this time, if you leave them with a poor taste in their mouth they certainly WON’T be back to buy next time.
The upsell is more than just annoying.

I personally hate shopping at stores where you instantly know the staff has been trained in the ‘upsell’. I’m shopping for jeans and they say “have you checked out our accessories which are half off today?” Sure once in a while it works when you have found a dress you love and the staff suggest an interesting piece that matches it. But most staff doesn’t know when to use the upsell to make it relevant to their customers.

The problem here might be that most staff doesn’t have time to actually service these days. And it annoying to essentially have no service until you get to the cash and then a (unseen until now) staff person starts making suggestions. This makes me think of “would you like fries with that?” And I can imagine you don’t like your store being compared to fast food.

As a business you are meeting a need – this is sales 101. If your staff is well trained they need to get to know your customer a bit, so they can make suggestions that meet that need. Then when an opportunity exists they can recommend a little something extra to a customer. The customer will appreciate this added value. And your brand will benefit in the long run.
Your store isn’t a water cooler.

We have all experienced the store where the staff are gossiping with each other or are on their cell phone chatting with a friend. I know it can get boring working in retail. But if a customer is in the store they really don’t need to hear your latest gossip. By all means don’t do the reverse and stalk the customer around the store. But understand that you are reflecting on the business and its brand reputation.

To be honest owners are often the worst. They are trying to get business done while working in the store. And I’ve heard some pretty heated discussions between owners and staff or suppliers. To me this reflects very badly on your brand. If you treat your employees and partners with that much disrespect in front of your customers - I can only assume what you say or do when we aren’t there. Have an office for your work phone calls and bring in some staff to support your time in the office. The extra hard cost will be worth the potential damage to your business.
Are your staff properly trained in corporate policy as well as common sense?

How many bad PR stories have we seen recently where poorly trained staff used ‘corporate policy’ to support a bad decision. H&M in Vancouver had such an incident where a staff person tried to get a nursing mom to move to a quiet room to nurse. The corporate policy was to have a room available in case a mother wanted privacy. But that poorly trained person told the mother she had to move it was ‘policy’. H&M got national press and a ‘nurse in’ the next week (although I was impressed how H&M head office handled the poor press). To be honest I’m not surprised that someone at H&M got it wrong. All my experiences there lately have made me wonder if some of their staff members have any brains at all.

All staff needs to be well trained in corporate policy. But you also need to hire people with enough common sense to think through a situation and adjust accordingly. Each and every sales staff member is a potential spokesperson for your company. They can’t just look good. They need to think too!
Your staff needs to care.

I know how much customers can get ridiculed by staff. And a customer can tell when a corporate environment considers this appropriate behavior. You can tell when the staff just doesn’t give a crap. Think about an episode of The Office. They don’t really care about their customers. They are just sales to them. This speaks volumes about your brand. Treat people like individuals and valued customers. And they will likely become repeat and valued customers.

Applications for New Friends

2009-09-02T19:53:00.000-07:00

When you become a new Mom you usually make new friends with other Moms. New Mom friends usually have similar age kids, are available for play dates on schedules close to yours or like the same social media networks you do. New friends’ often have similar parenting values so you can exchange stories, get advice and cry on an empathetic shoulders.

My real life BFF lives across the country. And finding that true new Mom BFF is harder than getting a dance in the 7th grade. So what to do?????? I decided to accept applications.

New Friend Application Form

Just like any good yet useless magazine survey, please answer the following questions as truthfully as possible. See the answer guide to see if you might fit the profile of a new friend for me. If yes, then please apply in the comments below.

1 – Are you a perfect parent?

a) Yes
b) No

If you answered yes please proceed directly to the bonus question as I can’t be the only imperfect one in a friendship.

2 – Which best describes you?

a) Stay at home mom
b) Work at home mom
c) Mom Entrepreneur
d) Work outside the home
e) Not a parent
f) Other:

There is no correct answer here. Just gives me an idea if you will be available for play dates during the week or weekends. Or if it is best to reach you on twitter around midnight?

3 – How would you describe your sense of humour?

a) Give me a glass a wine and I’ll laugh at anything
b) Sarcasm is my friend
c) Life is funny
d) An episode of “I Love Lucy”
e) Black comedy
f) Left my sense of humour in the maternity ward

If you picked (f) I’m not sure how you got this far into this ‘tongue & cheek’ application.

4 – Please indicate your favourite obsession?

a) Shoes
b) Chocolate
c) Wine
d) TV
e) Shopping
f) Do I have to pick just one?
g) None of the above

If you picked ‘none of the above’ thank you for completing this application, but the position has been filled by a more qualified candidate.

5 – A friend’s child does something embarrassing in public. You?

a) Laugh
b) Share your friends horror/shame/embarrassment
c) Check to make sure kid is okay - then laugh with your friend when the kid isn’t looking
d) RT the story on Twitter later
e) Tell a story about how your child did the same thing when….
f) Buy her a book in child behaviour
g) Glare

My first reaction is usually to laugh – sometimes I check that the kid is okay first. But happy to entertain new friends who answered all but (f) and (g).

6 – Do you do any of the following?

a) Cloth diaper
b) Co-sleep
c) No sugar diet for kids
d) Let kids watch TV
e) Attachment parent
f) Bake
g) Home school

If you are like me this answer doesn’t matter. You parent the way you feel is right for you and we will share our stories and experiences as we both learn along the way.

7 – Do you use any of the following?

a) Email
b) Facebook
c) Twitter
d) Blog
e) Ning
f) Flickr
g) Huh???

All answers are considered okay, but if you answered only (a) or (G) you might be a bit hard to understand when I share my latest escapades in parenting with a RT to a blog with a flickr photo album.

8 - Do you play cards or board games?

a) Yes

b) No

Not a deal breaker for me. But my hubbie would LOVE if I had more friends that like a good night of canasta, euchre or poker.

Bonus question

9 – Who is your favourite Doctor?

Any woman who answers any of the 10 Doctors to date (can’t count the 11th yet as his episodes haven’t aired yet) IS a friend of mine. And if you didn’t know this was a Doctor Who question I can forgive you, as this was just a bonus question.

If you feel you fit the bill to be my new Mum BFF, please apply in the comment section below. If you feel I have gone too far with this application process you are free to opt out.

Please note that only those selected for a wine/chocolate/shopping filled interview will be contacted.

Is your brand accessible?

2009-08-25T15:11:00.000-07:00

I read a great blog by Fiona Walsh this week talking about Sending your Business to Your Competition. She makes a great point… “There is no point in spending a ton of money on marketing unless you make sure you deliver on what you promise. If you don’t meet customer expectations, they will tell others and they will move over to the competition.”

I believe in 360 degree marketing and that at every touch point you can disappoint a customer’s expectations of your brand. And everyday I see a problem that goes deeper than just meeting minimum customer expectations. After 2 years of navigating a stroller through all sorts of stores I wonder how so many businesses miss it. Can your customers actually get into and around your business?

It seems an easy question to me. Unfortunately for a lot of Vancouver area business’ the answer is no. So many are worried about cramming as much merchandise and displays into their business that they forget about the actual customers. They forget that not all their customers walk into their stores. They forget the customer experience isn’t just whether the store looks pretty and the staff is friendly. If I can’t easily navigate around your store chances are I WON’T shop there anymore.

This issue applies to a wide range of the Canadian population including: families with strollers; people with disabilities who use wheelchairs or need guide dogs; and the elderly population who may need a cane or walker. And in some cases I wonder how able bodied people walk through some of these stores.

Some questions to ask yourself?

Are your aisles big enough for 2 of your store carts to pass each other without incident?
So you have an automatic door button that allows people with disabilities to enter your store. But can they navigate a walker or a wheelchair around your ‘wonderful’ aisle displays?
Do you have stock sitting in your aisles waiting to go onto your shelves? \
Your business is focused on appealing to families. Can a stroller fit through your aisles? In fact, can it get past the stairs entering your business.
Do your staff look annoyed when someone is trying to navigate a stroller around your aisles?
Does your store need an elevator? Where is it? And does is big enough for a stroller and a parent? Better yet does it fit a double stroller AND a parent?

This isn’t just a small business problem. It applies to the big and small guys. London Drugs is notorious for those great in-aisle displays. My local dollar store aisle’s barely fit one of their own carts and then they leave boxes of merchandise in the aisles – I only go there as a last resort. Superstore has one way only traffic in their chips/soda aisle because of the large pop displays. And a local kid’s store has a step up to its front door. Sure I can lift my single stroller up that one step – but should I have to?? Or the Bay who puts some of their clothing racks so close together not even a child can walk between them.

There are those that get it right. A small local kid’s consignment store has the aisles organized to fit a side by side double stroller. A busy Granville Island store full of funky art, jewelry and household items approached me as I entered with my stroller and said to let her know if I had any problems navigating the crowds. She’d be happy to help. And a neighbourhood café has a spot set aside for strollers and lots of room to navigate it between the tables. There are always families at their café. And we walk the extra block to get visit them – right past their competition.

If you are wondering why customers in your store always seem grumpy and your traffic numbers are down. Take a closer look at your aisles and ask yourself a few questions.

Branding my Kid

2009-08-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

I’ve worked in advertising most of my adult life. I’ve even worked on a few well known kids’ brands. I was still shocked by the amount of branded baby gear out there. When I first got pregnant I spent a lot of time searching online for the perfect nursery room set. I knew my child would be inundated with brand messages all his life. But does it really have to start as soon as they exit the womb? I mean do you really want the first thing they see clearly to be a Disney character mobile? I didn’t. So my guy’s nursery was decorated in a great blue, red, folksy farm animal nursery set.

His life hasn’t been brand free. But we’ve been selective and careful not to inundate him too soon.

Fast forward to today. We will be celebrating our guy’s 2nd birthday in a few weeks. And I’m surprised that he is already developing his own brand loyalty. No outside marketing. Just word of mouth from things in his everyday life. And I have to admit most of it is our own fault.

It will be no surprise to my husband’s family that his first brand love is Lego. His Dad has been obsessed with it since his own childhood. And you can see by the photo of his 1970’s space collection, that that obsession continues today. Our guy started to play with his own Lego at about 18 months. Today one of his favourite toys is his “Lego truck”. He knows when there are pieces missing. And loves to get me to read the little “Lego book” that came with the toy and he points to the different pieces and names them, ie: horsie, tractor, doggie. Now at this point he really doesn’t understand the brand promise or competitive differentiation of Lego vs other similar products like Mega Blocks. But he knows this building stuff is something he really likes and will happily point it out when he sees it in a store, picture or at a friend’s house. And interestingly he hasn’t mistaken any other building toy brands for Lego.

The 2nd brand in his life are his crocs. He knows the difference between boots and shoes….and his crocs. He knows the crocs are different than the other shoes and asks for them accordingly. When he loses one he shouts out “crocs”. This way we know he is without a shoe. My theory here is that he likes to name the shoes he can put on by himself – boots and crocs. He will pull on either and run around the house to let Mommy know he wants to go to the park or outside. In this case I think his brand association has developed as a way to show off and get what he wants… to go to the park.

