Idea Generator

Should I get a Blackberry?

I absolutely love my iPod Touch, and I was thinking that if and when I decided to upgrade to a smartphone, it would be an iPhone.

But you know what? Now that Google apps are so nicely connected, and I can sync my iTunes playlists to my Blackberry, I think I may just stick with my current mobile provider and get myself a Canadian smartphone!

I've resisted getting a smartphone, and I've sort of prided myself on only using my mobile phone to talk. But I have to say that even the glimpses I've had of mobile access through my iPod have really tempted me to get with the times. I guess I'd better start doing some thumb-strengthening exercises!

I do worry about always being connected (I tend to veer towards workaholism if I'm not careful), so I will need to practice good self-care and set clear boundaries for myself . Luckily, I've had lots of practice doing that. These things do have an OFF button, don't they?

My iPod Touch isn't going anywhere either! It has quickly become my home stereo system, my alarm clock, and (occasionally) a way to listen to a teleclass recording or some tunes while I walk Chyna.

My next stop is to the mall to actually try out the phones in my hands. The buttons absolutely must be comfortable!!

What do you think? Any recommendations (or warnings) about taking this leap? The Google Tutor has some great articles about the pros and cons of syncing with email using the Blackberry Internet Account or the Gmail mobile application. Which do you use? Please comment below - thanks!

Word Woman to the Rescue?

I admit it. I was SUPER jealous of the cool avatar that 9 Lives Illustrations created for Sandra De Freitas, Tech Coach for Coaches.

And then when I was researching the Style Guide and I came across Grammar Girl, I thought, "Pow! Foiled again!"

So when I saw a Twitter post about the 2009 Small Business Super Hero contest the other week, I jumped at the chance to express my inner super hero!

The contest was put on by the folks who make BatchBook,  my customer relationship management program.

Congratulations to the contest winners, Chadd Bennett of RetroRazor (first place), Ed Basconi and David Jones of KitBook (second place) and Dan Gellert and Randall Green of jitterbug.tv (third place).

And now I'm pleased to introduce you to Word Woman, as I described her in my contest entry:

There they are again, those menacing ideas. Seemingly helpful, with the potential to grow your business and rocket you to super-stardom as an expert in your industry, they seduce you with their creative appeal.

All of a sudden, you're tangled in their confusing web, asking what should I do first? Why does this sound so funny when I read it out loud? Why can't I seem to finish writing this article? What should I say on my website? How can I turn these ideas into a product?

Relax, dear coaches and other small business owners! Linda Dessau, Founder of You Talk, I'll Write, is on the case! Witness her super powers of word wrangling, mind reading, hope igniting and overwhelm taming! Watch her connect far-reaching ideas in a single conversation. Join her and make the leap from ideas to income.

OK, now it's your turn - who would you be as a super hero? What makes you a super hero to your clients and customers?

Vicki Pinkerton's Quest Across Canada

Vicki Pinkerton is a writer, creativity coach and visionary spirit. We did some of our coach training at CTI together back in the day (sometime between 2002 and 2004), and because we felt a connection, we've stayed connected.

Vicki's Quest Across Canada has been a long-time dream, and in just another week, she is making it come true!

When I heard about the party to celebrate Vicki's Quest, raise gas money and show our support, I couldn't wait to RSVP. I also thought immediately of the song I wanted to present to Vicki.

I've written before about the song "If I were brave," and how inspirational it is to me. Well, I think Vicki is incredibly brave to be doing what she's doing, and so I made up my mind to sing the song for her.

Songwriter Jimmy Scott was kind enough to send me the chord chart (thanks, Jimmy!). Unfortunately, I've strained my elbow/wrist and didn't feel up to playing the guitar last night. Thankfully, Rosanne Speckert stepped in to accompany me, quite artfully and quite possibly better than I would have played myself!

I am so glad I could be there to send Vicki off with my love, support and music. And I can't wait to follow her journey through email updates from her blog.

Click here to find out how you can help, and to sign up for Vicki's updates. Trust me - you will be enlightened, inspired and entertained.

