Failure to Launch

My nephew and I taking a nap when he was a baby

As you may have noticed, my Etsy store is NOT open yet. I had hoped to launch last weekend but was not able to do so. Although I'm disappointed, I can see some key steps that I needed to take in order for this to happen.

1.) Don't over commit. Although I knew I had a lot of deadlines at work last week and was pretty certain that I would be working some overtime, I still set the deadline for last weekend. I even knew that Sunday I would be at church and then work until in the evening. I ignored these facts because I really wanted to launch but I should have realized that it just wasn't feasible.

2.) Eat an elephant one bite at a time. I had a list of all the things that needed to be done: policies written, pieces designed, photographs taken and descriptions written. but I didn't really have a plan for getting all those done except for, "I'll do them this weekend"--A weekend I already knew was going to be busy. Now, I have a step by step plan to get those things done that doesn't involve pawning it off on the weekend. Just manageable pieces each day so that maybe I can still enjoy my weekend and not stress.

3.) You still come first. I was so exhausted from my stressful week that I could hardly hold my eyes open Saturday afternoon or Sunday evening and those were the main times I had available to work on my store. In the end, I still had to choose health over getting my store up. I needed to get some serious rest this weekend instead of running myself further into the ground.

I'll start posting more updates on the store but thank you for being patient as I get everything situated. Trust, it will be worth the wait!!!!

Grand Opening??

So this is my workspace. I'm busy trying to get some pieces together for the grand opening of my Etsy store, Where You Live! I'm still hoping to launch it this weekend but we'll see. There's still a lot of work to be done. I'll try to post some pics of actual pieces as I go along. Wish me luck!

MAC-5 | PC-0

There was a snowstorm somewhere really hot last weekend as my father made ANOTHER big conversion. This time to a MAC. Yes, my father ordered his first Apple computer this weekend.
Years ago, when I was the first in my family to convert, I never thought that anyone else in my family would ever own one. To be honest, I thought this might be my own little unique attribute (as the middle child, I'm always trying to stand out). Apparently not now. After I got my beautiful 17 inch G4 (that's what we had back then), my younger sister got one followed by my brother-in-law the pilot, my other sister and now my father. I never thought I'd see the day...

I am not in the MAC evangelism group. I love them but I don't look down on people who don't have one and I don't really say a whole lot about it. In other words, I don't try to make people want to get one. There are some really hard core Apple people out there who will list off 20 reasons why you're an idiot and completely uncool if you don't have a MAC but I'm not that hardcore. I will, however, share why I switched purely to communicate my reasons not to convert people.

1.) I was so sick and tired of my Dell crashing. My first two years of college, I went through at least four Dell laptops. One actually pretty much caught on fire and had smoke coming out of it. I spent more time on the phone with tech support than I did in class. They made me take it apart and do all this stuff to it. I was like, if I wanted to be a computer technician, I probably wouldn't be at college studying theatre. Any call that requires multiple screwdrivers, at least 2 hours and a translator is just NOT worth it!

2.) They just don't have as many problems. Most viruses aimed at PC's and don't even effect MAC's. The only problems I've ever had were getting a printer to work with my MAC (user error, didn't understand the whole "driver" thing) and a mother board went out. Neither one of those issues ever involved me getting a screwdriver or having a two hour phone call to India.

3.) Let's face it, MAC's are pretty! I don't mean to be completely shallow here but I have impeccable taste and they're just beautiful pieces of art. Even the boxes and packaging is pretty. More than that, they can make pretty things too. I was at art school in Atlanta when I bought my first MAC and that's what serious creative people use. It just makes sense that if you want to make pretty stuff then you use something pretty that is kind of the expert of pretty things. Now, that being said, I think that you can be an artist or film maker or whatever and use a PC. This doesn't make you any less creative. These are just reasons why I have one.

4.) Steve Jobs is a genious. I love inovative people and inovative things. Apple encompasses both. End of story.