Finally our little guy LOVES trains. My husband got a couple of Thomas the Train books at the church garage sale. And since then we constantly hear “choo, choo, choo…”. After a few months of static book trains we decided to let him see some moving trains on TV. At 22 months this was our guy’s first introduction to TV. And each day he asks for his 10 minutes of “Train… TV… Train… TV”. I tried to show him Mighty Machines and Bob the Builder. But NO. Only “Train… choo choo” will do. He loves to sit on the couch with Mommy or Daddy and watch his trains. In this case I’m not really sure if he is in love with “Thomas and his friends” or just trains in general. But I know that the song is still stuck in my head.

Honestly there were highlights

2009-08-08T08:30:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the Carnival of Maternity Leave over at Strocel.com. Visit for more posts on maternity leave from August 3- 15th.

I re-read my post on the Highlights and lowlights of mat leave. And I realized it was really just about the lowlights or lessons learnt. I certainly had some bleak moments in that year, and I obviously needed to get some of that out and into the ethernet. But there were lots of good times too.

1 - mat leave top up

My organization topped up my mat leave for 17 weeks. This was very helpful financially and one of the reasons my husband was able to take 5 weeks off when the little man was born. I married a younger man not as far along in his career. So the loss of my income for a year was daunting. The top-up really helped us out.

2 - exercise helps

On the day I went into labour I had to call my pilates studio and cancel my lesson for that night. And just days before I had been dancing at a friend's place (hubbie and I swing dance). So as soon as the Doctor said it was okay I was back to my exercise. The little man and I took Salsa Babies every Friday. And hubbie did bedtime routine on Wednesday's so I could go to pilates. This little break each week did wonders for my spirit and my body.

3 - time off to travel

We took 3 weeks in the spring to travel to Germany to visit relatives. It was a bit tough financially (the top-up helped), but felt it was the best time to go when I was on mat leave and before the little guy started to walk. It was a fantastic break from the daily routine. And we had so much fun as a family treking around with the little man in his ergo carrier.

4 - finding my groove

With over 15 years in my career I'm used to making fast decisions based on past experience. When you are a new mom you have all sorts of conflicting advice coming from all directions. Books tell you to do things this way, Omi tells you another. It takes a while to figure out your parenting style, the one that works for you, your hubbie and your child. For us getting the sleep sorted was like the foundation to our parenting house. After that we had (a) some sleep and (b) some routine, so we were able to think more clearly through the rest.

5 - cloth diapers

Some may think that I'm grasping here noting cloth diapers as a highlight. But it really was. We started with a service and the intention to CD part time. And we were surprised by how much we both LOVED it. Yup it took a bit more work. And yup it took a bit to get settled into a routine. But in the end it fits perfectly into our parenting style and we are happy to do our bit for the planet.

The best part of all

And of course the best part of my mat leave was my little man. My very active, very head strong, very determined, eating, sleeping, running, talking, laughing little man (who is currently tugging on my shirt to turn his stuffed transformer back into a robot). Going to go give him a hug!!

Highlights and Lowlights of Mat Leave

2009-08-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

This post is part of the Carnival of Maternity Leave over at Strocel.com. Visit for more posts on maternity leave from August 3- 15th.

As I sit here trying to look back at my maternity leave I realize it has been almost a year since it ended. I tried to find one theme that ran throughout but then realized it was a year full of interesting highs and lows. There wasn't just one idea. So I thought I'd talk about memorable parts that still resonate with me today a year later - both high and low.

1. Do you thank him or hurt him

My hubbie took 5 weeks off when our son was born. We both felt strongly that this would allow both of us to bond with our new son. And we were right.

I also thought his time off would be a big help to me. He could make sure I ate, help with diapers, take the baby off my hands once in a while, manage all the family coming from all over to visit, etc. I thought he'd take over running of the household so I could focus on the little man. That was what we had discussed anyways. And while he loved analysing the best way to put on a cloth diaper to minimize blow outs. The reality was that most of this still fell to me. He was there when I needed him to help me, and he did stuff when I asked him. But he wasn't the forward thinking hubbie I dreamt he'd magically become. When given clear instructions he took care of it, otherwise he used his 'downtime' to rebuild the engine in his MG.

What was true was that I had support when I needed it. He was just a walkie-talkie radio call and a hand washing away. And this was very important as I had a really hard time with breastfeeding.

2. Milk stains don't always come out

They said if it was natural and if it hurt you were doing it wrong. So I never expected the pain and conflict in the early days of breastfeeding. And was a bit angry actually when friends told me afterwards that they had had problems too. This is the type of info that is helpful at a baby shower, NOT tasting different canned baby foods. If I had known earlier I would have researched support options before I had problems.

We had problems getting the little guy's latch right early on. And even after we got it right it took a long time for the damage to heal and for nursing not to hurt me. So I spent probably the first 2 months of my son's life walking around the house topless (to let the damaged area be open to the air as much as possible). And we had milk stains everywhere... and I mean everywhere...

I also couldn't wear anything touching my breasts. So I had these little plastic cup like shields that let me put clothes on without actually having anything against my breast. Worked well for when we had guests and to go out on short outings, but it left too long the cups would overflow with milk - usually at the most inappropriate time (like at IKEA where I had to run to the bathroom and empty my cups).

I was so very thankful for having my hubbie around to help me through this stage. In order to help give me a bit of a break we did the late night/early am feeding by bottle. I would pump in the other room while Daddy had some nice one-on-one time with the boy.

Hubbie also held my hand through my cry fests and near panic attacks before feedings. It was an emotional roller coaster for sure. And I'm so glad he had that time to help me through it. Breastfeeding was an important choice to me, and without hubbie having taken those 5 weeks off I know I would have given up.

3. Sleep is NOT overrated

Our guy was always a good night sleeper when he got to sleep. But we would spend hours some nights trying to get him down. He wanted to be held to go to sleep. For naps I'd sometimes be walking/rocking him for close to an hour for him to go to sleep for 20 minutes. My whole world seemed to be about getting him to sleep. I was tired and my knees were killing me. Sleep issues caused more stress and arguments than anything else ever has in our marriage. So we hired a sleep consultant when the little guy was about 5 months old.

After that it was like I had been liberated. Sure I had a schedule to follow, but I knew what to expect on a given day. So I could plan outings for us. And most importantly it gave hubbie and I some time back to ourselves.

4. Wish I had found twitter earlier

I found my mat leave very isolating. Sure the first few months were busy with visitors, but they eventually stop, and your hubbie goes back to work. Then you are alone, with sore boobs, little sleep and very few people to talk to. I went to my local community health nurse group (was the BIG outing in my world for a long time). I spent a lot of time online researching breastfeeding resources, strollers and slings. And of course updating my facebook with pictures of the little man. But I wish I had found twitter and the great group of Mom's I have found there earlier. It would have been so helpful at 3am while I was pumping and hubbie was feeding the baby.

5. Transition to NOT going back to work

This time last year I was organizing daycare and planning my transition back to work. I was looking forward to the adult company and to use my brain in my chosen field again. Unfortunately my position had been eliminated in a re-org and they couldn't find another place for me. So my mat leave was unexpectedly extended. This was a tough emotional pill to swallow. While I loved my son and the time I had with him. I had not enjoyed the isolating, tiring, housework filled day-in day-out rhythm of being at home with my son. I had really been looking forward to going back to work.

The second real hit was the timing of my layoff just weeks before the economy tanked. So a year later I find myself still not working. I have grown a lot as a person in the year since my mat leave ended - but that is another story.

What does this all mean?

The biggest surprise to me as I wrote this, was that I still don't seem to have a sense of humour around most of it. I can usually find something funny to say about myself, but I found little of that in my story above. Okay yeah the idea of me walking around half naked for months or emptying my cups at Ikea is kind of funny. But I had to work to add the humour there.

Sunset

2009-07-27T22:58:00.001-07:00

IMG_9984
Originally uploaded by tjrossignol

The sunset at Crescent Beach on Saturday July 25th. Couldn't get any great shots of the lightning. But caught this shot before the sun went down.

Staying active with a toddler

2009-07-21T20:02:00.000-07:00

Okay so the title is a bit of a misnomer - you never stand still when you have a toddler. And I am constantly running after him, but I'm struggling to find ways to stay fit and active myself.

I've never considered myself an athlete. Even when I was competing in figure skating. I pretty much skated as soon as I could walk. I have pictures of me in skates on ice when I'm sure I couldn't even say skates yet. I probably spent at least 5-10 hours in a rink a week. I took ballet to help my skating. I never went to camp, I was always attending summer 'skating' school. Never felt I missed out as all our friends were also skaters (except maybe at University when I realized how many drinking songs are learnt at camp). I skated for about 18 years. But I never thought of myself as an athlete.

My problem was what to replace that activity with once I quit. At University I never gave it a thought. It wasn't until I was in the work world that I realized I needed something. So I did what every other young person in their 20's does in TO - I joined a gym. Hated the gym, but went. Until I finally discovered salsa. It was a great way to exercise, learn something fun and socialize. When I moved out West in 99 other social dances replaced salsa, finally landing me in lindy hop (swing). In 2000 I added pilates to my life and didn't look back. I will admit to a short stint back at the gym, when I was travelling too much with work to dance regularly. But generally dance became my active outlet.

I met my husband swing dancing. And while we danced less after we got married it was still a big part of our lives. I've never been skinny, but I've always loved activity for exercise to keep my heart healthy and the stress release. And dancing let us be social at the same time. We'd travel to dance - weekends full of live bands, late night dancing, daytime sleeping. LOVE it. I've danced in New Orleans, Chicago, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Seattle, Portland, Victoria, Port Townsend, San Fran and of course Vancouver. I've even attended full week swing dance camps.

Even after I was pregnant I still danced and did my pilates. I was dancing 3 days before I went into labour. And I had to call while I was in labour to tell the pilates studio I wouldn't make my class that night.

Even in the year or so after the little guy was born I planned out time for me to get some exercise. I took up salsa babies. And once a week Dad was in charge so I could go to pilates. Then came swimming lessons instead of salsa babies. And in January I switched things up and tried Nia. It was a great blend of dance, yoga, marshal arts. I loved it.

Then my hubbie had his skiing accident. I couldn't leave him with the toddler alone for several weeks, and then I was trying to balance a bunch of networking, my volunteer work meetings and my hubbie's new schedule and next thing I knew I hadn't done any real exercise in 3 months.

NowI feel grumpy, pudgy and soft in the middle. I know a lot of moms run. But after 18 years of skating my tendons and knees aren't up to running. But I know I need to find a solution to this problem sooner than later. Because it isn't going to get any easier once I go back to work.

My little guy has gymnastics, karate, the park, etc. What about me? Thoughts? Suggestions? Offers of free babysitting so I can go dancing???

Bouncy castles & more weekend fun

2009-07-19T19:51:00.000-07:00

We won a family pass for the Agoo Kids Active Day at the Kits rink for Saturday, from @savvymomvan http://www.savvymom.ca/. I had heard a lot of great things about Bobs & Lolo and thought our little guy would LOVE it. Plus proceeds went to Canucks Place. So we packed up the family, failing once again to leave the house before 10:30 and headed off for some active fun.

Our little guy is only 22 months, so when we saw all the HUGE bouncy castles we were a bit concerned about how much there would be for him to do. Especially after he got into the first one and wanted right out again. Thankfully he was just bored and was easily amused in the next one. But most of them were just a bit too big for him to go in by himself. But we quickly figured out that my rather slender husband could easily accompany him into the larger ones and the two of them had a ball. The HUGE slide - with a massive skier on the top, was the favourite. Closely followed by a sort of obstacle course with another slide at the end. They went again, and again, and again. My job - carry all the bags and take pictures. Not a bad gig if you can get it. Not sure who had a better time the little guy or my hubbie. But both naps really well in the afternoon.

