A.M. SPOUTS

Posted on August 5, 2010 by Teresa Stewart


So here I am at 1:52 a.m. spilling out some words; please forgive if something doesn’t quite make sense. I’ve been feeling a little guilty as it’s been a while since I’ve spouted about anything so let me catch you up on TAS current events. I’ve been debating about going back to school to become more experienced in website design, marketing and eCommerce. But I’ve also had these intrusive thoughts that until one build up loads of traffic (which with hard work can take years), the advertisements and banners placed on the websites are simply billboards instead of commission making vehicles. I’ve made some coffee money from the Google ads (and I ain’t taking Starbucks dollars) but I need to start generating a serious income. Going to school to learn more about websites isn’t going to help me generate any income now so is my mind using that as a delay tactic? Possibly. Probably. Plus I have a repetitive motion hand injury that flares up often and I seriously wonder how many hours a day I can keyboard without doing serious damage. I’ve had rehab on the hand but like sex, I think abstinence is the only method to prevent further injury. Sad. School on the back burner for a minute.

On the other hand, I’ve started making a business plan for an idea that I had a few months ago. This by the way is what has seriously eaten into my post writing time, ergo this now 2:46 a.m. post. I had gotten stuck with researching the competition as it’s not a well published service, so I scheduled a meeting this past Monday with SCORE to get some help. SCORE is a source of free and confidential small business advice for entrepreneurs. The counselors are retired executives and entrepreneurs who share their wisdom and experiences. Check it out at www.score.org. The counselor gave me some very good ideas and tips, and indicated the idea was viable. (He also mentioned a non-disclosure agreement but I didn’t see anything in writing.) He has multiple small LLC’s so I feel pretty confident and excited to steam ahead on this.

Blogging can be a vast lonely desert. I personally know no one else that blogs so tonight, I attended a bloggers meeting. There were all levels in attendance from the very experienced and making bucks to the newbies (c’est moi). I especially liked meeting the blogger who demanded that I remove the “celebrating life path changes” off my tag line because it was the name of her book (shameless plug right? Tell someone who cares). The facilitator suggested that a business plan is a must for any serious blog. After I pound out the business plan for my idea above, I’ll get started on one for the websites. The facilitator didn’t see the point of having a blog if you weren’t looking to make money off of it. As I’m unemployed, I’d love and anticipate making a dime or two, but I think there are a whole lotta folks out there in the nether that just want to have a voice, and an outlet and probably won’t care if they never make a dime off their blogs. Love to hear from you – what say you blogger extraordinaire?

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OLD SPICE

Posted on July 22, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

Have you seen the newest Old Spice commercial?  An attractive charismatic man with a deep voice, and big muscles performing seemingly effortless scene changes, makes it seem like your man, who is ordinary and average Joe, could become just like him if he simply used Old Spice Body Wash, and smelled like Old Spice instead of smelling like ladies body wash.  Everything you had ever hoped and dreamed of, he could provide, if only he smelled of Old Spice. The original commercial ended with the man riding a white horse; this time he gets splashed down on a motorcycle.  Both times the commercials end with something between the man’s legs.  We all know sex sells—I see these endings as a subliminal representation of his (translate “your man’s”)  sexual prowess (as if he could ride you).

My dad used Old Spice back in the ‘60’s.  I haven’t known one man in my adult life that has ever bought or used Old Spice.  I probably would have made fun of him if he did.  The new commercials show marketing at its most brilliant –there is no doubt of the product being pushed, it sucks you in, it’s engaging and entertaining, persuasive, and straight to the point.  It’s directed at women who will, at minimum, encourage their men to use Old Spice Body Wash or buy it for him during her normal store run.  Men will now second guess why they are using their lady’s body wash.  This commercial makes me curious to remember what Old Spice smells like.  You want to see the commercial again after it ends.  At least I did.

Buy 1 Old Spice Fresh Collection Deodorant or Odor Blocker Bodywash & get an Old Spice Fresh Collection Fiji Deodorant FREE at drugstore.com. Offer ends 07.31.2010.

