10 Years Ago...

10 years ago today, I broke my leg. Broke might be an understatement, I shattered my femur while skiing on Spring Break. Last Saturday, while my mom and I were skiing (yes, I still ski) I realized it has been a DECADE since that day. Crazy! In honor of this special day I thought I would do a trip down memory lane of all the things I've accomplished even with my titanium rod and four pins:

1. Learned how to walk again (very important).
2. Learned how to rely on my family and friends for everything (humbling).
3. Played varsity water polo in high school (major goal in rehab).
4. Swam competitively for my university (definitely was the slowest kid).
5. Completed 3 Nike Women Half Marathon's (and I got the Tiffany Co. bling to prove it!) See above photo. You can kinda see my scar too...
   
6. Enjoying telling stories of how I got my scar "I got bit by a shark," "I got knifed," and "so-and-so hates me".
7. Going off in airports (sometimes) and having to explain to people "no I can't take off my leg."
8. Still skiing, wakeboarding, hiking, camping and traveling.
9. Being able to do stupid things ("I can't break my leg again", "I'm bulletproof", "I'm 1/2 robot", etc.)
10. I now have the perfect excuse as to why I'm so short compared to the rest of my family!

Here's to a couple more decades of health and happiness. I can't wait until all my friends are 60 and catching up to my bionic-ness!

Where were you 10 years ago?

New Job!

Many of you know I recently became a "free agent" in the job hunting scene. I'm happy to announce that I'll be the new Community Manager at The Standard in their Business Development department. I'll be in downtown Portland, if anyone wants to meet me for lunch or happy hour :) I think this is the best place for me to sharpen my social media / project management skills so that I can be a stronger marketer. I keep wanting to say "when I grow up." Does anyone else who's older than 25 struggle with that?

When exactly do you grow up? As Warren Miller says, "How old would you be if you didn't know when you were born?" Maybe I just struggle with this more than my friends since I still look like I'm 13, not 23...

Half way through my first day - so far so good!

Richard Stearns, World Vision President

Last Sunday, I got the opportunity to hear Richard Stearns speak at Lake Grove Presbyterian Church. Stearns is the President of World Vision and the author of The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World. He spoke, of course, about what God expects of us. The answer is actually really simple:

God wants everything: our heart, mind and soul.

This leads to a trickier question: Are you willing to be open to God's will for your life?

This is when you start looking up James 2:14-19, James 1:22, Ephesians 2:10, Luke 6:46 and Matthew 7:21-23. It starts getting a little intense.

As Stearns says "Good works and deeds are the evidence of our personal salvation."

1. Love God.
2. Love our fellow man. It's that simple.

"God loved us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, who then sent us to be His hands and feet." What does that look like? Think of the parable of the mustard seed. If a tiny mustard seed can move mountains... What if we were each a mustard seed and we each had a shovel. How easy would it be to move a mountain? Now what if social injustice (lack of clean drinking water, sanitation, education, medical care, etc) was that mountain.

Don't think someone else will do it. It's our job and God expects us to do it. And we can do it.

The mustard seed can move a mountain. I think we can do more than that.

Are you willing to be open to God's will for your life?

Red Chair Group in PDX

Last Friday I had the opportunity to attend the Red Chair Group's conference here in Portland, OR. I studied social media in college and have done some freelance work but my primary focus the last year and a half has been gaining a solid foundation in sustainability. This conference gave me the chance to get back to my roots.

Lead by Olivier Blanchard, this conference focused on mid-level managers and account-level professionals on how to properly manage, measure and grow social media programs under their care. Perfect for me and my new position as Community Manager at The Standard (more info on that in another blog post). Some of my favorite take aways from the event included:

• "You can no longer live on the mountain." You need to engage in with your customers and communities. "Customize content for all channels."
  
• It's my job to help bosses understand the shift that is happening. Something I definitely need help doing. But this conference helped me with that. From vertical engagement (the brand speaking to the consumer) to lateral engagement (the brand speaking to the consumer, hearing back from the consumer and the consumers talking to one another).
• Social media enables social community. Yet another way to view this shift. "Create something worthwhile, then let the community share it."
• There are four core disciplines of Social Media:

1. Strategy (Development)
2. Operations (Integration)
3. Monitoring reputation, community and customer support (Management) : ME!
4. Analyst (Measurement)

• "Value has become a buzzword. Buzzwords are meaningless. Value is not a product. Value = Usefulness."
• "Think of your department goals. Goals are not targets. Set targets. Be specific. Be Clear."
• There was a lot of talk on legal considerations when it comes to social media. I learned something new here. Libel is written defamation and slander is spoken defamation.
• Rules for Engagement:

1. Never get suckered into an argument.
2. Stick to the facts.
3. Never assume anything.
4. Be helpful.
5. Some people can't be reasoned with.
6. Do the best you can.
7. Listen more than you speak.
8. If you feel outnumbered, get help.
9. Follow up.