The giggle of the day was some of the outfits. Not sure some of the moms did the math when they got dressed that the activities would include a Phoenix gym circuit, helping kids up and down off bouncy castles, and potentially sitting on the floor to watch the show. Although we didn't see any of the men complaining.

Our disappointment was that the schedule was not posted online and the Bobs & Lolo show was scheduled for 2pm, with pix from 12:20 - 1:30. We got around 10:45am. And with a guy under 2 we had about an 1.5-2 hour window before he would tire out. Plus he is ready to nap by 1:30. So we had a great time, but were sad to leave at 12:30 and miss the best part of the entertainment.

Also had a comment from my hubbie about the amount of text messaging & cell phone usage by the staff 'working' on the different bouncy castles. I guess it gets boring watching kids all day, but that is afterall what they are being paid to do.

Kids Farmer's Market

It is funny how you don't go to a place for years and then you are there twice in a weekend. We returned on Sunday to the Kits Community Centre for the Farmer's market. We started with a quick tour around the stalls to discuss what was available, we saw some familiar vendors (we usually go to Trout Lake). So I headed to the swings with the little guy and dad went shopping. Dad did very well, lots of fresh stuff like apricots, summer squash, potatoes, tomatoes, radishes, zucchini, etc. The only downside was he bought a whole flat of blueberries & raspberries. I LOVE me some berries, but I figured a flat is going to be a challenge. After a few hours at home, I'm thinking it might be gone by tomorrow. Call us berry pigs!

Riding Bikes

2009-07-14T21:22:00.001-07:00

I don't remember learning to ride my bike or my first bike. But I used to love to ride my bike when I was a kid. Now of course I lived in Saskatchewan at the time, and there was lots of safe places for me to ride in our nice residential neighbourhood. We rode to school, the park, our friend's house or all over the place just for fun. They were our tickets to freedom.

The first bike I remember had these huge banana steering handles, and I had these great flowing sparkling things hanging out the end, plus some coloured bits on my spokes. Totally fantastic and very popular in the 70's. And then came the magical day that I took over my Dad's 10-speed. A 10-speed. How fantastic. I felt like such an adult.

Just as puberty was starting to set in we moved to Ottawa. The few blocks around us were pretty quiet so I could ride to a friend's house or along the river. But to get anywhere useful you had to cross the 'bridge' across the Rideau River. It had no extra room for bikes, a skinny sidewalk, and a HUGE curb. Was certainly NOT bike friendly. So with the combination of body changes, falling over that stupid curb one too many times, and getting old enough to take the bus across time by myself - I stopped riding my bike.

Today, I look at my little son and know he will LOVE riding the same as I did as a kid. We have been eying those balance bikes and hoping that the Grandparents will get him one for his birthday. And then I saw the contest on 5 minutes for mom http://www.5minutesformom.com/6461/balance-bike-giveaway/ where we could win one. No banana handles, but hey you can't have everything. Check them out here http://www.pedalcarsandretro.com/Balance_Bikes-p-1-c-269.html.

Wish us luck!

What I learned on vacation

2009-07-07T15:24:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a vacation to visit the out-laws in Alberta - vacation included camping (car camping in a tent for us, trailers for most of the rest of the family) and then some stampeding in Calgary. We've done long trips with the little guy before, but this was the first long car trip now that he is a full fledged toddler.

Lessons learned:

Your heart can stop for just an instant when you see an Elk standing on the shoulder at dusk. And then it pumps twice as hard once it starts again.

MUST always bring bro-in-law who owns a coffee roastery camping. He made the most heavenly coffee everyday. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I couldn't wait for the coffee to be ready everyday. He tried out different beans on us each day, and on the darker roast days I did add a bit of bailey's. But there is nothing like a great bean, ground right, brewed right and sipped under in a lawn chair outside your tent. (coffee company is Fratello if you want to try it out).

Good idea to bring a generator just in case the battery in your trailer runs out. Or to grind coffee everyday.

You can eat very well when camping... can anyone say eggs benny for breakfast.

The environmental thinking campers who brought their own plates do more dishes than the red neck Albertans who use paper.

The girls can ROCK at poker. Out of 12 players, last 2 standing were women. Last one standing = ME!!!!!!

The toddler will pick the 'best' possible day to launch his first escape out of his sleep tent and then the pack n'play.

You can never bring enough toys.

The bath water in the large rubbermaid bin can be used for a foot bath after the kids have had their bath.

Always keep at least one toy hidden for the return trip home - no matter how bored your child gets it will always be worse 6 hours into a 12 hour drive home. Keep it hidden.

You can do cloth diapers while camping. Just be sure to launder at the camp or town laundromat during a quiet period (and remember your laundry line, thankfully for me my father-in-law had some extra rope).

No matter how cold it is at the camp site it is always HOT HOT HOT at Dinosaur Provincial Park.

Rockets are still fun at any age. So are remote controlled planes - unless you crash it into a tree.
It is possible for a 22 month (who hasn't pooped in 2 days) to clog a low flow toilet. So much for water conservation when you have to flush it a thousand times and plunge.

Your 22 month old CAN stay focused for 2 hours at the Calgary Stampede Parade.

Omi does in fact make the best muffins.

If you plan your driving around your toddler's normal sleep times, he will sleep when he damn well pleases. So plan your drive home around your own schedule. Toddler still does what he wants, but we got a great lunch in Field, BC at Truffle Pigs.

No matter how long you've been driving, the craziest hour driving with a toddler is the hour before dinner.

I forgot how cool and scary those Alberta thunder/hail storms could be.

But the best lesson of all is that you can survive a vacation with your in-laws, and actually have a little bit of fun (and yes my in-laws do read my blog and yes I still kiss-up).

Travelling light with kids - is it an impossible dream?

2009-06-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

I waited a long time to get married. My friends used to joke that I skipped the starter husband and went straight to the boy toy (my hubbie is 6 years younger than me). So I had a lot of years where I could travel at my leisure and pack whatever I wanted.

When I was a kid and travelling with my figure skating team, we had a rule. You pack it. You carry it. So once I had my skates and dresses packed there wasn't much room left for much else. I carried this thinking to my business travel, I could pack all my needs for a week of meetings on the road into one carry-on bag (plus the lap top bag of course). I was usually the only girl on the road and who wants to make all the guys wait for my baggage.

But I was never very good at packing light for personal. And while I did pack just one suitcase for 3 weeks in Greece with Mirella and Sarah, it was a large suitcase and it isn't like you have to plan for difference types of weather in Greece. Bathing suit - check. Towel - check. Sundress - check. Sandals - check. Good to go.... pretty much. So how I crammed that large suitcase I'll never know.

My husband is also not a great light packer. His issue isn't shoes, sweaters and such. His issue is electronics, camping equipment, cooking stuff and his J.R.R. Tolkien books (which he never reads).

So you can only imagine how much fun it is now travelling with a little man along. And little people need a lot of stuff. We went to Germany for 3 weeks last year, when our little man was about 8 months, and boy did we have a lot of stuff. We ended up leaving one bag with some friends for part of our trip. We were almost comical on the train with 2 large rolling suitcases, car seat, duffel bag, day pack and then the baby.

Funnily enough our problem wasn't all the necessary baby gear, but clothes and bits and bobs we thought we might need. We tried to pack a week's worth of clothes and to do laundry as needed. The last time we had travelled with the baby he was 3 months and had pooped through a sleeper a day - a result of a skinny butt baby and disposable diapers. Since we were going to use disposables on this trip we figured we had better be prepared and took about 9 sleepers.

Where we did 'win' was in the baby gear department. We found some great stuff that really helped minimize the heavy lifting.

Stroller free

We didn't take a stroller. With the exception of a few days in Chemnitz where friends loaned us a stroller (was actually a bigger pain than a help, but we felt obligated to use it), we used our Ergo carrier everywhere.

We had asked for an MEC hard carrier for Christmas. But we realized that it was too bulky for a long trip like this. And we were finding our backs were getting sore carrying the little man in the baby Bjorn for longer walking trips. The Ergo was recommended because the little man could sit in the front or on our backs. We found a great used one on craigslist and absolutely LOVED it.

He was happy to be carried on either the front in more crowded places like the metro. And on our backs for touring around. He could look around at everything. He could nap. And he generally felt very safe and secure next to Mom or Dad in all these strange and wonderful places.

There are a couple of downsides to using a carrier vs a stroller. The first is the shared body heat. Germany had a warm spring last year and there were days that both the little man and myself were soaking in sweat. The 2nd is you have to carry the rest of your stuff. There is no little basket underneath the Ergo to store your stuff for the day. Either you have to attach it to the Ergo (they sell a couple of accessories for this) OR your partner has to wear the stuff.

Interesting observation. The strollers in Germany are like big Cadillacs. Lots of features, big baskets, bassinets, etc. Was funny for us to see these huge strollers everywhere. There were a few other folks with carriers. But the trend is certainly is bigger is better over there right now.

Sleeping Light

We knew we'd have a crib in Chemnitz and again in our rental apartment in Berlin. But we didn't know about any place else. So we did a lot of research on portable cribs before we left. In the end we picked the KidCo Pea Pod http://www.tjskids.com/kidco-peapod-travel-p101-p-1228.html. It was fantastic for travelling: packs small, easy set up, baby secure but still accessible. Plus he wouldn't outgrow it in a few months. The little man started using this about a month before we left - for weekend at Grandpa's house, sleeping at friends when we went over for dinner, camping, etc. He loved it. And actually slept better in his little tent than he did in the borrowed cribs on our trip. He felt he was in a place he knew when he woke up in the tent.

We recently upgraded to the Pea Pod Plus http://www.tjskids.com/kidco-peapod-plus-travel-p201-p-1241.html. The little guy is almost 2 and was getting too big for the regular version. He can now sit up and play when he wakes up. The only downside is that he can open the zipper on the Plus. This will be great when he gets a bit older. But his escape act while camping on the weekend was NOT welcome. So we have figured out a way to 'lock' the zipper for now. If you think this will be useful for travelling when your child is a toddler then I'd skip the regular version and go straight to the Plus size.

Sitting Pretty

Our little man was just starting to really enjoy real food when we left on our trip. We didn't want to have to hold him at every meal, so we looked for a different solution. We found a small cloth seat called a Tot Seat http://www.pinkyblue.ca/Tot-Seat_p_1225.html. The only downside was most of the seats at those lovely German outdoor cafes are barrel type. So we had to hold him there. But it worked well at our friends' homes for breakfast and dinner.

Unfortunately this seat doesn't work well much beyond 1 year. Our little man can still fit in it and is usually willing to sit in it. But he likes to feed himself now. And this seat doesn't bring him up high enough to do that. So we now carry around a little portable baby chair. Thankfully he is getting big enough to kneel up on chairs to eat at the table once in a while. So we might be able to go without on trips in future.

------

We just returned from a camping trip. And while our car was JAMMED full of stuff, it doesn't feel like we were grossly over packed. As I get more practice at this parenting thing I feel more confident that I can being to apply my 'business' packing theories to my personal world. Fingers crossed anyways.

I would love to get to a place where we can pack with carry on luggage like Earnest Girl at Yummymummyclub http://www.yummymummyclub.ca/earnestgirl_west_coast_chronicles. But I'm not holding my breath.