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LinkedIn, Part II

Posted on July 15, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

I took an Advanced Linkedin class today – didn’t think I would get much out of it, but yet again I was proven wrong.  I’m more impressed than even after the first class.  Some of the highlights for me:

You have three levels of connections in your network.  Level one connections are the  people that you have invited to join your network or they have invited you.  Your network includes these first level connects, as well as their first level (which become your 2nd level) and their 2nd levels which become your 3rd level connects.  Any groups you join are also considered a part of your network. 

For search, any recruiter making a search will use keywords to find the skills or position for which they seek prospects.  The text of your resume can be searched, but the priority area is the headline, so ensure any critical keywords are listed. If there are particular jobs you are seeking, list those keywords in the headlines, as well as the summary, and resume text. 

I’ve been avoiding uploading a photo due to security reasons.  I learned you can upload a pic and then restrict to whom it can be shown.  You can visit the Settings page to restrict what is shown during a public search, and to restrict the distribution of what you post.  Especially when setting up your profile and resume, you don’t want every little change made blasted to your connections, and network. 

View the Profile section to customize your web address—you can add this to your resume, business card, etc.  On the edit page there is a link to “customize button.”  Linked in gives you the html code for a clickable LinkedIn icon button that you can add to emails, websites, etc.; it will link to your LinkedIn profile.  It looks like this:

 

Visit the More/Events tab to find or set up networking events in your area.  Also in the More tab is the Application Directory.  You can download multiple applications to your site, ones that can access Twitter, connect your blog, make a poll and more.  One app that astounded me was SlideShare.  You can:

  • share presentations & documents with your LinkedIn network
  • upload portfolios, resume, conference talks, PDFs, marketing/sales presentations
  • display them on your LinkedIn profile
  • embed YouTube videos in presentations, add audio to make a webinar

I downloaded a PowerPoint presentation on Virtual Collaboration  from a Hewlett Packard VP.  If you are interested in a company, their presentations may give you an inside peek at the company culture, processes, operations, etc., or just download for self-education.    As I understand it once the document is in SlideShare,  it’s public without proprietary rights.  Wow!

When you check out LinkedIn, hit me back with a comment and share your thoughts.

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SCAM SHAM

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

I’ve been the victim of a work from home scam.  Am I hot and angry?  Nope, not at all and if you bear with me through the story, I’ll you why.  The job ad came from a legitimate source, but the lack of information provided, and lack of information requested for application was questionable (Red Flag 1).  My contact, Armin.Peters@yahoo.com signed all his emails and referenced www.Parship.de as the website of his company.  That site is a legitimate German based dating website, but I questioned why my contact had an @yahoo email versus @Parship.de extension. I wanted to verify Armin’s employment with Parship.de  but I couldn’t find a link to ask a question on the website  (Red Flag 2).  Moving ahead to verify legitimacy, I sent a bunch of questions to Armin which were answered promptly and completely.  The job would pay every 22 days, via PayPal, $8 per kb of corrections.  Texts would be sent everyday to correct the orthography (I had to look that one up.)   

The text work they sent me to edit looked like email texts, approximately four or five on the list, approximately 4 total kb of text.  The list took under an hour to revise.  After I submitted the first revision back to Armin, I weighed the consequences of working texts for 22 days, which would be less than 22 hours of work.  My gut still wasn’t 100% confident that this wasn’t a scam, but being able to afford an hour a day, I decided to take a calculated risk, commit to the job, and anticipate a paycheck in twenty two days.  After four days of text, because I was “doing such a good job,” I got an offer to become a Local Agent.  Uh oh (Red Flag 3), here’s the Bait and Switch.  I completed a fifth round of text corrections while waiting to hear details on the local agent job.  The weekend passed, and a Monday with no new work (Red Flag 4).