• Steps to Channel Development:

1. Identify channels you should be in.
2. Understand channels you should be in.
3. Create listening outposts.
4. Connect with key citizens "denizens".
5. Become involved with topics and conversations.
6. Develop a positive reputation.
7. Grow social equity.
8. Establish leadership presence.
   

• ROI = gain from investment - cost of investment / cost of investment.

1. Establish a baseline.
2. Create activity timelines (schedule!).
3. Monitor impacts on conversations.
4. Measure transactions.

• F.R.Y. = Frequency, Reach, Yield.

Just want to share some highlights of the conference. Red Chair Group PDX will be back this fall, so I'll be posting information on that as soon as I get it. And I'll be attending So Fresh PDX in a couple of days so look for that post soon too.

What's On Your Bookshelf?

I gave up TV for Lent. Which has honestly been pretty awesome. I've been getting more sleep and reading WAY more than I have since before college I think.

So far I've finished:

1. The Treasure Principle by Randy Alcorn - A Christian view on money and how it isn't mine, it's His.
2. Stones into Schools by Greg Mortenson - What has been happening at the East Asian Institute since Three Cups of Tea was published.
3. The Help by Kathryn Stockett - What it's like to be a black maid in the South during the Civil Rights movement.

I'm one of those people who reads more than one book at a time. Being that my mood changes a lot it would make sense that my choices for reading would change as well. Right now I'm working on:

1. One Tough Mother by Gert Boyle - about the Columbia Sportwear's CEO and the lady behind the brand.
2. The Purity Principle by Randy Alcorn - I got the chance to met Randy's wife, Nanci last year and she gave me a bunch of his books, finally getting to them. This one is about a Christian view on sex.
3. The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman - I've already read Hot, Flat and Crowded, figured I should at least read this best seller.
4. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck - My book club book from last month which I never finished (shhh! Don't tell...)
5. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll - I went and watched the new Alice in Wonderland with Janet and her awesome daughters and felt like I missed some parts so now I need to re-read this book and see what I forgot.

I also am going to be adding two more books to this list shortly:

1. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini - Just got it on CD for my iPod. (I already got A Thousand Splendid Suns loaded but wanted to read this one first)
2. The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns - President of World Vision USA and whom I just heard speak this morning (blog post to come).

What are you currently working on?

Seeing God

I've been volunteering at Wildfire, the middle school program at my church, for over a year now. I have a solid group of 7th grade girls, whom over this last year I've gotten really close too. Kurt, the youth pastor, most recent talk series has been called Pause, something I agree middle schoolers don't do enough, between cell phones, iPods, Facebook, school, homework, sports and other after schoool activities these girls are more involved than I ever was at their age.

Last night, Kurt compared pausing and looking for God to looking for Where's Waldo? Just because you don't see Him, doesn't mean He isn't there. I thought that was a great comparison. He then challenged the students to spend 60 minutes sometime in the next week to seek God. Really try to find Him, like they would search for Waldo. As a leader, I try to do the "homework" as well. Lucky for me, I've already found Him...

As many of you know, it's been a rough couple weeks for me. I was laid off, so now I'm a networkin', meetin', coffee drinkin' fool and to top it off a new friend of mine, Kate, is missing in the Gorge. I'm burned out, professionally and personally. Last night, while at Wildfire, I got a text saying Kate's search has been called off. Heart broken is an understatement to how I was feeling, but I tried to put on a good face for my girls. But then worship started and I lost it. I'm not a crier, but I bawled like a baby... And something weird happened...

I got a hug. Not just one hug, 15 plus, from all my girls, then from their friends and other leaders. I couldn't imagine being in another place to get such bad news and be able to cry out the weight on my heart. For the first time, instead of me loving on my girls, they were loving on me. And I couldn't be more humbled by their actions. So for those two hours at Wildfire, I saw God's red and white Waldo cap on each of my girls and couldn't be more grateful for having them in my life.

Where have you seen God lately?