Keep up or get out of the way

2009-06-15T21:11:00.001-07:00

I moved my cloth diaper (CD) thoughts to a separate blog a few months ago. In part because I thought that not all my regular readers may be interested in CD, nor the inevitable discussion around poop.

But today I wrote about the increased competition in the diaper service game. And some of my marketing readers might find this interesting. If yes, check it out here

http://cdmomramblings.blogspot.com/2009/06/keep-up-or-get-out-of-way.html

Recipe for a headache OR something for everyone

2009-05-31T20:47:00.001-07:00

Crazy week!!. I've been trying to squeeze as many networking events into my schedule as possible - before they cease for the summer. So this week I attended 4 very different events for 4 very different reasons - Hydro, Cancer, KickAss and twittering Moms..... Frankly my brain is more than a bit full from the diversity that was my week. Am I really such an interesting person, or do I need to get a little more focus??

Wednesday lunch - Board of Trade, featuring Bob Elton, President of BC Hydro.

BC Hydro is on my top 10 places to work list, so I felt it was important to go and hear what Bob had to say about the vision of Hydro. I learnt a few things and realized some gap areas in my research. I won't give too much away here as I want to save the good stuff for my cover letter. The highlight of the lunch though, was the lady that I sat next to and with which I shared a great conversation over lunch (oh yeah, and I learnt salmon can remember back 80 years from before the hydro dam was built).

Wednesday night - Community Forum held by BC Breast Cancer Foundation.

This was relevant to me as I had my first >40 mammogram that week and it seemed appropriate and timely to go to this information session. BC is unique in that any woman over 40 can get a mammogram free of charge without a Doctor's referral - just call 1-800-663-9203. Early detection is key and a quick 10 minute test seems so easy.

This was the first ever Community Forum to connect CBCF with the community. We got to listen to an interesting expert talk about breast cancer prevention across the lifespan. The usual advise was heard... everything in moderation (especially when it comes to alcohol)... eat healthy to maintain a healthy weight.... be active... get screened. But I noted some interesting info that I hadn't heard before:

Breastfeeding has shown to lower incidence (in the baby & in the mom)
Activity at ANY age helps - never too late. But women who are active in their younger years have even lower risk than those who become active older in life.
Research is showing more and more evidence that 2nd hand smoke is a strong risk factor.
Some evidence that Vitamin D decreases your risk.
Hormone replacement therapy should be avoided if possible.

We also heard a very inspirational story from a volunteer. But the laugh out loud (but not really funny) moment came from another survivor in the room, who having lived a healthy, active life realized that perhaps growing up in an airtight winter proofed house in New Brunswick with 2 smoking parents might have contributed to her illness.

Thursday night - League of Kickass Business People.

Yes this group certainly wins the award for the best name. Smaller group event. A lot of marketing, advertising and social media types.

I went to this event with a couple of former colleagues from the Rick Hansen Foundation. We all knew a few folks so it was easy to mingle and chat with people. The topic was the 2010 Olympics and maximizing your opportunities. Frankly it could have been called "Its not too late". A great diverse crowd of presentations. Event was live tweeted by TrevorRoald under #LOK. He captured some good nuggets.

I have to say it is this type of event that is hard on you when you are out of work. You need to attend this type of event to network and find work. Brought me back to my blog about networking and the dentist http://tjrramblings.blogspot.com/2009/03/networking-or-dentist.html. But it really made me realize how much more I know about myself today and the confidence I put forward is about what I know and who I am. NOT who I work for.

Friday morning - MomCafe... Moms are all a Twitter.

Finally I went to my first MomCafe event. I wanted to meet other professionally minded Moms and hear what a couple of great mompreneurs had to say about using twitter (Anne Marie from @yoyomama_van and Sue from @raspberrykids talk). Lovely, casual event, easy to chat with mom's about all sorts of things (including whether we should half the healthy and non-healthy monster sized muffins and then we could have a bit of both... we did BTW). The frustrating part came from my lovely toddler, who just discovered separation anxiety about a week ago. Nannies on call had to find me about 30 minutes into the program. Thankfully he sat nicely with me for a bit, but then I had to walk him around to keep him amused. And yes, for those at the session he was the aspiring Canadian Idol at the back of the room. Event was live tweeted by yoyobelly under #mctweet.

MomCafe started me thinking that maybe I need to take a good look at what I've learnt about my self in the past 10 months. Meaning re-evaluating my thoughts on doing contract work OR just starting my own business. And that REALLY makes my head hurt.

I laughed, I cried, I danced like a wolf.

2009-05-25T13:07:00.001-07:00

On Friday I attended the Women In Leadership Foundation's (WIL) 5th Annual BC Aboriginal Women in Leadership Forum: Seeds of Success. We encouraged women from all backgrounds to attend the event. But to be honest, until I was there, I wasn't really sure as a non-Aboriginal woman what I would take away from it. But at the end of the day I felt so empowered as a woman that next year I will bring ALL my girlfriends.

Within moments of sitting down in the theatre next to my friend Marlis (who did all the graphic design for the event) I realized I had made a clear mistake. I hadn't thought to bring Kleenex. We knew we were going to experience something different when Maya Kanigan (WIL) and Sheryl Fisher (Squamish Nation) opened the day talking about how this event was about "Honouring the women warrior in us all". And then Sheryl's mother Audrey Rivers took us through a traditional opening prayer and a women's warrior song to open the day.

What really made this event different for me was the truly open, honest, authentic and sometimes raw stories told about how each of these women have been successful in their lives. Yes each had attained professional success, but their stories were really a testament to their personal success. The panel included a banker, chief, artist, entrepreneur and a business woman. Three of them were moms (and many at some point single moms). All had overcome significant obstacles to success such as: teenage parents, residential schools, being surrounded by addiction, foster care, poverty, suicide, divorce, single parenthood, loss of cultural identity and being a marginalized minority in the country of their birth. Each learnt from the stories told by their elders (Grandmothers were a significant theme). And while all of them faced adversity all their stories focused on the positive, the attainable, the future generation of Aboriginal women. The warrior in us all.

The session was moderated by Michele Baptiste, National Manager of Aboriginal Relations for Scotiabank. All the stories were fantastic. And I would love to tell them all here. But they seem too personal for an unknown 3rd party to try and give them their due. But I will summarize some of the great nuggets of truth that I took from their speeches.

Jessie Williams - Special Projects Officer, Four Host First Nations

Jessie provided a strong start to the day, with some relevant lessons for all of us:

We are responsible for who you are today and who you will be tomorrow. You need to know and believe in yourself = this gives you the power to make it happen.
Listen to your dreams NOT logic - as children we don't put limits on our dreams, we should be the same as adults.
Don't be afraid to make mistakes. For her fear was the idea of NOT accomplishing her goals and that motivated her.

Some of her inspiration came from:

her parents - who no matter how many problems they had always encouraged her to be/have more
her grandfather - who taught her to never let anyone tell you that you are less than you are
her grandmother - who taught her how to be a woman & a mother and how to be loved
mentors - you can't achieve anything on your own you MUST surround yourself with supportive people and seek guidance from others. By seeking their guidance you are honouring that person
herself - most inspiration comes from within

Chief Lisa Shaver, Chief of the Penelakut Tribe

Lisa is a fantastic story teller. She had us moving from tears to laughter again and again as she spoke. Her stories were laced with the theme of stubbornness that seems to have followed her throughout her life (and is likely one of her success tools). Her tips for success included:

Have to live your own life.
Cultural identity is a key to your strength - for her this came from the stories of her grandmother. You need to find your own path, but know and learn from cultural teachings.
Have to become the change you want. She has to be an example to her children, life and community. We are the answer to our children's future.

Denise Brillon Hill - Entrepreneur & Designer of Artifaax.com

Denise clearly has a strong sense of self and her values. Denise believes it is never too late or too early to fulfill your dreams. To her the foundation is a strong set of values, these values create passion and that passion will lead to your success. Values are what give your life direction, and hers include:

Show honour
Never too young or too small to have a voice
Speak your truth
Speak for those who have no voice
Value originality and don't be afraid to step outside the box
Be yourself
Value of friends and family should NEVER be compromised for success.

Business to her is about relationships with people and NOT just exchanging money. We can show our community, business and government where our values lie when we make our own purchasing decisions. Is it really good value to drive to a big store to buy big bags of things that clutter our lives? Why not support the local family run vegetable store instead?

She also has a vision for Aboriginal goods and that is to move them beyond being just tourist items. Her company Artifaax is well on its way of helping Aboriginal products become part of the mainstream.

Renae Morriseau - filmmaker, actress and writer

Renae began and finished her talk with a quote (which I hope I got right): To create story you must be physically energized, emotionally attuned, mentally focused and spiritually aligned.

Her story was somewhat different from the others as she grew up in Urban Winnipeg amongst a variety of cultures. She even danced in a Ukranian dance troupe at one point.

Her role as a full time artist is to tell stories. The different stages of her life and career taught her the critical thinking of storytelling and to see the Aboriginal perspective. Something in her compels her to keep asking questions and telling those stories. She is looking for ways to continue to tell the Aboriginal story whether through comedy, drama or documentary. She also continually asks herself who do you attract? Who are the people around you that motivate you?

Renae is a strong, attainable role model who works in a field she is very passionate about, and through that work is also honouring her culture. Renae's most recent documentary "The Trail to Moose Lake" about the elders Fort McKay will launch next month.

Q&A

Some of the best candid moments came during the Q&A. Daycare was resoundingly named an issue for becoming successful as a woman. And all women tend to take care of everyone else before ourselves. When the panel was asked how do you take care of yourself and your health, the answers ranged from:

Be your own best friend and not an enemy
laugh, love drink women
think health and happy
breathe
connect to your inner child... what gives you joy?
self awareness
shopping
Important not to focus on competing with the men, but to ensure you look after yourself first

The session finished with another song and a dance. We were all included and yes, my part of the audience danced like wolves - including howling. The session was followed by scholarships given to 2 talented young Aboriginal women to contrute to their education. And finally a sharing circle.

So what did this day mean to me? Well I'll quote Maya Kanigan, as she spoke about what WIL means to her...

"Every women in this room will be a role model to another women in her life. WIL is about bringing these individuals together to learn from, inspire and encourage each other to make a positive difference to the future of women's leadership in Canada. Each of us has the power to make a difference - WIL is about working together to get there. "

An event such as this brings women from ALL backgrounds together to work on our collective future.

Building Major League Loyalty

2009-05-21T14:44:00.000-07:00

This week I attended the BCAMA breakfast speaker series - Building Major League Loyalty. The folks from the Whitecaps were there to parallel their experience of building fan engagement to building customer engagement. Now I'll say right off I don't know much about soccer at the professional level. My experience is at the local level working with Wendy's and McDonald's. Soccer is the biggest sport in Canada for both boys and girls. And I always wondered why that never translated into the professional sport. But I digress. My interest here was to see if there were any learnings that I could translate to use for my work with Women In Leadership Foundation or other clients.

Representing the Whitecaps was Bob Lenarduzzi, President and past player, coach, general manager, director of soccer operations; Kim Jackman, Director or Marketing; and Ryan McKee, Marketing Manager. I used to work with Kim at Ogilvy & Mather in what seems like lifetime ago. She was always a smart marketer and it was great to see her grow her skills over the years and land such an interesting and challenging role.

