The Autumn Star

8:15 a.m. Baby Girl and I had just started to wake up. This is my favorite time of day. She's smiling, giggling, snuggly. We're warm and cozy in bed together. The day is nothing but possibilities. And then the phone rings. The home phone. Which nobody ever calls and we have only so I can call 911 if there were ever an emergency. "This is a notice that the IRS have filed a lawsuit against you. Please call 207-693-8051 to resolve this matter immediately." Hubby and I do owe money from our 2015 tax returns, but a lawsuit? It must be a mistake, I think to myself, as I dial the number. The man who answers says his name is Jack Brown. He has a thick accent that leads me to believe he wasn't born Jack Brown, which alerts me something is amiss. He is very angry, which also sets my Spider Sense tingling. He is going to explain everything to me, and instructs me not to interrupt. He says that the IRS has found "fraudulent details" in my tax records datin...

Earlier this month, Baby Girl and I flew from Florida to North Dakota to visit Daddy. He's working up there while there's boom money to be made, and has been gone for two months this time. The travel time was eight hours, a long day even without a six month-old, but we were optimistic. It was going to be an adventure. Baby's first flight!  Searching for a sign  Our first flight left Tampa at 5:00 am, so we arrived at the airport at 4:00. Checking our bags would only take a minute, I figured. Who else would fly so early?  There were no employees at the counters. None. Nada. Zip. And no one in line knew why. People finally gave up and went to the curbside baggage check-in.  I did get a response to that tweet.  Awesome, Delta. Thanks for the info. This could have been easily avoided with a little planning and a few pieces of paper.  Signs at the counters would have saved travelers precious time and help to avoid a negative brand experience.  Tip:  Co...

For Baby Girl's half-birthday (six months), I'm giving her the gift of time. My time. I'm leaving my full-time position to become a full-time mom.  When I went back to work in December, I knew I wanted to work from home. It's a 90-minute commute to our office in Sarasota, and neither I nor Baby Girl liked that drive. Leaving her at home was out of the question for me. She had never learned to take a bottle, and I wasn't going to shock her into taking one by leaving her hungry for hours with a stranger.  Working from home, part-time, with flexible hours, worked. My employer was awesome during my transition into maternity leave and equally awesome transitioning me back.  I couldn't work and entertain Baby Girl, so I hired a nanny. Luckily, by that point she had started to cut teeth and was ready for her first foods. We supplemented my nursing schedule with the nanny feeding her cereal, which allowed me to leave the house for a few hours.  ...

As much as I pick on advertising, I do love commercials. Or, I guess I should say I love the potential of commercials. Video is an incredibly engaging medium for content, and until DVR technology came along and let us fast-forward through them, TV commercials were a great vehicle to deliver your brand and product directly into the homes of millions of viewers. There are two problems with commercials these days. One is the aforementioned DVR technology, and the other is creative laziness. I'm pretty sure that latter spurred the creation of the former. Think about it, if commercials were better, were more like thirty second stories, wouldn't we be more inclined to sit through them? Sitting in front of the boob tube is one of the most passive activities known to man. It burns fewer calories than reading . We have to break from our near-comatose state in order to skip the commercials. During my maternity leave, I watched a lot of commercials. I've put together a list of the...

As lame as it may sound to some, New Year's Resolutions are alive and well. Personally, I like them. They're like the ultimate to-do list, and I'm semi-famous for my dated, color-coded to-do lists. So here are my New Year's Resolutions for 2016: #1 Return to Work. I love being a mommy, but I also love being a marketing strategist. In 2016, it's time to get my little one bottle-trained and in the care of a super-awesome nanny.  #2 Start Running ... Again. Before my daughter came around, I ran several miles a week. It was the best stress relief ever. I was healthy and happy. I'd like to get out and run again. Preferably without a jogging stroller. This is my Me Time.  #3 Produce More Awesomeness. I love breaking apart content marketing conventions, calling out bad ad strategy, and dishing social media secrets. I plan to create even more blog content in the coming year. Hope you're looking forward to it as much as I am! #4 Speak As Often ...

I've been honored to be a guest speaker at University of South Florida's digital marketing class for a few years now. I'm also incredibly proud to have been voted Best Guest Speaker by the students every semester. I put together a custom presentation each semester, because it's fun and because I think the students deserve it, but I use a few favorite slides every time. The Justice League slide is one of them. ... Because superheroes. I think it's one of the most important slides for the students. More important than content audits and syndication strategies. The Justice League slide is tips on creating, managing and working as part of a team. Assemble Your Superheroes  From Gotham and Metropolis to Mars and Themyscira, the Justice League brings the best of the best together. You can do the same by finding the heroes in each department and inviting them to every brainstorm. Too often marketers brainstorm only with other marketers, or worse, alone at thei...

Successful content marketing is all about providing the information your customers need. How do you find out what kind of information your customers are looking for? Your customer service department is a great place to start.  Customer service reps--particularly the veterans--know exactly what questions customers ask about your product, what issues they have with it, and what they think of your brand as a whole. Customer service reps are basically the political ambassadors of your company, dealing with some hostile negotiations and making peace. That's why the job requires people skills.  Tap your veterans and ask them for the questions most often asked.  Answer frequently asked questions in blog (or vlog!) format, then link to them on your FAQ page.  You know what else customer service people have? Stories. You'd be surprised how long a customer will talk to a real live person. Those stories can help illuminate how your product fits into the lives...