5.) This is why you shouldn't send a PC to do a MAC's job:

My parents with their three PC laptops, none of which do what they want (thus the new MAC)

Where you live cannot decide whether you live or whether you die

Yesterday, I saw someone who tweeted that she was going to do something today for the sole purpose of keeping herself "accountable." It turned out that it didn't work out exactly how she thought but it got my wheels turning all the same.

Earlier this week, I posted that I wanted to get a bike. This expense is kind of unnecessary so I haven't been able to justify it to myself...until now! I've decided to use social media to keep myself accountable for something I've wanted to do for awhile but "haven't had time" and this something can help me make the money I need to buy my bike. It's a win-win. So here it is...

I'm opening my Etsy store!!!!!

As some of you know, I dabble in making jewelry. I've been doing it for almost 10 years and I love it but it's an expensive hobby. I've sold pieces and even done some commissioned pieces but I've never been in it for the business. I found this awesome website called Etsy several months ago and kicked around the idea of opening my own store. I even blogged about it here. Well, I finally stopped dragging my feet and took the first steps. The store is live and you can visit it but there aren't any items posted yet. Coming soon, I promise! I'll start with my jewelry designs (earrings, bracelets, necklaces and sets) but hopefully will also branch out into other "top secret" product lines later:)

A little background on the concept for the store. We all know I'm a complete non-profit junkie and in college I got involved with the One Campaign which is a movement to end extreme poverty in Africa and around the world. I was very inspired by Bono, rock legend turned humanitarian, and became very active in that organization. I once heard him give a speech where he said, "Where you live shouldn't determine whether you live or whether you die." His words just struck me and I knew then that this quote would be significant to me. Now, almost four years later, I'm opening an Etsy store whose name comes from that quote.

The plan is, to give 10% of my profits to organizations that help in some way respond to the need brought up by this quote. I also want to have special pieces where 100% of the proceeds go to some of my favorite non-profits that do such important work to ensure that no matter where or in what state of being one lives it does not determine "whether they live or whether they die."

To jump start the launch of my store, I will attempt to sell at least $125 worth of jewelry in the first 2 weeks so I can get my bike!!!! See how this all works together? I chose that number because I need about $100 to buy my bike, $12.50 will go to charity and then the rest is to cover the fees associated with listing on Etsy. I hope that you'll help me reach this goal and have a GREAT GRAND OPENING.

I'll be posting about the entire process from creating designs, listing items and actually selling. My goal "true open" date is NEXT Saturday, August 15th at noon. Be on the look out and keep checking in for updates. Thanks for going on this journey with me and I look forward to seeing where we go!

What endeavors have you made for the sake of passion and art?

What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Google!

So, I was smart enough to do something for work a year ago that I hadn't done for myself until today--GOOGLE ALERTS. Great things, really, but for some reason had never thought to do them for my name and blog. It all goes back to how Randy and Spence talked about branding yourself.

I love branding, why didn't I think about this sooner? hmmm....
If I already received Google Alerts, I would have discovered several neat things about my social media "conversation" yesterday. First, one of my social media heroes @GailHyatt RT'ed me. I knew that from Twitter but I also would have seen it in my Google Alerts if I got them before today. Second, two (count them TWO) CEO's tweeted AND posted a link to my blog from theirs. That must explain the spike in my blog views from 20 to almost 200 yesterday. I was also tweeted by six complete strangers which I found out about on this neat little site called Tweet Meme. I'm still not exactly sure what this site is but it looks interesting. Anyone familiar with it?

Monitoring your web presense is also essential for businesses and non-profits. If Etapestry and FristGiving didn't moniter theirs, they would have no idea about a disgruntled customer from a little non-profit in Nashville. And who would have thought they'd care? But they were watch and they did care. That situation is completely worked out now and I can say with 100% certainty that it wouldn't be if it weren't for Twitter.

