Words of Wisdom from Steve Jobs

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on August 25th, 2011 at 09:36 AM | (14) Comments

He may have stepped down as CEO, but Steve Jobs will always be the man behind the Mac.

This little gem is just a sample of his depth:
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

We Heart Oblation

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on August 2nd, 2011 at 02:22 PM | (17) Comments

Periodically, we like to give a shout out to some of our favorite haunts in Portland and Pasadena. Today, whilst running errands, I came across some new items at my favorite 21st century old fashioned printing press store—oblation.

Can you guess why these lovely renditions caught my eye? Yup. Bridges.

If you’re in the Pearl, do put Oblation on your list of places in which to browse. Truly, it’ll turn your heart around—especially when it’s raining.

Tweeting for Writers

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on July 26th, 2011 at 03:35 PM | (10) Comments

On August 5th, I’ll be on an e-media panel with one of my heroes, Jane Friedman, at the Willamette Writers Conference. In preparation for that (and to avoid complete embarrassment), I’ll be blogging about the growing world of platform-building and social media. To kick this off, I’ll start with that new-media form of poetry: Twitter!

I admit, there are days I find myself drawn down the dozens of paths that lead from any given tweet, and into brave new worlds OR, in many cases, cul de sacs of time suck. I sit there in a clicking stupor, taking it in, not sure when to re-tweet and when to comment and whether or not to add a Tweeter to a particular list. But now, after a year-and-a-half on Twitter (as both suzy_vitello and princess_sisi as well as bpc360), I treat Twitter as I would the voice mail feature of the now-arcane answering machine. You check in, you respond, you make inquiries, then you get off.

Want a few great tips specific to writers and Twitter? Here’s a terrific article in the latest Poets & Writers. Particularly helpful in this article is the “how often” advice. Twice a day, it turns out, is the recommendation, because, “Much more than that—unless you have something especially compelling to convey—can keep you at the screen to the detriment of the page. “

Ah, and therein lies the rub. Platform-building, massaging relationships with readers and other writers, and just staying current with important conversations can completely Shanghai your writing time if you’re not careful.

When it comes to Twitter, be like the birds: call in the morning, call in the evening, and stay busy building the nest and feeding the youngsters during the day.

Amy Amy Amy

Posted by Laura McCulloch on July 23rd, 2011 at 09:57 AM | Comment!

Amy Winehouse. Super talent. Super sad. RIP.

all the world’s a circle with GooglePlus

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on July 19th, 2011 at 05:37 AM | (8) Comments

Look out Facebook, Google Plus wants your users. As part of Google’s scheme to take over the world, the megatech enterprise has launched Google Plus under the (wink, wink) banner of Private Trial Period. (Can you say, BETA?)

I got roped in a few days ago because I so NEED another learning curve, not to mention another social media tool, and, oh yeah, something new to suck the sand from my personal hourglass. In my first 20 minutes messing around with it, I discovered the big FB differentiator. It’s all about the circles. Circles are so Google, are they not? In the Google circle game, you put your connections into categories: friends, family, colleagues, etc. You can put people in more than one if you like, or move them around. The deal is, what you post is circle-specific.Think of Google+ as Facebook with a sort of Eddie Haskel bent.  Gone is the conundrum of Aunt Loraine being privy to the fact that you stayed up too late drinking tequila the night before. Likewise, your colleagues at work don’t need to know that your son scored three goals in his last soccer match. Need a new dentist, but don’t want to offend her cousin, who happens to be in your “neighbors and friends” circle? Invite to the smart folk in your “adviser” circle to opine.

Living as many simultaneous lives as I do, I sort of appreciated that right off. But then, because I’ve spilled a bean or two in my life, I see the false security in such a system. For instance, let’s say you work for company A, and you invite your boss and your colleagues into your “work” circle. Let’s say then, that Company A downsizes and you get the pink slip. Two weeks later you get scooped up by Company B, the competition! What do you do with your work circle then? Erase and start anew?

Or, let’s say that you are in a book group, and you create a Book Group circle. Let’s say you read a book by a local author, and everyone in your book group hates the book and your circle is full of disparaging remarks. Let’s say that one of the remarks gets reposted in the “family” circle of one of the groups, where a friend of the author lurks. You see what I’m getting at? It’s viral! To think that what happens in a Google+ Circle stays in a Google+ Circle is borrowing trouble.

Clearly, all of this circle management is pretty time-consuming, not to mention that now, instead of one Facebook Wall, you need to check in with and monitor several walls. Oh, and then you’ll want to repost things onto all of those walls. It’s like throwing a dinner party every night, only you have six dining rooms and you have to race betwixt them in your hostess finery checking the temp of the soup. Seeing if someone needs cream for their coffee. My first day on Google+? I had a waitress dream. I kid you not: one of those “I can’t keep up” nightmares where undone stuff piles up around you while you slowly choke and gasp.

But, until it goes down in flames, I’m on the new hamster wheel. I’m very eager to see if Google can keep the circle unbroken. So far, they seem to be pretty forward-thinking, but with the exponential nature of dynamic in human relationships, well, it’s an ambitious venture. But hey, they’re Google. They can do anything, right?

iSpotify

Posted by Laura McCulloch on July 14th, 2011 at 10:26 AM | Comment!

OK peeps! Spotify is for reals in the USA. I am signed up for the full monty and now in the process of downloading apps to the various and sundry iProducts. Some glitches involved with older devices, but so far pretty freakin easy to get the structure in place to start using Spotify. Once I get everything in place I think I’m going to start it off with Show Biz Kids, since I got my Steely Dan t-shirt last Saturday night.

introducing UPstARTpdx

Posted by Suzy Vitello Soulé on July 11th, 2011 at 11:27 AM | (8) Comments

Last week BPC had one of their semi-annual smerg-a-thons. Laura came up from Pasadena for a week of client meetings and workshops in Portland, and we are still buzzing from the energy of the whole being bigger than the sum of its parts.

This particular trip was focused around a 360 we did with a social enterprise start-up. Our task was to help this enterprise come up with a name and other branding elements so they could move forward as they build their neophyte organization, which empowers women while upcycling and repurposing fabric and accessories. After two days of brain-storming with the stakeholders, we’re pleased to announce that the enterprise has decided on a name: Upstartpdx, has launched a website, and has a presence on twitter and will soon have one on facebook. We were even able to come up with descriptive taglines: Upcycled goods. Creative opportunities. Transformed lives.

I can’t tell you how grateful Laura and I are when people like Sara Fischer (the force of energy behind Upstart), tap into us and allow us to work with them on such an important project. If upcycling and social enterprises that empower women are of interest to you, please give them a look, and follow them on twitter. They will be doing amazing things in the next couple of months, and we’ll keep you in the loop!

Spotify Me!

Posted by Laura McCulloch on July 7th, 2011 at 06:30 AM | Comment!

Ta Da! Spotify coming to the USA! Sign up for your invitation to the latest and greatest in music! Do it here: http://www.spotify.com/uk/coming-to-the-us/