The next day Tuesday I initiated an email to Armin querying the lack of work.  Here’s an abbreviated version of the email that he sent me:

“ We are informing you that we should stop a “Text Editor” vacancy for a period of 2 months. The reason is that we need employees to an other vacancy in our company “Local Agent” for summer period.  It’s a good paid job and in 2 month you will stay working on it or you will return to your previous work with texts editing. It will be your choice.  Please see an attached file with description of new position.  Your Pay Date stays the same, even you start a new job, also your balance stays alive.  We hope you will work in the right way as you did it before and we wish you to have a good income in our company.  Remember, your profits won’t be just $1400 salary per month, but profits from commissions too, where you can earn much more.”

 The Local Agent description consists of setting up a bank account, accepting and depositing monies from various customers which are “are intended to be used for presents, flowers, trips, special occasions, simply saying expenditures connected to romance.”   The Agent would be paid $1400 monthly but be able to take 4% commission from each bank deposit.  Okay then!  The red flags have turned to huge neon billboards!  I googled this type of money transaction and it’s basically, yep you got it, money laundering (which we all know is illegal right?)

So you can probably see for yourself why I’m not angry.  After this experience (which fortunately cost me less than five hours of work), my advice to myself is:  check out as much detail as you can, NEVER pay $$ up front, search Google for others experiences/reviews, invest the time if you can afford it, and ultimately Go With Your Gut!

 Clark Howard, a Georgia consumer activist, has a website which provides helpful information and podcasts on some of the latest 2010 scams, and fradulent schemes.  Visit  http://feeds.clarkhoward.com/ClarkHowardsRipOffAlerts .

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NATURAL ODDITY

Posted on July 6, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

It was astoundingly odd to see this sight on the glass of my patio door; it is a close-up of multiple, pin head sized, arranged in a less than perfect circle, eggs on glass.  They fried later and turned cream colored in the blazing Georgia sun.

 I have yet to clean them off, just to remind myself that nature can and does go wrong.  Were the eggs laid by a bug in a hurry, or a bug that was challenged  by some genetic function gone wrong?  Whatever the defect, it won’t be passed down in this particular bug’s line, since the eggs had zero chance to survive.  This oddity is definitely symptomatic of our topsy turvy world, possibly a pre-cursor to or another natural disaster happening before our eyes.  If something has gone wrong there, something must also be going wrong with us since we are also part of nature.  This event was probably the by-product of something man made that the tiny insect could not escape.  Are we humans also  performing what we think are seemingly normal ordinary acts but in the eyes of our higher powers, those acts are seen as nature gone wrong?

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GET LINKEDIN!

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

How do people find jobs today?  I’ve heard that 85% of jobs are obtained through networking, and recruiters source 80% from www.LinkedIn.com .   What?!*&!  I received the first invite to join a few years ago.  Being curious,  I loaded a minimal bio and requested connections from a few of my closest friends.  After stretching to get about five 1st level connections, which linked me to ten or twenty  2nd level connections, I thought it was a kinda cute  program, somewhat like multi-level marketing.  I really didn’t see a need to delve into it since I had a job.  To be fair, I should also add that I didn’t have the time necessary to upkeep another networking site since I was already maintaining MySpace, and Facebook.  Now that I’ve separated from my employer, the need to learn LinkedIn has transitioned from unnecessary to necessary.

My career coach suggested I take their classes on the program –Networking with LinkedIn and Advanced LinkedIn.  After taking the first overview class yesterday, to describe and compare LinkedIn to a multi-level marketing scheme is a major understatement.  I’m totally impressed at the few things that I learned can be done with this powerful database.  At minimum, you can create a bio listing your name, a “professional headline” ( which can be a summary statement of your roles, and competencies), and the industry in which you play, err I mean work.   You can upload a resume and photo, initiate and receive email, filter on all your connections for information on their companies/locations/industries, make announcements to your network, and follow professional and alumni groups.