Tomorrow, I should recieve Google Alert e-mails for "Mandy Singleton," "mandycsingleton," "mandycsingleton.blogspot.com," and "Mandy C. Singleton." We'll see how that goes. Now I just have to keep writing, doing and being interesting so there's actually a reason for an alert!

Do you have Google Alerts and how else do you manage your brand and web presence?

Choose Health

I am an extremely busy person. Probably to a fault. My job is very intense, especially right now with an event coming up and lots of mailings about to go out, and I'm involved with a lot of organizations. I also have lots of hobbies like making jewelry and social media (I consider this blog to be one of my new favorite hobbies).

Lately, I've realized that I may actually be too activity driven and have been trying to make choices that respect my energy and health. In other words, I've been trying to give myself some down time so that I don't lose my mind. Last weekend, I planned to go into the office on Saturday because I have a lot of things going on. In fact, I spent 6 hours the Saturday before at the office and have been working about 50 hours a week. It's just one of those times when everything falls and I've taken on some new roles so I'm not complaining about that just giving background.

Saturday morning, I decided not to go. I just needed some time to get things done around the house and just be here. I cleaned, vacuumed, did three loads of laundry, watched some Netflix and hung out with friends. It was great. This week has been extra crazy because of that decision but I think it was the right one.

Tonight, I had to make the same kind of decision. It is the first night that I could actually get home before 8:30 but I had a meeting at 7 for an organization that I care a lot about. I really wanted to be there but I was so exhausted and knew that I just needed to go home. It was hard to choose health in this situation but I know it is the right thing for me. So, before I put on my PJs and watch Confessions of a Shopaholic, I wanted to post some encouragement for you if you're over extended, feeling a little overwhelmed or starting to burn out. Here are some ways to choose health:

1. Take care of yourself. If you run yourself into the ground, you're not going to be able to help anyone. This isn't selfish, just self preserving.

2. Have boundaries. At the end of the day, people can only take what you give. I'm terrible about this but I'm working on it. I acknowledge that it's important and awareness is the first step right?

3.Reward yourself. Whether it's a bubble bath, a movie night, dinner with friends or blogging, reward your hard work with something that you love.

4. Remember who's really in charge. We are not the savior of the universe and sometimes we have to remind ourselves of that. "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28)."

On that note, I'm going to go rest and be restored!

How can YOU choose health?

An Explanation of "Twitterstand"

I used this word in my post last night and some people have asked about it so I thought I'd post the video that I got it from. This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen and the source of the word "Twitterstand." Enjoy!

Now I Twitterstand, Thanks Etapestry!

I'm a believer. Never again will I underestimate the power of Twitter! Yesterday at my day job, I hit a wall with our online fundraising website, FirstGiving, that we're using for our fall event. I called our rep at FirstGiving to trouble shoot and was told that the problem was our donor database company. I was furious because this issue was the very reason that we are using FirstGiving this year. So, what did I do? I tweeted about it--just once. This is what I said:

"Etapestry has ruined my day and I will not forget this!!!!"

There were seven comments on Facebook about it (since my Twitter Updates my Facebook) and I thought that we would just deal with the problem internally. This morning, however, I had an e-mail and my co-worker who manages our Etapestry database had an e-mail and a voicemail. Someone from Etapestry saw the disgruntled tweet and tracked my work information down even though I tweeted from my personal account. That's impressive people.

My co-worker and I exchanged some e-mails and even had a little conference call with Etapestry today and pretty much figured out that FirstGiving had maybe not been completely honest with us. Very not cool FirstGiving. The customer service at Etapestry was excellent and it's really interesting because several of the comments I got both yesterday and today on Facebook were very positive about Etap and people were shocked that I was unhappy with them (which I was obviously wrong about).