It is obvious from the beginning that Bob has the same passion for soccer that many of his fans feel. He lives his passion everyday and I think he could tell fun and interesting stories about soccer for days. He touches on his early days on the team and the slim days when the Whitecaps were barely holding things together. He talked about how there a lot of old time soccer fans out there that have lost touch with the Whitecaps, and how many of them are coming back with the MLS announcement. He talked about different owners over the years, and how the current ownership group really embraced a long term vision for the term (and soccer in Canada).

This brings us to point #1 in their five fan engagement strategy. What they called "Starting at the top". To many organizations this would seem to be a no-brainer. But it often isn't. In order to really succeed you need an organization where the most senior stakeholders (in this case the ownership group) have a focused long term vision, are engaged in making that vision happen AND their staff know they are engaged in it. It is too often you see Senior Management state their vision and then leave it to their executive team to get it done. In this case, everyone in the organization knows the vision, knows how they can contribute to it, and knows their ownership group is invested in the team's day-to-day progress.

The ownership group has 3 key objectives for the team - open and transparent to everyone as they are listed on their website. All staff and team use these objectives to screen key decisions (projects must meet at least 1 of the criteria to be considered to go forward):

To be one of the best small market sports franchises in the world
To grow the game of soccer in British Columbia & Canada
To be a significant community asset

#2 - No 5 minute solution

When you have a clear vision of where you are going and who you want to be it makes it easier to assess your environment for opportunities. But when your vision is unclear it is harder to do your due diligence because you can't focus. Who really is your competition and who shares your vision that can help you achieve it? Are you competing against yourself? This would have been a good question for GM to have asked itself many years ago - or perhaps they knew it but weren't brave enough to make the decision required to fix it... but I digress again.

In the Whitecaps case the new owners asked what relationship the Whitecaps had with BC soccer and Canadian soccer associations? The fast answer was 'we talk to each other'. The real answer was they competed with each other with duplicate programs. This overcomplicated things for players and their parents. So while at the grassroots things were booming it became more complicated to help the really fantastic players rise. Today the 3 organizations all live on the same office floor. They have audited their programs and are committed to creating great players together.

This didn't happen overnight, and the results of this new cooperation won't be fully seen for years. But they now have a structure that touches players/parents at all stages of their life cycle. This will also help gain momentum with sponsors and fan engagement too.

Point # 3 is "Let them in/be honest". This is when Bob suggested losing your credibility was like your virginity - you only lose it once. An old analogy but never more true than in today's very transparent world. People will forgive mistakes and respect your point-of-view, but they will NOT forgive being manipulated, spun or lied to. Being honest with people gives them something interesting to engage with. So the team is transparent in its information and looks for opportunities to make themselves accessible. Whether it is the team signing autographs, the head coach doing a Q&A with a supporters group or Bob doing a meet n'greet in the lobby at a game.

Of course when you give people the opportunity to engage they will ask tough questions and you must be prepared to answer them truthfully and honestly... and not telling them what they want to hear. Just like in real life people where people may not like it they will respect you more for it.

#4 - Revist Relevance

Again could be marketing 101, but often gets overlooked in the excitement for a new projects or innovative medium (ie: twitter). The Whitecaps has several core, but distinct target audiences - fan groups, parents/kids, original fans. Each of them is so important to the future of the organization, but each has very distinct needs. You can't do everything for everyone. So must be sure what efforts you make are relevant to that audience in the way they use or interact with the product. Otherwise your efforts are wasted.

#5 - Finish What you Start

Kim describes this as the bridge between engagement and loyalty. I'd call it ignore your customers at your paril. If you invite them in, allow them some ownership of your brand, then you must be prepared to act upon what you hear. You also have to be prepared that you may not like what you hear. A request could seem as simple as repositioning garbage cans. But if ignored it could lead to fans becoming resentful and then throwing a lot of beer cans on the field instead of in that garbage can.

During the Q&A they talked about how they pull in new fans. And the answer really is to engage their current fans in one-on-one opportunities, and that will grow them new fans.

The best example of how this 5 point approach is put into play is with their support group strategy. The Whitecaps have some very passionate supporters. But to put their opportunity into perspective their supporter clubs are maybe 30 members and in Toronto they are 1,500. A fantastic opportunity, but requires some long term efforts. For years these groups were all but ignored by the organization. Today the Whitecaps are including them in the vision for soccer in BC by listening, engaging with them, following through and providing them an opportunity to openly engage with the team. Relevant events such as pub nights with the head coach, where they get his honest opinion, go a long way to building loyalty and credibility (Plus getting those garbage cans helps too).

Their story feels like the tortoise in the hare (although I had to compare the Whitecaps to anything slow). They are willing to do the work that will pay them long term dividends. They are maximing all their available channels; engaging one-on-one with their very passionate fans and giving them ownership through open honest 2 way communication, due diligence, relevant response and follow through. But to me most important is that they have included those fans in the shared vision, so everyone can be as passionate as the ownership group in the story of the newest MLS team.

So how does this in the end apply to my Women In Leadership Foundation challenge. Well we have a lot of passionate women supporters, who will soon be better included in our vision for the future, engaged more with the brand AND will hopefully start sharing that passion with their friends.

My take on the season finales

2009-05-19T19:30:00.001-07:00

So I've been blogging on a lot of marketing topics lately, so I thought I'd bring it back to my tv obsession. It is a sad time of year for the TV addict - season finales. Now it certainly is better today than it was 10-15 years ago when the summer was dead for TV. But even as I turn to my summer friends (Dexter, Entourage, So you think you can dance) I am sad to wish my regular season friends farewell for a few months. And I am certainly going to feel that big black hole of Friday night Sci Fi. Maybe Space will bring the next Season of Torchwood to air this summer (please, pretty please...).

So what did I think of the big season finales...

BSG - LOVED it. Even after a few months to digest it I think the shows went out in style. Answered some questions nicely... left a few ambiguous... gave due to the original. (and yes I might still be a bit in denial that this was a series finale and not just a season finale)

Doctor Who - Again a bit old now, but still can't wait for more. The last show to air in Canada was the Christmas 2008 special called the "the next doctor". Knowing that we only have a few more David Tennant specials and that a new Doctor is on his way in 2010, this was a nice bit of fun.

Dollhouse - How GREAT is it that this show got renewed. It certainly took some time gathering steam, but the brilliance that is Josh Whedan was really starting to show by the end of the season (frankly I felt Buffy took a season to start really building some solid characters and chemistry between the cast too). I loved the switch of Paul Ballard from hunter of the dollhouse to employee. Some interesting foundation has been laid and I can't wait to see where Josh takes us next year.

Sarah Connor Chronicles - So sad that this got cancelled. After a rough first half season this was really starting to get interesting. I did like the way the ending left room for more, but also could be closure too. John ends up in the future ready to take the helm with his 'new' family that only he knows are his 'real' family. Could be that this was what was supposed to happen for John to lead the resistance.

Friday Night Lights - I can't believe I almost forgot about this one because it ended weeks ago. Still one of my all time favourite shows. And this was yet another season of great story telling, and the last scene is heart wrenching seeing Coach Taylor and Principal Taylor standing in that broken down field at the end. Can't believe I have to wait until 2010 to see another episode.
Lost - can't wait to see where the bomb takes everyone next season. I never try to figure this show out. - I just really enjoy the ride. My husband the physics guy tries to analyse the time travel options, but I really like the story about the human dynamics. How people change in these unusual situations, how they grow (OR don't), the chemistry between people (both platonic and non) as well as how people manipulate others to get what they want. The big question for me is who really is the 'bad' guy on this show? Because all of them have shown both the good and the bad of their personality. Is Jacob good or bad? Who is the guy that found the loop hole and killed him? Is this a classic devil vs god story?
Heroes - the last half of this season was really about trying to fix the earlier mess and bring my favourite characters back together and focus them for next year. And I'm really looking forward to where they go with the Nathan/Sylar story line... could be a little Jekyl and Hyde there.
Fringe - JJ Abrams and his team left a nice wide path of bread crumbs to the tomb stone revelation. I hadn't paid any attention to the teasers and I could see the Peter/alternate reality storyline coming a mile away. But overall JJ has really outdone himself on this one. I just love how the abnormal is normal in this show. Even the idea of alternate realities doesn't seem strange to me on this show. Plus LOVE how he integrated Star Trek into the 2nd last episode in a conspiracy theory (and LOVED him using Clint Howard in that small role). But most of all I thought the Leonard Nemoy casting was fantastic - and location of his office in the twin towers could lead us in all sorts of GREAT directions. But my big questions for next season are: (1) how did Charlie get that awesome scar in the alternate reality, and (2) why Astrid, as Olivia's assistance, is only ever seen in the lab assisting Walter? Will she ever get a story line? Will she ever leave the lab? I mean Charlie finally got a personal story, isn't it about time Astrid got her due?
Project Runway Canada - My fix while the US version has been tied up in law suits. Iman is not Heidi. But she will do in a pinch. Oh yeah, the obvious guy won.

Amazing Race - Great race to the finish, as usual. And the right team won - anyone but the Cheerleaders would have been the right one for me.

Brothers & Sisters - Please remind me why I still watch this show?

Survivor - Yup Coach was the most entertaining contestant since Richard Hatch. Yup I was disappointed that Stephen didn't win. And yup I still watch and LOVE this show. I think it is the human dynamics that keep me coming back for more. This season shows how GREAT this show can be. Now please lets not follow it up with a boys vs the girls OR racial separation concepts again.
Grey's Anatomy - I cry every time I watch this show. Sad, but true. I sometimes wonder why Kleenex doesn't advertise during this show (sorry the marketer came out for a second) it is so perfectly set up each week for a cry fest. But I did NOT cry during this finalize. Not sure why. Maybe I just don't care enough about Izzie or George. Or I just figure there is no point in worrying about their fate as it is all caught up in contract negotiations anyways. Or maybe I thought the best bits were in the less GRAND story lines... the human-ness of Owen & Christina in the boiler room; the irony of Bailey turning down her fellowship in order to leave her husband who gave her an ultimatum that he'd leave her if she took it; Callie eating her words... again.
How I met Your mother - I have to say I was a little disappointed in this episode. Why? Did it have great appearances by all its characters, including Lilly? Check. Did it have great Barney/Robin chemistry? Check. Did it have a goat? Check. Did it have ridiculous pregnancy hiding props? Check - and double check for Lily body double jumping. Did it have a reference to the crazy Swedish architecture firm? Check - and double check for that even crazier than ever though possible rib restaurant. Did it give us some fulfilling answers about the mother? Nope... just another tease.

So now onto the F Word and Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare from BBC Canada sitting on my DVR (not sure why I LOVE the British Gordon Ramsay so much, I'm certainly not normally a food show kind or girl AND I dispise the US versions of him). And I have hours and hours of The Hour waiting to satisfy my intellectual needs. But what about my summer brain candy? I mean "So I think you can dance" can only take a girl so far. Any suggestions?

Managing Change to Survive & Thrive

2009-05-09T14:52:00.001-07:00

I attended the Women In Leadership Foundation's (WIL) Annual BC Women In Business Luncheon last week.

Four women, from different industries with very different career paths gave us their perspective on overcoming change. Overally a very insightful afternoon with a lot of common themes to success in managing change. There were certainly a number of 'light bulb' moments that had personal relevance for me. But I expect that each woman in the sold out Hycroft ballroom took home something different.