The most exciting thing that I have learned to date is that you can find a hiring manager of a company, and request an introduction if you have any 1st or 2nd level connections in your network.  Sweeeet!  Bypassing the gatekeeper and HR is the name of the game!  On the far right navigation bar, click on the “advanced” link near the search bar; this brings up the Advanced People Search Screen.  From here you can add appropriate filters, including the title of the person you think may be the hiring manager.  This left us a little stumped in class but we were told to use the title of the person to whom we reported, example “manager.”   The resulting view will bring up a bunch of manager titles.  A name will be listed next to the title if they are in your network, and you’ll have options to request an introduction.  If they aren’t in your network, apparently there is a fee of $10 you can pay to “cold call” email.  I would think this method could possibly be viewed as pestering,  but you can turn off the option to receive these calls in the Settings. 

You can also perform a general job search:  From navigation bar at top, select Jobs, then Advanced Search.  Input appropriate filters and the resulting view lists multiple jobs and companies which meet your specified requirements.  Under the company name is a link to “see who at xyz company can help you get this job.”  Click that link and you view the person or people in your network that have an association with that company.  You then again have options to request an introduction through your connection.  Did I say sweet? That is an example of networking at its best.  Of course there are no guarantees that your request will meet the intended person, but your chances of getting an interview through this method I’m sure are better than submitting a resume through  impersonal  job boards.  LinkedIn.com – what a powerful networking and job search tool! Can’t wait to take the Advanced LinkedIn class.  Will report back…

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COBRA BITES

Posted on June 30, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

Update:  Just got my Cobra documents from the ex-employer.  My termination date was 5/28 and the Modification program deadline was 5/31 (Reference post OBAMA’S COBRA).  The modification basically decreases the price of your existing healthcare package t0 35% of the premium. The employer has to absorb the rest.  OMG did I just squeak into that inclusion?! 

The monthly fee will be pretty much the same as when I was employed, with the same terms, and deductibles.  So I have the same medical, dental, and vision for up to eighteen months.  The documents also reference an option to find other plans through www.ExtendAccess.com .  I input that address to get a comparison but it defaulted to   http://www.extendhealth.com/ .   The few plans I looked at had huge deductibles so I’m sticking with the Cobra.  Only one drawback:  I’ll be billed July 15th for coverage from 5-29 thru 8-31, so essentially they are requiring three months of payments all at once. Make It Work. 

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TRANSITION TO THELONIUS

Posted on June 25, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

Transitions are happening everywhere, everyday.  Sometimes it’s hard to keep up, but if the change makes life easier, I’ll all for it!  WordPress has a new 3.0 release titled “Thelonius,”  apparently named after a  great jazz musician, and a new theme Twenty Ten which replaces Kubrick.  Check out and catch Matt Mullenweg’s excitement as he speaks about the changes:   http://wordpress.org/development/2010/06/thelonious/

 I was previewing Twenty Ten but neglected to close out of it when I got called away.  When I got back to my nb the next day, the darn theme had automatically updated, thank you very much!  I do like it much better than the theme I was using,  but I lost a bunch of widgets in the transition.  Among other things, Twenty Ten will allow you to add a picture to the header and to the background without having to add on a plug-in (which may or may not work for the release that you use).  It allows menu customizations which I have yet to explore.   I don’t believe in co-incidences so maybe that hi-jacking was a sign that I needed to simplify my page, de-clutter if you will, which I’m also starting to do in other areas of my life.  More on that later…

If you are running WordPress, and have updated to the latest/greatest, what do you think of it?

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TIME BECOMES MY ENEMY

Posted on June 23, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

What are you doing right now?  Working, wishing you could take a nap, driving, in the hospital, contemplating suicide, cussing someone out, sitting with a sick one, having a drink, stuck in traffic, watching TV, preparing a meal, eating ice cream, kissing a baby, laughing, crying?  As sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, we know this moment will pass.  For most of us it will pass too quickly.  Sadly, for me, time becomes the enemy when there is not enough of it. 