I think that there are some great lessons in here:

1. Even the UGLIEST truth is better than a lie. Firstgiving has lost my trust and that's a very difficult thing to earn back once it's lost. I'm a very loyal customer typically and they had been great up to this point. I had suggested them to multiple non-profits and commended their excellent customer service, helpful website and convenience. None of that is as important to me as their honesty though so they may have lost a customer over it. In the end, we may find that FirstGiving didn't mislead us but someone did so is that worth it?

2. Twitter is a powerful tool, don't ignore it. If Etapestry had not made the commitment to monitor and respond to their social media, I would be sitting here tonight wondering why they make my life so difficult. Because my event also isn't for another two months, I probably would have continued to tweet about it until at least then if not longer and possibly influencing other people to have a negative opinion of them. Etapestry is also now aware of a pretty serious problem: their competitor is lying to their customers about them. Wouldn't you want to know that?

3. "It's about a conversation not campaigns anymore." That's something that Randy Elrod and Spence Smith said at the amazing LifeWorks 2.0 seminar I went to last week and this experience really brought that home for me. I actually ended up having a neat conversation with the representative from Etapestry through e-mail because he saw on my Twitter that we had a staff retreat this morning where we were discussing Strength Finder 2.0. How many times have you talked to a company's customer service representative about a great book you just read and shared what you learned about yourself from it? Yeah, things are changing out there. Are you stuck in the past or leading the way forward?

4. Always give them a chance. I don't really regret tweeting what I did because we would have never gotten to the bottom of this otherwise but I think I will be more cautious about getting both sides of the story from now on. In fact, I'm calling FirstGiving tomorrow to see what they say unless they also monitor their web presence and beat me to the punch. You always want to get all the information though before you make a final judgment.

Thank you Etapestry for the great lessons and also to Desiree for being in the middle of this with me. I'll admit, it was really cool to be in the middle of a situation created by social media.

What experience have you had that's been impacted by social media?

Tangent to Outer Space: God and TIme

I was on Twitter today and saw a tweet that I found very interesting. You may know this person, maybe even in real life unlike me who only knows her online, and she said this: "Prayer is effective only on the day of..." She was referring to something specific but it's not relevant to the point so I left it out.

It got me thinking though; I don't think I believe that. I'm not criticizing her or saying, "She's so stupid, she's wrong." It was truly one of those moments where your mind just goes off on a big ole tangent into outer space. I started thinking about God and time.
Kairos is a Greek word that means "the appointed time in the purpose of God." I have some dear friends, an Anglican bishop and his wife, who always talk about kairos and God's time. Not just His timing but time as it exists in heaven. See, on earth we have a linear view of time or chronos (from which we get the words chronological and chronology). No, this is not a Greek lesson but I think it's important to see the difference in our understanding of time and God's.

For us, Christ died on the cross more than 2,000 years ago but that's our measure of time. Those constraints, and let's all admit that time is a constraint most of the time, do not pertain to God because He's God and above time (in Kairos). Chronological events are before God at the foot of His throne at all times. That's another amazing thing about Christ's sacrifice on the cross, it is as present as "current" to God today to cover my sins as it was 2,000 years ago to cover the sins of Christ's contemporaries. It is always before Him and not bound by our linear view of time. Wow, crazy.

I once had a physicist--well, I don't know if she was a physicist but a math and science person anyway, explain this principle to me. She said that it's like a person on a train understands that they are moving from point A to point B in a linear motion. Then that train passes another train going the opposite way and it's hard to tell which way you're moving, it's completely disorienting. The planets are actually moving in a similar but much more complex manner. You have one planet rotating this way and moving in this orbit but this other planet rotates that way and has this other path to orbit in (this makes a lot more sense when you see the hand motions but just imagine). So you have all these planets rotating and orbiting in this beautifully complex movement and God designed them that way. Pretty cool. But she said that this is more how God views time, in these complex orbits rather than linearly. Did I totally lose you? It sounds really out there and crazy but let me give you a more concrete example.

