Fahsion-Foward Figure Skating Wear

I've been a busy bee these past few weeks. One of my irons in the fire is Joshua Jewel, a figure skating apparel company that is launching a line of trend-inspired fashion wear for ice skating practice.

Say good-bye to black pants and t-shirts, Joshua Jewel's vision brings modern fashion to figure skating apparel. From the high quality of their materials, to their same day shipping, they offer skaters trendy options for practice, on a high-end website soon to be launched.

GreenVioletteCreative is setting up the PR and copywriting services to get this company off to a roaring start.

*Psssst...visit their website and you can get free shipping on pre-orders!

FreshBooks - Invoicing Couldn't Get Cleaner

I love Freshbooks!

Invoicing is beautifully simple. If you haven't tried it -- do.

The e-mail invoices, time tracking, project management tracking and client management is finally organized well. I've tried soooo many project management and invoicing tools. I haven't been this happy with an online discovery since Wufoo.

Who Should Blog?

This is the question someone asked me via email today.

Client A realizes their company needs a blog. I've offered to do some basic editing for them. But who should write the company blog?

Answer: Everyone

The more employees the better. This includes the receptionist at the front desk, your head salesman, the crew in accounts receivable and your president. Why?

People want relationships. Clients want to deal with real people. Allowing your employees to blog for your company goes a long way in establishing your credibility. By telling the world that you trust your employees, you tell the world you are trustworthy.

Have all blog posts sent to a designated person on your team with "blog" in the subject line. Brush them up with light editing for grammar and readability (keeping things professional) and post them. Then read and respond to posts and comments.

The shift towards citizen journalism and away from traditional journalism has never been stronger. More people listen to bloggers than to reporters. The key is to learn to join in, instead of pitch. Be part of the conversation. Listen. Say something that means something.

It's okay to have your clients, or employees, grumble about your service or product at times, as long as you communicate, react quickly, correct matters and improve. The process of dealing with feedback--openly--gains you credibility and customer loyalty.

Instead of fearing an imagined PR nightmare could rain down if you give your employees and customers a voice, find out what it is you have to DO to make clients NOT hate your product & service--then DO it. This information is invaluable to you, as it help you identify obstacles standing in the way of growth and satisfaction.

The best way to keep your clients and employees happy is to listen and respond to them. Don't underestimate the blog's power in this regard.

Yae, nominated for a webby!

How exciting, Made for Denim, an Easily Amused client, got nominated for a webby award!

Great work guys. ;-)

Not All Communities Welcome Urban Gardening

I woke up this past week to hear Roger Doiron's voice of Kitchen Gardeners International talking to me on NPR at 6:45 a.m. I recently started working on his branding and redeisgn with Easily Amused. Can't wait to see the final product!

Though local gardening is warmly welcomed in some areas of the US--like Seattle, the same can't be said for all cities.

InfoComm09 Media Coverage

I photographed InfoComm09 AV in Orlando, Florida. It was pretty fun. It showcased incredible technology being released. Companies (and a wide array of attendees) from all over the world came to showcase (and gawk) at Star Trek like inventions. Photographing holograms is not an easy task, however.

This audio visual event at the Orange County Convention Center had amazing new technology. This guy pushes a piece of paper off his table, and onto another table in another country instantly.