A New View of Los Angeles

Like many of you, I have been overwhelmed in the past few weeks with things I should have been doing, writing, accomplishing, checking off my list. I often find myself spinning in circles. I have a dog that does that constantly, I should just leave that to him.

Today I returned to Los Angeles after 12 days in McMinnville, a small town outside of Portland. I enjoyed my time with my Oregon family. For the first time ever, it did not rain while I visited, just a steady cold, foggy gloom. The McMinnvillians loved it. I missed the sun.

I like flying into Burbank on Alaska Airlines from Portland. It's a direct two-hour flight with free beer or wine. If I sit on the right side of the plane, I can spot my backyard as we descend. I love that I've lived in Los Angeles long enough to pick out buildings as I fly overhead. Today was a spectacularly clear day. I could see from the ocean to Century City, my house, downtown and the building I'm working in on the Warner Bros. lot. This panoramic view was awe-inspiring and helped me reset my focus.

Earlier this evening I noticed the moon, shining low in the sky, just the thinnest sliver. I missed the moon the past few nights. In my early LA years when I was in my late 20s I often spent New Year's Eve at my friend John's apartment in Hollywood. At midnight I would look out over his balcony at the moon and palm trees to make a wish for the New Year. It was always the beauty of nature that I focused on. I fell optimistic and hopeful then. Today, I felt the same way.

A friend had this link posted and I want to share it too. (via @Upworthy) http://bit.ly/1gu5omL

ORIGINAL: By Louie Schwartzberg and TEDx.

I'm on an American Idol (not so) Secret Mission

So I got this tweet from American Idol:

I was suspicious as I could see that they sent the same message to several other individuals. I was pretty sure it was a hoax, but I couldn't resist responding. I sent them my email address and a few minutes later, this harsh warning, "You better not spam me." Then I deleted both messages.

A few days later I got an email from American Idol with a personal invitation from Ryan Seacrest for a unique first-look experience with a dozen other handpicked fan/bloggers. They were flying us in! Great, thought the girl who lives 10 miles away. Still, I was intrigued so I RSVP'd. A few days later, a hotel confirmation shows up from an AI show coordinator. Wow, this is really happening!

Less than one week later, after a flurry of tweets and Facebook posts identifying our group, the #IdolTweetHearts are ready to get into action. Do you know how hard it is to get an emergency hair appointment in December?

Let's have some fun with this!
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What It Takes to Keep a Pinky on the Pulse

I'm one click away from breaking a webinar/seminar/TedTalk/cat video viewing record. In my quest for knowledge I said yes to everything that came my way the past 8 weeks. 

These included:

•Social Media Success Summit 2013(SMSS13): 33 one-hour sessions spread out over 11 days featuring many of my favorite Social Media experts. I hung in there for every word of the first 20 or so hours, tweeting with my fellow remote attendees, before becoming overwhelmed and downloading the rest for future (AKA: never) reference. 

•Rutgers mini-MBA in Digital Marketing, a new 3 hour x 10-week course to supplement the mini-MBA in Social Media Marketing that I completed in September (do two mini-MBAs equal a whole one?). Loved the lively presentation style of Christina "CK" Kerley on Mobile Marketing, who subsequently through our conversation on Twitter convinced me that it will not hurt when I get a mobile device implanted into my body in the near future. 




•The brilliant Malcolm Gladwell, in person, talking about his new book "David & Goliath" through LiveTalks LA. 
I love the twist he puts on sociology and technology. He makes you think of what is right in front of you in a totally different way.

•SMSS13 led me to sign up for Andrea Vahl and Phyllis Khare's 6-week Social Media Manager SchooI. Super helpful and practical tips as a new business owner. The private Facebook group sent me into a tizzy though with all of the questions and answers I need to follow up on.

•Mari Smith's Facebook Marketing webinar.
Free advice although I spent most of the time too fascinated by her Scottish/ Canadian/ San Diego accent to take notes.

•A Groupon for 4 private and 10 video guitar lessons, the nudge I needed to re-string and pick up my vintage Silvertone after years of abandonment. My instructor is very patient as I relearn how to play. Most of the time he says "Don't strum! Just put your fingers in place." Poor guy.

•A free 10-week course "Society, Science, Survival: Lessons from AMC's The Walking Dead, which I'm a little behind on, but now that they're giving badges upon completion I will have to hustle to catch up. Don't tell me what happens!

•I attended the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles to hear noted Oncologist Dr. Lawrence Piro speak about Longevity. He may be on to something as this extraordinarily accomplished doctor looks like he is 24. He told us to watch what we eat, drink red wine and exercise. We all ate candy provided by Nestle afterward.