My parents are newly converted Eastern Orthodox but we have friends that have been Orthodox for many years so I've grown up being exposed to their traditions, beliefs and culture. They have a service that I'll admit I don't know a lot about and haven't actually been to so all my Orthodox friends feel free to jump in here. This service or part of a service is held after the death of a loved one. What is interesting is that they pray for their life, the decisions they made and ask God to intercede for them. This seems odd to us linear people because being bound by the chronology of time, those decisions and actions have already been made right? Not necessarily in kairos. My understanding is that they believe those prayers are before God, above linear time, even as their loved one was alive on earth and that prayer offered after their death is heard by the same ear as those offered during their lifetime. Does that blow your mind?

Maybe that doesn't fascinate and wow you like it does me but I think it's amazing and just reminds me in so many ways how amazing God is. He is the Alpha and Omega, beginning and the end. As Christians, we believe in eternal life and so one end is actually another beginning.

This was kind of an experimental mind flow that might have been really out there but I'd love some feedback. What do you think about this concept of God and time?

What about God really amazes and wows you?

Which is Bigger, Multimedia or God?

My Small Group from MTSU Search 2008: Laffy Taffy!!!!

For work tonight, we did a baby shower for a women’s Bible study. They were so much fun! I mean, a totally zany group of funny ladies but really great. It made me wish that I had a group like that and made me realize how much I miss having a place like the Catholic student center in college.

I was there three or four nights a week for Bible study, movie and discussion nights or the occasional party. They were my family even though I’m not Roman Catholic. As with most families, we also had our fights and disagreements too but that was just part of life.

Seeing those women bring snacks, talk about the Beth Moore studies they just finished, and to work together to reach out to a ministry like us was really awesome. I’ve been really discouraged by churches lately. Having to work more closely with them now, I find myself more disappointed than encouraged. Churches are too big and too busy to even talk to people, much less come to a free lunch to hear about what God is doing in lives with so much need right here in our own community. I had a 15 year old guy, he was probably older but looked 15, who worked at a church scoff at me because I said something about a slide show. He quickly told me that their church was “really big into multimedia” and they wouldn’t dream of doing something like a slide show. How about being really big into helping people and sharing God’s love, what happened to that? Don't get me wrong, I love some multi- and social media but let's not loose focus here.

So, it was really good to be with a small group of women who care about their faith and about sharing their love for Christ with hurting people. I’m very glad that I got to be reminded that there are people who care out there and it’s not just impersonal, “multimedia,” mega consumers left. Thanks ladies!

Are you part of a Bible Study, small group, or organization that inspires and encourages you and how do you keep focus?

To Bike or Not to Bike, That is the Question...

So, I took this weekend for some much needed "Mandy time" and I'm glad that I did. I also unfortunately took a nap today so it's midnight and I'm still up :( Of course, I have a mission...

I went and looked at bikes today and am thinking about getting one. Just a simple little bike that I can ride on the Greenway or something. No mountain-y kind of things here people! I want something that I can put a cute basket on or maybe even a cute little bell.

I, of course, have no idea what I'm doing. I had a bike growing up but we mostly rode it in the basement because we lived on a big hill out in the country and there really wasn't anywhere else to ride it. It was a pink Huffy with a banana seat. Do they still make those? I guess I'm too old for them even if they did but it would definitely be cute and I bet I could put a basket and a bell on it!

I thought I might start out with a more inexpensive bike and if I really like it and use it a lot I could then move up to something more professional. That sounds like a good plan right?

I think that what might have started this was that I saw a movie the other day where one of the characters was always jogging and it looked like fun except for the jogging part. I don't jog or run unless being chased and there have to be large animals with big teeth or armed thugs involved at that. It did make me think, however, that I would like to have an activity like jogging so that's when I became interested in bicycles.

Riding a bike could be a great "Mandy time" activity where I could get some exercise and have some time to just go out and do something that's not work, it's not obligation, it's not consuming anything, it's just doing something and enjoying it. Sounds perfect...

What's something that you do for "me time?"