Writing prompt: Coaching has been a big part of Vicki's life, both being coached and coaching others. There's no doubt those experiences played a role in her realizing this vision. What would you like to say to your clients/readers that might help them take their next step towards making their own dream come true? Here are some of my ideas for you:

• Career coaches: 10 ways to discover your dream job

• Life coaches: 10 baby steps to take towards your dream

• Money coaches: 10 things you can do today to start funding your dream

• Family/parenting coaches: 10 ways to keep your dream family vacation from becoming a nightmare

• Business coaches: 10 ways to incorporate your dream into your business plan

• Spiritual coaches: 10 questions to ask in meditation before you go after your dream

Please let me know if any of these titles sparked an idea for you!

What I'm doing Saturday night and how I will participate in Earth Hour

Earth Hour is this Saturday, March 28th at 8:30 p.m.

I'm proud that so many Canadians and Torontonians have committed to participate in this year's event.

Last year, I attended a concert by Acoustic Harvest, and the performers sang and played unplugged and by candlelight for the entire hour. It was beautiful!

My plans for Earth Hour 2009

This year, I was invited to participate in the York in Concert Black Tie Gala, as alumni of the acapella group Wibijazz'n (now usually known as Wibi). The concert is a celebration of York University's 50th anniversary. 

I have no control over how or if the organizers of this event will honour Earth Hour, but I do have power over the electricity use in my apartment.

Now, I don't want to leave Chyna home alone in the dark. While I know she supports Earth Hour as much as I do, I think she would be a little sad observing it without me. 

So before I leave for the concert I will turn off MOST of the lights (as I usually do), PLUS I will unplug all of my home electronics to eliminate the phantom power that they draw even when they're turned off.

Who knows - it's an early concert and I live close to the campus - maybe I will even be home to join in before Earth Hour is over. The good news is that I can continue my efforts to conserve energy every day. Will you join me?

Update: At Saturday night's concert, there was a note in the program that to offset the power they used to produce the concert (calculated by a third party, Toronto's carbonzero), York University would be planting trees on campus later in the season.

Happy Holidays to You and Yours

Wishing you a peaceful and joyous holiday season, and a prosperous and successful 2009 - whatever that means for you.

Thank you for your support in 2008. I appreciate you being a part of my business.

Sincere best wishes,
Linda Dessau
You Talk, I'll Write

P.S. I am on holidays now until Monday, January 5th. I will be checking email occasionally.

7 unusual things you probably don't know about me

Sandra De Freitas AND Greg Halpen tagged me in a blog post. They each listed seven unusual things about themselves, and then challenged seven other bloggers to do the same. Thank you, I think!

7 unusual things you probably don't know about me

1. I have a new boyfriend and he's a Captain in the Canadian Air Force Reserves.
2. I plan my meals for the whole week ahead of time.
3. My maternal grandmother was 1 of 7 children, so I have a multitude of cousins and second cousins.
4. I have lived in the same apartment for 11 years.
5. I had plastic surgery on my finger at age 9, after I closed a car door on it.
6. I love to watch gritty crime drama shows on television.
7. I still do not own a DVD player or an .MP3 player, and I only use my mobile phone to talk. [Update Feb 22/09 - I got an iPod Touch!! Great for showing my "family" photos]

And now it's my turn. I've chosen 7 people whose blogs you might enjoy, and who I would like to hear 7 unusual things about (instructions for bloggers are below):

1. Kim Nishida of Ready to Evolve
2. Alyssa Gregory of VA Secrets Revealed
3. Karri Flatla of Snap! Virtual Associates
4. Terri Zwierzynski of Solo-E
5. Kathy Mallary of Coaching Biz Tips
6. Janet Slack of Biz Tips for Coaches
7. Sarah Evans of PR Sarah Evans

Tag! You're it! Here are the instructions for my fellow bloggers:

• Link your original tagger(s), and list these rules on your blog.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post - some random, some weird.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs.
• Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs and/or Twitter.

Talk is Cheap 2.0 conference for PR writers

I had a great time the other night at the Talk is Cheap 2.0 conference put on by staff and students of Centennial College's Centre for Creative Communications and Social Media Group.

It was nice to hang out with June Li, Elizabeth Cockle and Barb Sawyers. I also ran into Terry Fallis, who I met, heard and blogged about at last year's event. Congratulations to Terry for winning the 2008 Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour.

I saw two sessions. In a presentation about The Ethics of Social Media PR, Dave Fleet and Michael O'Connor Clarke, both of Thornley Fallis, did a great job of explaining things like astroturfing, although in some ways the discussion raised more questions than answers. The question I was most interested in was why is it ok for professionals to have a speech written for them, but not a blog post?