•Always a big fan of their events, I went to thinkLA's Movie Marketing Breakfast to hear Brian Robbins, Ryan Duffy and Jason Blum. Robbins, creator of Awesomeness TV enticed me to watch his new YouTube series "Side Effects." After he described it as Party of Five meets Glee, how could I not? Read my guest blog recap for Primary Color here http://bit.ly/IwBgdB 

•Another cool thinkLA event I impulsively clicked on and attended was "How to Make Almost Anything" led by 
Per Hakansson where I helped create a time management App in one hour. It was an interesting group experience, limited to only 24 attendees. Check out the POPapp for iPhones to see how we worked.

•I spent the day in an auto museum for Rhythm Interactive's Integrated Marketing Forum where I learned about content marketing and "secret sauce" recipes from Joe Pulizzi, Dr. Pamela Rutledge, 
Mark Fidelman and others. Check out www.PrimaryColor.com for my recap coming soon and learn what The Three Little Pigs and The Rolling Stones have in common.




•Others may dream of their Oscar speech, but I dream of the TEDTalk I will give someday. 
I checked out Rutgers "Gamification" instructor Gabe Zichermann give his own spirited talk. Here's a guy with every kid's dream job! http://www.ted.com/talks/gabe_zichermann_how_games_make_kids_smarter.html 

Oh, and I couldn't stop watching "Cats Stealing Dog Beds" about 20 times. Makes me laugh every time!  http://bit.ly/1bvC6V4

I learned my lesson by not watching the MTV Video Music Awards in real time and missing the whole Miley debacle. Actually, it was engineered in such a way that no one could possibly have missed it (well played, MC). So I made it a point to watch her on the AMAs. Which led to this perfect parody on Jimmy Fallon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRy0ONLBFfc

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

#SocialMedia #CKSays #MalcolmGladwell #AndreaVahl #PhyllisKhare #MariSmith #JoePulizzi #GabeZichermann #thinkLA #PrimaryColor #DrLawrencePiro

Sunday Fun Day Tassimo Taste Test

A few years ago I went to Paris with my fellow birthday twin Kathleen Ryan to visit my friend Paige Yoder Celestin. It was the first trip to Paris for both of us and we fell in love with everything and anything about our visit.

Kathleen and Paige outside of Place de la Concorde

Paige and Lynne at Le Grand Colbert

Paige has always been the most fashionable person I know, since our early days in New York City when she lived at the Webster Apartments for Women and worked as an Executive Assistant for Louis Feraud to her current location in Aix en Provence. We were fortunate to visit when she lived just outside of Paris in Montreuil.

One of the things I fell in love with was Paige's coffeemaker. You dropped a pod in and out came a wonderful cup of Joe. She also had a separate steamed milk maker that sealed the deal for me. I think the brand she had was similar the the Nescafe Dolce Gusto, a Ferrari version of what was available in the U.S.

So my first splurge when I recovered from my trip was to purchase a similar coffee maker. A few years ago there were two main contenders on the market: Tassimo and Keurig. I went with the Tassimo since it had the ability to make cappuccino with those freaky irradiated milk cartridges. As someone who has diligently checked the milk carton expiration date all my life, I don't understand how those "milk" cartridges last so long, but it was the selling factor for me. I don't really like flavored coffee very much, which is what Keurig seemed to favor.

The Tassimo was all the rage in my household for about four months. I bought every possible variation of coffee, cappuccino, latte and hot chocolate. In case you don't know, each beverage comes in a pod with a barcode on it. The machine reads the barcode and adjusts how much water it heats up and passes through the pod. Then you toss the non-recyclable, environmentally unfriendly little case in the trash, but there are no coffee grounds to measure or clean up.

Since my purchase I go through phases where I will alternate between the Tassimo and my Braun, in between trips to Starbucks. Shopping for the Tassimo has become increasingly limited as Keurig clearly won the market. Only Bed, Bath & Beyond has a decent selection of Tassimo pods now, and I predict my coffeemaker will end up in the electronic waste section of my garage.

Today I decided to do a taste test with three of the versions of coffee pods I've acquired: Maxwell House Morning Blend Coffee that makes a 12 oz. serving (it only takes a couple of overflowing mugs to remember this), Gevalia 15% Kona Coffee Blend, and a newer pod maker King Joe Dark Roast Coffee. I measured one tablespoon of 1% milk in each cup. Aren't my vintage Metlox California Poppy Trail cups nifty?

