Category: Creative Geek

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Creative Geek

Why I Blog, And What I Should Blog About…

I couldn’t agree with Tom Peters more in this video. Blogging in the past 9 years has totally changed my life. I still remember a time when I said I blogged and people looked at me with that strange look. Now? I can honestly say I’ve got friends all over the US, Europe and Australia that I know thanks to blogging – some I’ve met in person, some I haven’t, but that doesn’t matter. I don’t discount their friendship based on that. They are my friends just the same.

But my blog has suffered thanks to Twitter (which I’ve claimed before has killed my blog) and because of my work as a wedding photographer. I still have a lot to share that I write about frequently on forums (SWPB, Fast Track Photographer) and on PhotoLoveCat, but I don’t write about here. (I don’t plan to stop writing over there in those places.)

Recently I’ve started wondering why? Why not? Some of it may be of no interest to my older blog readers (like the methodology behind pricing photography) but then again, it might be interesting to many others. I love to read and talk about marketing, branding, pricing … all the things that make a business run. Even a creative business.

I considered writing about these things over on my business blog — but it just seems out of place there. Not that I have anything to hide from my clients – many of them know where this blog is at and if not it is easily found via Google – but just because it doesn’t seem to fit in. Or does it?

As I ramble about business topics, should I post them here? Or over there? I know Big Pink Cookie has nothing to do with marketing & branding and how to run a photography (or creative) business, but seriously, it makes you smile when you say the name out loud. Go ahead and try it. See? Smiling, right? It is my personal brand. It is me. I am it. We are one.

Now tell me what you think?

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Creative Geek Geek Love

Top, Top, AllTop…

Last week I went to hear Guy Kawasaki at the Houston Technology Center here in Houston, where he spoke about the Art of the Start. It was AWESOME. You may not know this about me, but I’m a total marketing and sales junkie. My all-time favorite job ever when working for someone else was working in sales for the web design companies, except for the fact that half the time I couldn’t get my ideas implemented. You know, the problem with working for the man. Now, I’m the boss — and I can’t get enough of the marketing stuff! (This is probably a good thing!)

At the end of Guy’s speech, he started talking about AllTop. I had seen the site before, but I didn’t “get” it. Once he started talking about it, it all made sense. If you use a feed reader already, you may not be the perfect user for AllTop. But imagine if someone asked you to share with them some sites that had cool information about Photography. You could send them to photography.alltop.com – quick and easy to remember. They go there, and they see links to some pretty great blogs on photography related topics. Fantastic! Or maybe you’re bored at work and you don’t want to surf people’s blogrolls. You want something new and fresh. Easy – just head over to Alltop and poke around – see what you can find.

Oh, and that banner across the middle of the page? It isn’t a design flaw. They meant for it to be there. Because AllTop has things covered. Covered. Heehee!

Strangest thing happened on Friday. Here I had just seen Guy Kawasaki the night before – although I didn’t get to meet him in person because The Bloggess whisked him away and was hoarding him all for herself – and in my sleep deprived haze I decided to finally start reading “Selling the Invisible”. First chapter, first page … Guy Kawasaki is mentioned.

It was sort of surreal. Or it could have been my complete lack of sleep. I’m not sure.

Jenny and Erica, I shake my fist at you for hoarding Guy. You could have at least come and hung out with us at The Front Porch afterwards. Meanies.

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Creative Geek

Mac vs PC – No Fight Gets Bigga…

I have to confess … I am quite in love with my Mac. I still miss the right click though, but at least the two finger tap on the trackpad fills my need for the right click love.

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BlahBlahBabble Creative Geek

Ed Schipul…

This interview with Ed Schipul is quite fascinating. I love that he covers the future of the internet, where people might be missing the boat, things like NetSquared and just a variety of topics. Ed himself fascinates me every time I’m around him – I’ve never been able to quite nail down what it is, but it is somewhere between his candor, his sincere honesty, and the fact that he is brilliant. It may also tie into the fact that as people, we are drawn to people who are either similar to us or who exhibit characteristics that we wish we had ourselves. For me, Ed has both. I can see that he is an extroverted introvert (matter of fact, if I had to guess his Myers-Briggs results, I would bet that he is about a 7 on the scale, truly introvert, but that his work forces him to be more extrovert than that.)

I met Ed last year just after SXSWi, and I was fortunate enough to do a temp project at Schipul right about that same time. I remember quite clearly coming home and telling Mike that he was running the company I had always dreamed of working at. My photography business was taking off, and while I had shot my first 2007 wedding, I wasn’t doing them full time yet like I am now. I actually had a “fork in the road” feeling – I felt pulled to want to work there, I admired what he is doing so much. In the end, I chose to stay on the path I was on, and I don’t regret that for a moment — but I can’t say enough good things about Schipul, the people that work there, and Ed himself.

Social media – it is where it is at. The world is being flattened every day.

I’m blessed to have them in my life, and Ed is a constant inspiration to me — even if he no longer comments on my photos on Flickr.

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BlahBlahBabble Creative Geek

Correction…

Regarding the article in today’s Business section of the Houston Chronicle, what I actually said was that it was my *last* great moment of geek fame.

I actually had many other moments of geek fame before that, owning a blog hosting company, being a very active blogger, having my websites written about on Yahoo!’s pick of the day and in the New York Times, plus being nominated for awards for my web work. But my life has changed a lot since 2004, between getting married and moving on to being more focused on knitting (which I still do – I’ve finished the second sleeve on my latest sweater and now need to stitch it together!) and photography (wedding and art) and less on the geek side of things. I let Mike take over the truly geek side of things in our house.

I am still a HUGE social media advocate, and I like to use my geek powers for good, not evil.