Below are some of the key insights into each woman's success.

Rita Rogers, Senior Manager Events, Canucks Sports & Entertainment

The always charming Rita, acted as moderator for the event. She opened with a story relevant to me when she received some great advice just as she was about to have her first child.... "It will pass". It is often hard to imagine that things will change or that "it will pass", especially when you are up at all hours, with no sleep and are staring at the shopping channel for hours on end. But when you look back you realize that this advice is true. For all aspects of our lives.

Andrea Scott, Co-owner Skoah & Chikki Munki

Andrea has had an interesting career path from teacher on the lower eastside to fashion sales to owning her own business as well as being a marketing consultant at the same time and also being a Mom (she was very pregnant with child #2 while giving the speech). The big theme for Andrea is that you need to have a vision of your career vs a master plan. Now given, Andrea is the type of woman who LOVES change. But it is true that with an overarching vision of your career you are able to adjust and take advantage of new opportunities, while never losing sight of your vision. It also helped Andrea to have an attitude that "very little in life isn't completely irreversible". She felt that if a new opportunity didn't work she could always go back.

Now I have to ask myself what is my vision? Being a strategic marketer I really should know the answer to that question. I tell clients and peers everyday that you can't go forward and be successful without a vision. This certainly gave me something to think about.

Silvia Livingston, District VP, TD Canada Trust

I'll be honest I wasn't expecting to learn a lot from Silvia's talk. She has worked in banking (and at TD) for her entire career. I'm a marketer, who has spent much of her career in advertising agencies, and I didn't think there would be a lot of parallels for me to draw from. I was wrong.

Silvia spoke about 3 key themes to success in her career.

Knowledge is key - you build credibility through knowledge - both top down and bottom up. For Silvia this was particularly important when she had a staff with more years and more experience than her. She felt strong knowledge and leading by example helped her build the necessary credibility with her team.

Check your ego at the door - No job is too small and we all succeed if we get their together. This is true in group dynamics but also in your individual career path. Getting the career you want is not always a straight line. Silvia took 2 different lateral moves or demotions in her career in order to achieve the position and success she has today. These positions were challenging, but they allowed her to broaden her experience. She credits these moves as a key part of her success.

This was a light bulb moment for me. As I continue to struggle to find full time work I wonder if there aren't some great opportunities out there that could help me broaden my skill set and help me advance my career in the long term. Hopefully I will be able to check my ego at the door.

Know your own weaknesses - when dealing with mistakes & failures it is important to learn from the mistake, take ownership and then get over it. But most of all understanding your own weaknesses can potentially help avoid future mistakes. For Silvia this was about talking less and listening more - this one conveniently is also relevant for me.

Claire Smith, VP Sales & Marketing, Vancouver Convention Centre

Claire had a career epiphany in a magazine store while in Frankfurt during a business trip when she found a book called "Managing your career". She notes that the book itself wasn't necessarily that profound, but it spoke to her at the right time in her career. At that point she felt she needed a change after 17 years in the same organization. So she went out on her own and became a consultant. Not the right step for everyone, but the one that made the right sense for her at the time. Her advice:

there is a momentum to change... taking the 1st big step forward starts the ball rolling
take charge of your career - there are no bad decisions as everything you do adds to your tool kit
don't be afraid to take risks professional and personally
ask for help
don't let self doubt take over - push through it
3 degree of separation - there are a lot of people who can help you or they know someone who can

For me Claire reminded me the most of me - with the exception that she has gone out and taken charge of her career. I'm still in that 1st big step stage.

Taya Hawes-Puiu, Chief Marketing Officer, Cossette West

I know Taya, we used to work together at Cossette. We never worked on any direct project together, so we know each other from those short little conversations at social functions, in the hallway, elevator, etc. I learnt a lot about Taya this day. She is a bold and brave woman who has seized opportunities when they presented themselves and on at least one occassion asked for advice from the Universe (giving them a deadline for their response). She also came to a realization of her own vision while lying in a hospital bed in Hawaii. The secrets to her success are:

be bold and brave
the only constant is change
trust your instincts
seize opportunities
if you don't know how - make a list
cherish your relationships

To me this last one is the most important one as a human being. Jobs are not who we are. It is the people we know and the relationships we have that we cherish most in life. Don't let them get forgotten while you are busy doing something else.

Now what?

For a lot of years I took myself out of the drivers seat of my own career. And decisions made weren't really mine, but the one that came up at the time. I've been nervous to step out there and be bold, in part because that little 'friend' self doubt crops up. I really hate asking for help. And mostly I'm afraid if I make a mistake, go the wrong direction, take a demotion that I'll never be able to climb back to where I was before. At the same time I want to be flexible for change - I just don't want it to bend me like it has in the past. Somewhere in there is a happy medium - plus time for lunch with my girlfriends.

A note about Women In Leadership Foundation (WIL)

Women like to stick together. We are there to support each other, keep each other company and help each other succeed. This is true for women at all stages of their careers. Each of the speakers mentioned a friend (in the room) who helped support or mentor them towards their current success. To me this is the key to continued development of women in leadership. WIL gets that and it is this type of event that helps bring us together to learn from, support and celebrate each other's success. I'm pretty passionate about this. And it is for this reason that I volunteer on WIL's advisory board and lead their volunteer brand/marketing team.

In honour of Mom

2009-05-01T15:07:00.000-07:00

With Mother's Day fast approaching I've been thinking about the women in my family and their affect on me. I come from a line of strong and interesting women. And I know my vision of myself, women, and our role in society was composed by watching them. Now my Dad was a key element in who I am today, but divorce and geography meant that my Mom and Grandmother were the main influences in my day-to-day life.

My Mom was a single mom from the time I was 14. And I have to be honest we had a pretty rocky relationship through my teens. But we both made it through and have a good relationship today.

Mom has always worked hard and I never resented the time she spent at the office or travelling... in part because she worked in something that she was passionate about. I just figured that was the way it was - if you wanted something then you worked for it. My definition of feminism was working at something you loved and having the choice to do it. So yup the work-a-holic gene didn't fall far from the tree.

My Mom also always let me make my own decisions and mistakes. She tried hard not to 'tell' me what to do with my life. With a few exceptions like when I was 15 and we had that 'talk' about my blue hair and new wave wardrobe. She rarely asked the questions my girlfriends often complained about getting from their mothers..."what do you want to do when you grow up", "when are you going to get married", "when are you going to give me a grandchild"... I did not understand or appreciate this when I was young, but as an adult I'm glad she let me set my own goals and become who I wanted to be. And I also appreciate that I kept her waiting a long time for that grandchild to spoil.

My Mom was influenced in her parenting style by her Mom. My Grandmother was in many ways the opposite of my mom...always nosey about what was going on in our lives and always had an opinion about it. The good part was she always talked more than the rest of us so you could usually get away without saying much.

My Grandmother was my 2nd mother growing up. She drove me to my skating lessons, cooked me scrambled eggs for breakfast and moved with my Grandfather to live down the street from us during my teens years. But the biggest influence she had on me was marrying my Grandfather. In the late 1930's in depression era Saskatchewan my Scottish Grandmother married my Chinese Grandfather. To put this in perspective women got the right to vote in 1918 and Chinese Canadians didn't get this right until 1947. I'm sure she must have been ostracized because of it. I know she didn't speak to one of her sisters for over 30 years because of it.

So I grew up thinking a multi-cultural household was the norm. I never realized that that was different until I was older. That was just the way it was. And to me that is the greatest gift my grandmother could have given me.

When my Mom was visiting a few weeks ago we went to see Adrienne Clarkson speak. She spoke about the need for more understanding between cultures and in her opinion the need for more mixed marriages. I was proud to look at my Mom and say that the women in my family helped pioneer that concept.

Has your mother inspired you in some way? Please add your story in the comments.

Bow to the KING

2009-04-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

My other passion in life is swing dancing. Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats stress like a good night out dancing. My prefered style is lindy hop - the original dance from Harlem in the 1930s named after Lindbergh and his 'hop' over the ocean. I can dance other styles but prefer lindy hop. I've even tried to figure out how I could live my life so I could just travel and dance. Never worked out a satisfactory plan that allowed for food... so I settled for a regular night out as often as I could.

Since having a little guy the dancing is now a trickle - every couple of months. But it is still my passion and I live in envy of people who keep the first of their passion for their entire lives. Frankie Manning is one such man. Frankie is one of the original Savoy Ballroom lindy hop dancers. He is credited with the first ever 'aerial'. He lived his life for lindy hop. Check him out on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pMDf4ciCRs.

When the interest in lindy hop died in the 60s he became a postman. But in the 1980s when lindy hop was re-discovered he was right back in the game. He was a consumate gentleman - he always instructed the leads to bow to their queens before they started the dance. His passion for the dance was evident and contagious. I took some classes from him at dance camps and have had the honour to dance with him at Swing Out Northwest. But most of all he was an inspiring example of someone who lived their passion his entire life. He was dancing, teaching and travelling to dance and teach right up until his death. He died today one month shy of his 95th birthday.

Today I bow to the KING. And I hope to honour him by burning up that dance floor for years to come.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pMDf4ciCRs

Make or break your brand

2009-04-24T11:41:00.000-07:00

"Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can
change the world. Indeed it's the only thing that ever has."
- Margaret Mead

The growth and power of the Internet and specifically social media only makes this quote even more true today. The topic of watercooler conversation is quickly moving from last night's tv to real time issues via social media.

This is particularly true with happy or unhappy customer experiences. It takes just one unhappy customer, with the right online communities to kill a brand. Just ask Amazon after their crisis last week when they removed 'adult' titles from its sales rankings, including gay and lesbian titles. One man blogged http://markprobst.livejournal.com/15293.html about it and the response he received from Amazon. Once the issue started gaining momentum on Twitter Amazon responded that it was a glitch. That only spawned #glitchmyass website, blogs, tweets. Search #glitchmyass on twitter and you won't believe the amount of conversation on this topic.

Amazing that a long standing internet company like Amazon could make such a novice PR error in dealing with this issue.

In light of the power of this medium there is a lot of interest today in best practices on how to use social media to your companies advantage in today's world. Jennifer Lowther from 6S made a presentation on just that last night for the BCAMA.

She covered some good basics on social media. But what I wanted to hear those best practices. She feels that every project is different and things change so fast there aren't any clear best practices. But she did list off several MUST dos or do nots during her presentation (feels like best practices to me...).

Be real, honest and transparent - if you have something to hide it will be found on the internet
Plan before you go - a poor social media campaign can do more harm than good
At minimum you must monitor what is being said about your organization online - even if you aren't ready to jump into the social media game, people are talking about you in REAL TIME (this is also true of you as an individual - every potential employer, business partner or client will google or twitter you so you better know what it says)
Social media is REAL TIME - you must be prepared to deal with negative publicity or to own up to mistakes quickly, ie: Motrin, Dominos, Amazon...
must give more than you take... social media is a conversation not a push sales pitch
Be consistent in whatever you decide to do... if you start a blog make sure it is updated on a consistent timeline... so many organizations start blogging multiple times a week and then find that hard to keep up... be realistic and consistent
MUST have a social media policy for your staff - otherwise you could be Translink with a front page story on the Province.

The final and personal lesson is to understand the power of your online community... ie: NEVER piss off mommy bloggers.