The Morning Blend tasted like coffee water, now I know why I am not perky even though I'm drinking a larger serving per pod. Gevalia was okay, but had some floral overtones. King Joe was the clear winner of the three. To make it fair I should have included a cup from my Braun and tested without knowing which was which. Clearly I had nothing better to do this morning but share this with you. The good news is after drinking three cups of coffee I am wide awake! 

What do you drink in the morning?

Margie Dana Has Seen the Future of Print Buying

Margie Dana has seen the future of print buying and it still looks bright

Margie Dana, noted Print Industry advocate and founder of Print Buyers International, visited the Advertising Production Association of Orange County (APAOC) on October 22 via teleconference to share some insights about the research study she conducted along with industry consultant and researcher John Zarwan of 315 Print Buyers. Their results and analysis have been compiled into a 40-page report “The New Print Buyers: Who They Are, What They Want and What You Should Do.”

Dana started on a positive note stating, “The good news is there is good news.” Dana used Survey Monkey to maintain anonymity to the respondents of the 40 question survey conducted in July 2013 and she got them to spill the beans about many aspects of their jobs and how they feel about the future of their profession.

Most buyers reported that their budgets were steady or expected to increase, definitely good news for the printers in the room. Half had budgets of over $1million.

If you were to picture the typical Print Buyer, she (63% were female) would look a lot like, well, me! She is over 45, has 16+ years experience, works in a corporate environment in a marketing or creative department, makes a decent salary and appreciates the tactile process of printing. She understands the art of printing and enjoys collaborating with the graphic designer and printer in choosing the right paper and equipment for the job.

Dana and Zarwan's report goes on to illuminate several shifts in our industry, from the actual print buyer's role, to the next generation and what we want from our print vendors. "Print Buyers want new print concepts and innovations from their printer," Dana said. Partly because the role of the buyer has expanded to include a broader marketing role. She predicts that there will be fewer sole Print Buyers, as they expand their tool kits and learn more digital skills.

At one moment during the teleconference we lost contact with Dana visually. We could still hear her but lost her presentation and physical inset. After about 30 seconds of confusion, a person in the audience quietly walked to the front of the room and jiggled the mouse to refresh the screen. Ah, back to our presentation.


And that brings us to the next generation and their desire to work more online. We have already seen a successful shift of proofing from traditional hard proofs to online soft proofs. Buyers are looking for faster and cheaper ways to communicate with their clients. Working online doesn't just mean purchasing products. 

APAOC President Julie Esler, Production Manager at DGWB Advertising, brought up a good point as one of the younger people in our profession. Esler said she expects her vendors to have a good online presence to show they are "with it and know how to communicate."  She said she is much more likely to want to work with someone who knows to text her info rather than send a fax. 

The future of print is still bright and the light is coming from your desktop, tablet and phone. All you need is the love of print and your finger to keep up (or someone to jiggle the mouse).

Dana and Zarwan’s report may be purchased at http://margiedana.com/store/reports/. 

#Print   #MargieDana   #JohnZarwan   #TheAPAOC

Is a 5th grader more likely to get an MBA than me?

I may be addicted to education. I have taken 22 courses at UCLA Extension over the years, 15 in the last few years. My path to pursue a back-up career in personal financial planning led to a dead end when I realized it was just not my thing. Yet one tiny Saturday class in Social Media Marketing struck a nerve and opened up a whole new career path.

That one Saturday led to a 12-week course and then another and another. Can a baby boomer really succeed in a field with "digital natives?" The answer is yes, but maybe not in the way you would think. I want to know everything there is to know and do everything there is to do in Social Media. My realization that I never will is how I came up with my business name "PinkyonthePulse.com." I recognize that there will always be someone who knows more than me. Some of them are 5th graders.

I decided to pursue more education and thought about taking an MBA program in Social Media Marketing through the University of Florida. I was ready to sign on board, rack up major student loan debt and take an 18 month course. That would certainly give me the credentials over most digital natives who are already up to their eyeballs in student loan debt and not likely to go to this new level.

There was one little hurdle I had to jump over—the GRE. Seriously, someone with 30 years of business experience has to pass the GRE to take a virtual MBA program? Don't you really just want my credit card? The answers are yes and yes. To make it into the fall program I had two weeks to study for the GRE before my deadline. I tried, I really did. I was fairly confident in the Analytical Writing and Verbal Reasoning portions, but Quantitative Reasoning, really? The last time I had to solve for x and y people still looked like the guy on this GRE Prep Guide.