Their take on that was that a blog is meant to be a two-way conversation, and if one of those two people isn't truly present in that conversation, it's fake. They offered the point that when someone has a speech written for them, it is still them that is standing there delivering the words.

Speaking of speechwriting, I also bumped into John Watkis at Wednesday night's event. John (who, incidentally, attended the same high school that I did) made a big impression on me when he spoke about speechwriting at a PWAC Toronto seminar last year.

Dave and Michael suggested that if you use a ghostblogger, you could include a disclaimer explaining that someone on your staff is writing the blog, but that you review and approve every post before it goes out.

What's the difference between ghostblogging and what I do when I edit and clean up my clients' blog posts before they publish them? Is there a difference?

I wouldn't be comfortable blogging "as" someone else. That would definitely feel fraudulent to me. I agree that when someone reads and comments on a blog post, they should expect to be interacting directly with the blog owner.

But ghostwriting or editing a blog post, that my client then goes ahead and publishes themselves, that's different. That's just one of the many ways I help my clients get their own great ideas out of their heads and into writing. It means they can make use of this fantastic marketing tool even if they struggle with writing, can't find the time do it or whether they just need some help to clarify and polish their words.

The second session I saw was also really interesting. It was called Influencing the New Influencers, and was about how to "pitch" to bloggers to get them to review, endorse or simply talk about your product or service. The panel was moderated by Keith McArthur of com.motion and featured Brenna Flynn, also of com.motion and Eden Spodek of Bargainista.

Not surprisingly, they talked a lot about the importance of building a long-term relationship ("make friends before you need them") and also about customizing your pitch to demonstrate that you've read and followed the blog.

Congratulations to the Talk is Cheap Team for another great event! I'm so glad I was there.

My newest addition has arrived!

Introducing Chyna:

This beautiful 10-year old greyhound retired from the racetrack in 2002 and was welcomed into the GINA (Greyhounds in Need of Adoption) family. In fact, one of the people who helped get her ready for her first foster home was also one of my home visit reps.

She tells me that next to all of the "big boys" that Chyna arrived with, she looked like a little china doll. She made the comment, the foster family liked it, and that's how she got her name.

It was love at first sight for me, and I'm thrilled to be entering this new phase of my life as a "dog Mom."

A day in the life of a ghostwriter, editor and music therapist - the Twitter experiment

Twitter - networking, procrastinating or both?

Well, the jury is still out on whether Twitter will improve or degrade my productivity. The first few days have revealed it's addictive nature AND it's amazing capacity to shrink the world. I feel my relationships with my online colleagues deepening - and some of them I have known for years via email.

And I'm feeling more in relationship to other colleagues who I've known "by name only" up until now. Plus I've met plenty of new people. To borrow from a wise phrase, a stranger is just a tweeter (twitter-er? twit?) you haven't met yet.

Social networking as a marketing tool

If you're looking to dip your feet into the social networking pool, Nancy Marmolejo (@NancyMarmolejo) has some great social networking tips here. And next week's client story in the Idea Generator blog will feature Kristen Beireis (@life_enthusiast) and her new social networking paper.

For a more in-depth look at Twitter and how to use it, check out Jennifer Laycock's article (@JenniferLaycock).

What Linda Dessau is doing RIGHT NOW

When I added this link to my Contact page, I called it "More than you ever wanted to know." I'll be updating my Twitter profile several times a day, answering the question, "What are you doing now?" And my answers will be posted here in all their glory:
A Day in the Life - The Twitter Experiment

I'll be jammin'

If you've been a long-time reader of my self-care and creativity articles (and thank you for that!), you may remember me posting in the Everyday Artist blog about Downtown Jam - here's a link to the original blog post.

It's a very unique music club in downtown Toronto, designed to provide musicians and singers with organized opportunities to make music together. Specifically, ROCK AND ROLL (woo hoo!), featuring a 500-song chord book with many of my favourites, including the Beatles, Joni Mitchell and others.

Well, it's taken me two years, but I finally joined! My first jam night is coming up on September 16 (I signed up to do keyboards and vocals), and I can't wait!

It' s exactly what I'm looking for right now: music-making that's just for me, but without the structure and time commitment of a choir, or the extra task of putting together my own group. And music that I truly love.