Many of us still think of social media as a 'youth' tactic. This was demonostrated in part by Jennifer an 'expert' in her field who references using Wikipedia at University. Since University for me was 20 years ago I certainly felt old. But then Jennifer reminded me that social media is being driven by 35-50 years. And that reminds me that even as a newbie blogger my voice does matter and companies had better pay attention to it.

mentors

2009-04-19T19:56:00.001-07:00

I saw Adrienne Clarkson speak a few weeks ago at UBC (before all the fun with my husband's ski accident concussion). She spoke at length about an English teacher she had at Lisgar - the same high school she and I both attended although many many years apart. And this got me thinking about mentors and people who have influenced my career (coincidentally I was asked this question in an interview 2 days after the presentation).

There are 2 key career mentors that easily come to mind. They were my two first bosses at Cossette and are still friends today. I worked twice for Glenn Stanley-Paul and am currently guided in my foray into blogging by Chris Morales (his blog is http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com). Now that I'm out west I don't get to see them as much as I would like, but they are still good friends and 2 of my most trusted professional allies.

But I have to say one of my biggest breaks didn't come from them, it came from a former client. She had a profound influence on me at a key point in my career.

My first job in marketing was at Cossette in Toronto in the early 1990's (see former post for more on those Melrose Place flashbacks...). I worked on the GM account - specifically the female friend Saturn. I was one of the few women on the team. But our client was a woman named Susan Docherty. I had been in my secretarial 'start at the bottom' position for about a year. Our Account Executive Lili had recently resigned and there was an opportunity for me to take on more - really show that I was more than a great excel wiz at building complex competitive charts. But the men that I worked with were a bit anxious about moving me up too quickly on such a male dominated client such as GM. Our team lead was concerned the client may not take the former 'secretary' seriously. And Chris and Glenn seemed to be concerned that if I faltered I may not get a second chance with them. But Susan thought I could do more and she fought to get me a couple of opportunities to show my stuff. My bosses had no choice but to give me the opportunity.

And I needed Susan's help. I totally screwed up my first presentation to a small dealer co-op. She bailed me out about half way through the presentation - without my losing face with either the dealers or my bosses (who weren't at the meeting). She coached me and then pushed me forward again at the next opportunity. She knew I'd get there and I did.

I don't have a long term relationship with Susan. She and I weren't friends outside our client/agency relationship. I have no idea if she is still with GM today. But she was a strong female role model for me at a point in my career where the men around me needed a little push. Those men are still my friends and mentors today. But it is Susan I really need to thank for giving me the opportunity to fail.

Focus on the core

2009-03-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

I went to another BCAMA event today (BC Marketing Association). Topic was marketing in the fashion industry. It was a panel presentation with three very diverse fashion retailers - Bootlegger, Westcomb and Aritzia. My light bulb moment: I'll never be an Aritziacustomer and they don't care - nor should they.

Why are these 3 retailers successful? Because they know and focus on their core customer. They know who they are and don't try to be anything else.

My favourite line from Sally Parrott (Aritzia) is that they really don't care about the 'non' Aritzia customer and don't spend any money trying to attract them. They focus on their brand demographic and getting them into their stores to experience the Aritzia brand. And I have to begrudgingly agree with their strategy of staying focused on that 15-35 year old. If they grew their product offering to older or younger women they would likely lose their core.

Bootlegger tells a similar story. They had to take a hard look at their business in the 90s and cut their kids line to focus on men and women only. By editing they were able to better focus on their brand. Dustin May, from Bootlegger, has a favourite quote from Tom Ford about editing and seems to live by it. They have edited a lot of their pull marketing programs as they didn't return the same ROI as their CRM program. Again, they focus on their core business and it works for them. I wish them luck in their new e-comm business launching in April.

Westcomb had the best presentation. No slides. Just Gabriel Cote - a passionate outdoor enthusiast who started a company to find the gap between technical apparel and style. He was an authentic approachable guy - just like his brand. Their point of differentiation is they are 100% Canadian made and their focus is global. This is a very specialized industry and they have focused on fostering individual relationships with their dealers to get feedback and build a better product (when asked how he follows trends he talked about taking floor staff out to the pub to get their thoughts and ideas). His best quote was during the Q&A when answering a question about handling the economic downturn. His American dealers are cutting their budgets and his response to them was "you need a Porsche in your showroom if you want to sell a Ford." He knows his product is top of the line and will sell and will also help his dealers sell other products too.

So while I am still rather annoyed that I'm too old and rather too average in size to shop at Aritzia... I realize that I'll just have to find another aspirational lifestyle retailer that fits my current age and lifestyle.

Networking or the Dentist

2009-03-06T21:41:00.000-08:00

Which do you dread more? The dentist or heading out to a networking event?

Let me say right off that my dentist is the nicest lady ever. But I still hate going to see her. It may be the 3 years with teen age braces, my mouth full of fillings or just that darn drill sound. And it may be surprising to those who know me, and my very 'social' personality, that I would likely chose the dentist over networking. I really hate going to events on my own. It means you have to start cold conversations with people. And if you go with friends it is too easy to hang out with each other and meet nobody. And networking has always reminded me of some of the hard selling networkers I met at the Toronto Board of Trade back in the day. Not my style. And I've realized it doesn't have to be my style.

From my experience most people leave networking until absolutely necessary. When you have a job you think you are too busy and "why network if I have a job" OR "I'm using social media so I don't have to actually network". We leave in-person networking to entrepreneurs, small business owners, job hunters and smart people who understand its importance. With my recent lay off I spent some time working with a career consultant. I had a lightbulb moment and realized that by focusing on my job and not networking outside my work place I was limiting both my short and long term career options (I had in essence taken myself out of the drivers seat of my career). It takes time but keeping up with your industry and making new contacts is always important. It is like exercising. When you do it regularly it is easy. When you stop it takes a while to get yourself back up-to-speed and into prime shape.

It has taken me about 6 months to get myself back into networking shape. Because those big events intimidate me I opted to do a lot of my networking through volunteer work. Several of the events were fun but didn't lead to anything (answering the phones at the Variety Telethon was certainly a fun experience that I'll likely do again next year), but one event led me to join the Women In Leadership Foundation Advisory Board. This is something I'm passionate about and will help keep me networking even after I'm working again.

The trick I found for me is to just enjoy myself and try to connect with people I like. People want to be helpful and if you aren't in hard sell mode/try to impress people mode they really seem to be open to getting to know you. I recently attended a BCAMA networking event where I thought "oh crap who am I going to talk to" as I walked into the full bar. But I met a couple of great people (hanging out near the bar helped). In particular Sharon McInnis the Proofing Queen. She and I hit it off and were surprised we had so many people in common, yet we had never met. She mentioned a BCAIM event that was topical for a current job search. I went. She was there and made me feel right at home by introducing me to others (including summarizing some of my past work) and saving me a seat with her and her friend. She is a fun lady who I look forward to seeing at other events in the future. And perhaps we might even get the chance to work together on a project someday.

Also met Trevor Roald at the BCAMA event. He is also 'between opportunities'. We had a great chat about twitter and how to maximize that medium - mostly him giving me and Sharon some tips. He is obviously very smart in his area (marketing 2.0 specialist) and I'm sure he'll be working again soon.

So I'm looking at networking in a different way. So while my short term goal is clearly to find a job. I'm really networking to:

(1) meet/reconnect with interesting people
(2) learn more about my field
(3) have fun

The last being the most important. I'm also now really convinced that this is something I need to do ongoing -for the long term health of my career. Of course I continue to use social media. But I'm no longer hiding behind my computer. And I'm having a lot more fun too!!!

Now if I could just make the dentist more fun. But I should call and make an appointment because you never know who she might know... she might be the link to my next job.

influencing and changing behavior - a case in cloth diapers

2009-02-25T08:02:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago I attended a BCAMA breakfast to hear Jim Nelson, Senior Manager of Marketing from BC Hydro speak. Jim oversees the PowerSmart brand and I found his presentation on changing and influencing behavior through social marketing very interesting. Several weeks later it is still resonating with me, in particular making me think how I came to be a cloth diaper advocate.

I can easily be described as a city girl. I started in advertising in Toronto in the early 90s when Melrose Place was the 'best' example of my profession. No my skirts were never that short, no I didn't switch from an account person to a writer to an art director in a single episode and no I never tried to drown anyone in the pool in the center of my apartment complex. But I did live a hard working, fun living, disposable lifestyle. That changed somewhat after I moved to Vancouver. But I was still very focused on my work and my social life. When I met my husband I was travelling a lot for work, dropped my laundry off at the laundromat to be cleaned, dried and folded for me and I had a cleaning lady twice a month. Not the type of person you'd expect to get excited about her diapers drying on the clothes line in the backyard.

So what happened? How was I influenced to change? Certainly mainstream media had an effect on my thinking about my disposable lifestyle. It always really bugged me that diapers live pretty much forever in our land fills. And while the cloth diaper movement is growing is it certainly not mainstream and there are no large marketers pushing their virtues. This is a case of social change through word of mouth.

At the breakfast session Jim gave us a little exercise to discuss amongst your table a behaviour you'd like to change - discuss the excuses you'd give not to change, actual reasons not the change and the reasons to change. (and he reminded us that real and perceived issues were equally valid)

Well the excuses not to try is pretty obvious - the fear of poo and the need to stay as far away from it as possible. Some valid reasons for not trying them is the upfront cost of buying them, the extra steps required when your baby is wiggling away on the diaper table and the extra laundry (and the additional hydro cost that goes with that). The reasons to try are primarily environmental, but also cost.

So I was commited to the idea that I would try cloth diapering part time. Use them at home and then switch to disposable when out and about. It seemed like a nice little step to try and reduce the amount of diapers I would send to the landfill.

I was one of the last of my friends to have kids, so I asked my friends. The reactions were

"hahahahahahaha I give it a week"
"you are a better woman than me"
"I tried it but my husband wasn't on board so I gave it up"
"there were too many extra steps - diapers, snaps, liners, covers - so we gave it up".

So word of mouth was certainly NOT influencing me to change my behavior. But I had one good friend who was cloth diapering - she had three kids so I figured if she could do it the least I could do it give it a try. So we took the advice of a colleague and started with a diaper service.

Then it was like we fell into a rabbit hole - of the marketing kind. Cloth diapering itself was easy. Figuring out the shopping process was NOT. My friend with the 3 kids (who lives in Toronto by the way) was my life line to all things cloth diapering. Cloth diapering seem to be a great business opportunity for Work at Home Moms (WAHM). And the internet is just stuffed FULL of diaper options. But I spends hours and hours and hours reviewing websites and scouring diaperpin.com to read reviews. No wonder people don't want to change and try something different... it is overwhelming. More overwhelming than buying a stroller!

The diaper service was great advice as it gave me a few months to get used to my little man and his diapering needs and then buy a couple of samples to see what worked for him and us. I then bought the diapers we liked on craigslist (the good diapers like mother-ease really hold their value and I expect I'll be able to resell them when we are finished with them OR give them to a friend).

In the end, we found the times when we used disposable diapers we had more messes and that resulted in more laundry than washing diapers. So we became full time cloth diaper parents. And somewhere along the line I've become pretty passionate about it. I've posted reviews on diaperpin.com, I've passionately advocated to poor pregnant women wondering what it is all about, I've purchased wet bags (btw the best are from http://www.thegoodmama.com/ - expensive but worth it) so I can travel with cloth diapers and I obsess about those 6 disposable diapers a week that get used on my son while he is in daycare.