By the grace of Social Media itself I had a true Twitter epiphany. I tweeted to @markwschaefer, author of "The Tao of Twitter," that I had enjoyed his seminars. I noticed on his site that he taught at Rutgers University Center for Management Development. I said this program looked interesting and he answered back in impressive social media response time and offered me a discount. Rutgers offers a program in several topics brilliantly called a "mini-MBA." Their Social Media Marketing mini-MBA was the perfect fit for me. Ten intensive weeks of everything I needed to know. The price was considerably less than a full MBA and no GRE was required, just the credit card part.

The best part was that it was all done virtually through a new iPad that Rutgers sent me. I love my iPhone and use it for everything, but I felt like I got new glasses when I started using the iPad. Finally,
I can see the appeal of Pinterest. Who knew there were so many things to do with Pillsbury Crescent Rolls!

My Rutgers CMD course consisted of 9 Modules, each taught by a Social Media professional including Mark W. Schaefer, Neal Schaffer, Robert Petersen, Mark Burgess, Mike Moran, Greg Jarboe, Glen Gilmore, David Berkowitz and Mark Mueller-Eberstien. These guys know their stuff. (Note to Rutgers CMD: There are a lot of notable female instructors out there too!) I spent hours listening to the best in the business. I created a SMM plan for a local yoga studio, LiveYoga Wellness (@liveyogawellnes fb.com/liveyogawellness  ) and got an A on my final exam and project. For those who followed my Financial Planning days, you know that was not the case!

Sometime during my 10 week course I downloaded the App "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" Well, it turns out as I suspected that I am not. Some days I am not even as smart as a 1st grader (tell me an example of a word that is a diphthong.) So I will keep learning and taking classes and webinars so I can be one of the best in my field...or at least as smart as a 5th grader.

#Education #RutgersCMD #SocialMediaMarketing

Penn State Proud

I'm going to guess that I was one of about 20,000 who graduated with my class from The Pennsylvania State University many years ago. I would be surprised if I graduated in the top 25% of that group and while I have made regular small donations over the years, I'm hardly a sustaining donor. Yet, the Penn State community has always treated me like I was Joe Paterno's daughter. They have continued to reach out to me, meet with me and invite me to events in Los Angeles and treated me very well when I have returned to University Park.

When Mike Poorman, Senior Lecturer and Director of Alumni Relations for the College of Communications at Penn State, asked me to participate on a panel "From Happy Valley to Digital Hollywood" I said thanks, but I'm probably not the best choice. I just started my Social Media Marketing business. I'm glad he convinced me otherwise.

First, I was included in a group of real Social Media pros: Chris Krewson, editor, THR.com at The Hollywood Reporter; Dan Reynolds, Director, Social Media Strategy at The Walt Disney Company; and Ryan Ritchie, Director of Operations, Open Bar, the Interactive Division of Hamagami/Carroll, Inc. Chris served as both moderator and experienced panelist. Second, the event was held at the Aidikoff Screening Room on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, possibly the only time in my life I will sit in a director's chair on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.

To prepare for the sitting in a director's chair and being on a panel, I attended an event the night before for the cast of Downton Abbey at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Most in attendance were there to see and hear the talented cast and creators speak. I was also there to observe how the women sat in director's chairs wearing a dress. I knew I could never pull off their elegance, but I managed to appear ladylike in public and was especially pleased that neither shoe fell off.

Chris Krewson, Dan Reynolds, Ryan Ritchie, Lynne Gullo 

Michelle Dockery, Gareth Neame, Elizabeth McGovern, Julian Fellowes

Among the questions Chris asked us were how we got from Happy Valley to Hollywood and what skills we learned at Penn State that we still count on today. I realized that my journey from Penn State to where I am now has brought me full circle. My original career goal with my B.A. in Advertising was to be a copywriter. My first career was in New York City in publishing for HBJ and William Morrow, specifically in Children's Book Marketing. I moved to Los Angeles and had a rewarding second career in entertainment and printing, most notably as Print Production Director at NBC Universal and Fox Home Entertainment. Now I've started on my third career in Social Media Marketing, which in essence is copywriting!

Today I came across Conan O'Brien's 2011 Dartmouth College Commencement Address which came after his disastrous departure from NBC. He is both hilarious and incredibly moving. O'Brien says, "Your path at 22 will not necessarily be your path at 32 or 42. One's dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course...The person you are now is someone you could never have conjured."

Thank you to Penn State for the opportunities that have paved my path to where I am now. "We Are Penn State!"