I’ve found out how to make my days slow down, but it’s something that must be practiced, practiced, practiced.  Everyday.  It’s being present.  Deepak Chopra in his book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of success says, “The Present is a present.”  The present is most certainly a gift, but it is one that is most often underappreciated, overlooked or ignored.  What is being present?  Easy to describe, hard to do.  It is being focused on whatever is happening at this particular minute.  It’s not allowing your mind to race forward to what you have to do tonight, or what you should have done last night.  It’s taking the time to appreciate the event or non-event that is unfolding in front of you, be it pleasant or unpleasant.  It’s that second that you push the remote control to close the garage door and watch it ease down, so you don’t have to wonder later if you actually closed the garage.  Or it’s the second that you actually see yourself  turning off or unplugging the iron or other appliance so you feel secure that your house won’t burn down while you are away.  Or actually seeing the range of emotions flit across your child’s face as they share their day.  How beautiful is that?  

I’m not exactly sure how this makes time slow down for me…maybe because some part of each day became embedded in my mind, and those multitudes of moments can be recalled?  Is it because I’ve gained moments in time, not lost them?  I don’t know, but lately I’ve been forgetting lately to be present and it shows in my house, in my being, and in how I treat others. It’s like I’m in the midst of chaos and my time is swishing right by at an accelerated pace.  I don’t like that feeling so I’m taking a moment now to be present, and to center myself, to feel each breath and to become aware of my lungs gracefully moving air in and out.  I’m not sure I could ever be present twenty-four hours a day, or even if I should, but won’t you share this moment with me?

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Closet Transition

Posted on June 19, 2010 by Teresa Stewart

Today, my well meaning aunt who works to develop small businesses, strongly urged me not to delay searching for a traditional job. Whereas I thought any prospective employer would give me a pass for trying out my entrepreneurial skills, it became apparent through our conversation that that may not be the case. Employers for the most part want to develop someone who will stay with them; it’s not attractive to engage someone who may want at any and every moment to run off to pursue their own interests. Apparently the entrepreneurial track becomes like a virus—it enters your blood and lodges there deep within your cells. It may get to the point where you absolutely can’t work a secular job.

Maybe getting a new “interview suit” will put me in the spirit of things. I got rid of all my work suits several years ago (along with pantyhose yea rah). The last eight years with my previous employer was always business casual and less. By less, I mean that some men came into the office wearing shorts and athletic shoes. I would buy the occasional jacket but nothing formal (matching two piece), rigid, boned or uber tailored. It’s a nightmare to even think about going back to wearing suits, hose, heels on a daily basis.

Anyway, as I didn’t wear the suits, the precious closet rack space became a memento to change. After Katrina, I donated several of them to a family of women who moved to Georgia after the devastation. When that didn’t hurt much, I donated the remaining to other women’s organizations. If I got called for an interview tomorrow, I would not be prepared dress wise. Take a trip with me to my favorite clothing store Macy’s. They have a nice selection of executive corporate suits, as well as business casual, dresses, and what I call soft dressing. That is like a knit button sweater with a teddy or silk tee underneath, paired with a pant or skirt that provides a little give, or a nice dress paired with a knit wrap. I used to have a wardrobe for work, for evening, and one for working out. I absolutely now look for clothes that will go the extra mile to wear at work, and wear out at night, and are washer friendly. You want to be some sexy when you play at night, and nothing is wrong with being a smidge sexy at work, but the trick is to not let your clothes be a distraction. If you are giving a presentation, you want the audience to hear you, and focus on your words, not lose your message cause they are staring at the metallic and crystal bling framing your décolleté. Ok if you didn’t have time to work on your presentation, maybe a little distraction will work well, lol. But you get my drift. Here are a few tops I’m looking at:

This one works will work well in any office and out and about during the week or weekend.

Though I’m underwhelmed by the print on this skirt, I like the idea that comes across with the scarf – it’s soft but also very professional. The scarf gives a little bit of zing and character to keep the outfit from being dull. Actually long draped layered chains of different sizes and textures would also work.

Both of these blouses can work double duty as work gear or sexy evening play. For work, drape them over black, brown or even cream colored trousers with a fitted sweater or soft jacket. For evening let your imagination run wild with accessories, jeans, or maybe leggings.

Absolutely love love love this top – it’s cotton and spandex so it will have some give. It’s crisp and will look great over simple black trousers, also it’s a little fitted thru the waist so will also look great with a skirt, and black fitted sweater. Happy hunting to you

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