So how did I get here from those Melrose Place days????? Word of mouth worked against me, there were no negative consequences or social pressure, I knew no advocates..... I guess it just came down to my belief that the social norm was NOT acceptable to me and the help of ONE good friend.

So what no... well I'm trying to do my darnest to influence other people's behaviour by advocating my experience. It only took one friend to help me change. And it really it isn't that hard - once you get over the intial shopping experience. Now if we could just convince a large marketer that money could be made here then we'd have a lot more power behind our cloth diaper revolution.

customer experience is more than just polite customer service

2009-02-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine posted a blog a week or so ago about "Marketing in a challenging economy... Customer Service, duh!" http://giraffemarketing.blogspot.com/2009/02/marketing-in-challenging.html. He spoke about the companies he knows doing it right. I completely agree with his assessment, but one has to ask about those that just don't get it. When does the gap between the brand promise and customer experience become so big that you walk away?

I expect an organization to deliver a customer experience that matches their brand promise. If not, then there is a gap in my opinion of them. This isn't just about customer service, this is delivering what people expect in product quality, technology, service, etc. It is delivering on your promise at every point I experience your company. The nice folks at Saturn called it the 'moment of truth'. And it isn't just about training your staff to be friendly and polite, it is providing your staff with the right tools and enabling them to use them. Sounds pretty simple in theory... but billions get spent in brand, product development and marketing every year... and it is often like pissing in the wind when the end result is nothing like what was promised. And it is often the biggest companies that seem to have the most difficulty delivering. My experience with Shaw is such an example.

I have to admit I hated Shaw pretty early in our relationship. When I moved to Vancouver Rogers was my cable provider. Then they did a deal with Shaw to take over their BC customers. The Shaw technology was far below that of Rogers. I complained to Shaw that I wasn't receiving the same level of service that I had paid for previously. Now I was a high value customer, rented my digital box, had most of the digital channels at the time and the movie channels. I thought my value as a customer would mean something. Nope. They tried to tell me the technology Rogers was using was illegal or under some law suit so they couldn't provide it (the technology in question was a little device that you could program through your digital box to turn on your VCR to record a program for you). Seemed like a BS excuse to me. Why not just tell me that you don't own the rights to that technology. But true or not they still offered me nothing - it wouldn't have taken much to make me feel appreciated as a customer... maybe a couple of months of the movie channels free, some free pay-per-view movies. But they offered NOTHING. So I was stuck with a service provider that I didn't pick, paying the same for lesser service and feeling like they didn't give a damn. I wasn't prepared to order satellite, so I was stuck.

I'll skip past my high speed internet experience with Shaw and fast forward 9 years. Our PVR dies. Still a high value customer, no longer renting my digital box as we bought a PVR box from them 4 years previous.

Shaw's reaction - NOTHING. Yes the box was past its warranty period. I can accept that. But 4 years isn't that old and they offered no help in suggesting how we get it fixed. We called on 3 separate occasions to discuss it with them - no a new box couldn't be given to us (yeah that was a stretch I know), no they don't repair the boxes they sell and no they couldn't make any suggestions on where we could get it fixed. It seemed the only option the very friendly service person could offer was 3 months of free HD channels (which we would have to call and cancel at the end of that period). They did (after our 3rd call) send out an equally polite service technician to check it out for us - yup box DEAD. Nope - nothing they could do. You could see that the technician felt like an idiot not being able to provide some suggestions for where to get it repaired. I think he had even tried to do some of his own research for us. But Shaw had not enabled him with the right tools to try and help us.

So in the end Shaw was telling us that if we wanted to continue to receive the level of service we had been receiving, we would have to purchase a new PVR box. A new PVR is $650, which if it last 4 years, is an extra $160ish/year to our service costs (which were about $90/month).

The difference today vs 9 years ago... there is a new guy in town. Now TelusTV is new and the quality of the product and functionality of the PVR is nowhere near as good as Shaw. And many may hate Telus as much or more than I hate Shaw. But the customer experience so far for us has been fantastic. Well informed service people (they can even out-tech my techie husband) who follow up if they don't have the answers. Service technicians that leave their cards in case you have questions - they follow up - they drop by extra cable cause they were in the area and knew we could use it - they call to check in. The product itself is going through some growing pains. After a month we are on our 2nd box and we spent 30 minutes on the phone with service again today. But these people really seem to want our business, so we are willing to work through the little start up issues.

Now price is not our primary incentive here but it doesn't hurt that with a home bundle (phone, internet and tv) we save a lot each month. Plus, my husband works for Telus and gets an additional discount. It does make it easier to be patient with TelusTV's growing pains when we are saving money too.

If the PVR hadn't died would we have switched right now? Probably not. If Shaw had offered us some more 'incentives', a little appreciation, or a clue where to get it repaired would we have stayed? Maybe... Did Shaw provide the friendly customer service that their marketing and brand campaigns promise. Yes. But did they offer true customer service? No. Shaw needs to stop treating their customers like they did when there was little or no competition, they need to focus and really deliver on their brand promise of customer service.

And oh yeah, we found a place in Richmond that fixed our PVR for $60. Perfect! Now we can sell it on craigslist.

car vs stroller

2009-02-03T12:18:00.000-08:00

When I first started in advertising my first client was GM of Canada working on Saturn, Saab and Isuzu. I worked with them for 5 years - all of them without a car. I was sort of the running joke the 'agency girl' that had to rent a car to come out to their offices in Oshawa. But it was my first job out of University, I had just moved to Toronto and a car was just not affordable (and honestly the receptionist was making more than me at the time). So I spent 5 years helping promote the benefits of cars, which I could drive, but not own. I had no problem getting my head around the relevant features and benefits. So when I bought my first car it was easy. (it was a Saturn 3-door Coupe).

When I bought my second car, after I moved out to Vancouver, I knew I wanted a Jetta (much easier to fit those 6 foot art directors in the back seat when going to client meetings). I just had to shop around to find the best offer/deal. Had a little bit of help from a male friend and it was done.

When I became a Mother last year I realized that buying a car had NOTHING on buying a stroller. To start with that McDonald's commercial is right and some strollers cost more than your car. Plus you really have NO IDEA before you have your baby what you will need. I was warned by friends that this was going to be a nightmare and I heard stories about three and four strollers. I was naive and thought they were crazy. I should be able to assess the really important feature vs benefits easier than that - I mean I worked in marketing for goodness sake. And I refused to spend $1000 or more on a stroller.

We had one lucky break in our stroller saga. My sister in law gave us her old stroller which worked with our baby car seat. It was a 'boat' but it worked well enough for a few months while we assessed our options. It was like a 3 month test drive of a vehicle we didn't want...

I followed the classic shopping process. Made a list of things both my husband I wanted and then hit the internet to research. Overwhelmed by that experience, but with a short list of strollers in hand, I hit the stores with baby safely seated in his 'boat'. I had one salesperson look at me like I was crazy and then say "you CAN'T be serious - you can't ALL have that". So back to the internet, better grasp of stroller measurements, then more shopping. More confusion... then REPEAT. Of course I was doing most of my research at 4am while pumping (yeah I know TMI). Finally I had a reasonable short list at reasonable prices and I got my husband back involved. More shopping.

Now we were down to a shortlist of 2. My husband's choice (Bob Revolution) and my choice (Bumbleride) both had 3 wheels, rubber tires, easy to fold, fits in my trunk, light weight, manoveured well, seat adjusted easily, not too wide, good sun cover, good online reviews, and reasonable price. Now I remember having long conversations with the folks at Saab Europe and Saab USA about cup holders. The Swedes just couldn't get their heads around the fact that Americans would make decisions on a car based on cup holders. Well my husband could NOT understand why I refused the Bob because of the size and accessibility of its basket. I walk and do a lot of shopping in our neighbourhood. And the basket MUST be accessible and large enough to carry home some groceries. I won (coincidentally the cup holder on the bumbleride is crap - fell off the first time we use it - but I don't really miss it).

But the saga wasn't yet over. We had to find the stroller at the best price. Only one store in Vancouver (Richmond actually) sold it - Pinky Blue. The prices if you bought online from the US were a lot cheaper. We wanted to support a local Canadian business. So we negotiated with the store. They were GREAT - it really reminded me that customer service is not dead. They matched the US price (with some adjustment for duty and exchange). Although they are not conveniently located, we try to make as many of our larger baby purchases with them (ie: stroller accessories). I know it is not the Saturn way, as I got a deal the next guy didn't get just because we had the 'balls' to ask. But the store has our loyalty and we love to tell everyone we know what a great customer service they have. If they would just start selling cloth diapers they would be my 'one-stop shop'.

So how is the stroller? We really like it. But it is actually really rather underused. We use the carrier (Ergo) more, and didn't even take a stroller at all when we went on a trip to Europe. But when we do go to the park or walk to the store it is very helpful, handy and the little guy is happy to sit in it. But mostly it lives in the trunk of my Jetta.

New Blogger - Definition of TV addict

2009-01-27T09:45:00.000-08:00

As a new blogger I think I'll address my TV addiction first. I don't attend any special addiction groups as I refuse to see my addiction as a problem (yup still in the denial stage). I celebrate and enjoy the boob tube as often as my son and husband allow. It was easy to justify my 'habit' over the years as I worked in advertising and marketing... so I had to watch what my target audiences were watching. Now with my PVR racing past all the commercials and no paid employment at the moment it is harder to justify. So I've had to edit a bit and not just mindlessly surf. I've become a true appointment TV viewer. The PVR is my best friend handily recording all my favourite shows without my even having to think about it. Then when I have some downtime I can relax and have a few moments with my TV friends. Since most of my time is spent with a 17 month old baby it is easy to say I watch more adult conversations on TV than have real ones these days.

To really show my dedication to reducing my tv watching ("I'm not an addict I can slow down at anytime..." LOL) I gave up the movie channels just before Christmas so we could save a few extra bucks each month. It was a big move for me as I've had the movie channels since 1996. So no more access to Big Love, Dexter, Entourage, HBO movies, etc. Unfortunately I miscalculated and had it cancelled with 3 episodes left in the current Dexter season... I certainly needed a sponsor the day I realized that error (thank goodness for the internet - but don't spoil it for me yet I haven't finished downloading the episodes).

Don't get me wrong I'm a pretty varied person who loves to read, cook, shop, dance, pilates, etc. But I was brought up as a latch key kid who did her homework in front of the tv. And had 'quality' time with my Grandparents watching Another World. So it really is just part of the fabric of my world. I really can do without it, I just don't really want to.

So what do I watch.... I'm pretty varied here too. Some of the top shows in my PVR priority list these days are: BSG (Battlestar Gallatica), Doctor Who, Torchwood, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, How I met my mother, Survivor, Amazing Race, Friday Night Lights, Mad Men, Project Runway - plus the HBO series which I don't currently get... Dexter, Big Love, Entourage. I also used to watch Coronation Street religiously, but as CBC is 6 months behind England I just keep up-to-date online.

What does all this mean? I guess it acts as an introduction to my television obsession and allows me to provide future posts with my thoughts on my favourite or un-favourite TV moments. I also might blog about my experiences with our PVR - just moved from Shaw to Telus TV. Will have lots to report about that experience very soon.