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This Week In Business: Lack Of Sleep Edition

It’s been an interesting week here at Breaking Even Communications and in my life in general.

I’ve had a hard time sleeping, which is uncharacteristic of me. Most of what’s on my mind was thoughts of my grandfather. It was confirmed yesterday that he has liver cancer. He is one of my favorite people in the world, and one of my role models as far as being a good person.

I used to think that there would be times in my life that would be easier and times that would be harder. The older I get though, the more I realize that most times in life will be sort of mixed, and there is importance and even satisfaction in just moving forward. So onward for Pepere, and myself…

Here’s what’s been going on businesswise this week:

Matt and my workshop went really well…and we’re already planning another.

Besides running out of time and not having a good system to answer people’s questions, things went smoothly last Saturday. We have been asked about follow-up workshops, not only by people who came but by people who heard about it.

We decided to use our common website to post information about upcoming workshops and how-tos about the topics we didn’t get to. If you want to check it out: http://www.downeastlearning.com. We’re planning one in May about making websites search engine friendly. Stay tuned!

I gave a talk about blogging at my local library.

Last night, I gave a talk with a fellow local blogger at the Jessup Memorial Library. Four people showed up, which was a lower turnout than I was hoping.

Too Cute Tuesday: Can Camping Stove

Too Cute Tuesday is a weekly event involving a craft, a cocktail, and friends. To join the fun, visit our Facebook page or see all the TCT posts in one location here.

I was at a party a couple months ago when my friend Joe told me he could make a camping stove out of two cans and a utility knife. I of course made him do it on the spot. What a perfect craft for Too Cute Tuesday and a great way to recycle a couple of cans! (Remember, we are trying to make all our crafts earth friendly since Earth Day is this month.)

Since I apparently don’t drink anything out of cans, I had to buy some beverage, in my case generic store brand diet coke, so I could craft. Rum, cola, knives, and fire? We have a fun and potentially dangerous night on our hands.

Materials
2 cans
Utility knife
Scissors
Nail or thumbtack and hammer
Liquid fuel and lighter

Safety stuff: Fire extinguisher, Place to burn safely, trained firefighter (optional)

Cocktail of the Night: Rum and Coke (might as well use the Coke, right?)

Sue and I tried to follow the instructions and make 32 holes around the outside of our can. We gave up after about half that because pushing the thumbtack through the can was actually kind of hard on our hands!

For those of you wanting really exact directions, Instructables has a very specific tutorial. As you know, here at TCT, we like to make it simpler if we can (which means sometimes it doesn’t work… but then sometimes, it does!)

1. Pour cocktail right away, since you need two empty cans to attempt.

2. Poke holes around the bottom of one can, and a few in the middle. This is where the fuel will get poured in and where it’ll burn off.

My camping stove worked well (gasp). I know, I'm as shocked as you are.

3. Cut the holey can so only the bottom and about 1 inch of the body of the can remain. Cut the bottom off the other can the same way. You’re going to fit the two pieces together eventually.

Marketing Monday: Dana Moos, Realtor and Twitter Queen

Dana Moos is one of the most useful people I follow on Twitter (@danamoos). I happened to finally meet her in real life at two tweet-ups (that’s a meetup for Twitter users for the non-nerds out there).

Anyone who watches Dana on Twitter or anywhere else sees that she makes great food (usually associated with the hashtag #foodporn), takes gorgeous Maine photos, and otherwise seems to be everywhere at once. I asked if I could pick her brain about how she uses her website, Twitter, Facebook, and other websites and manages to sell real estate.

Dana Moos, Twitter Queen, Maine enthusiast, and interesting person.

First question: Do you ever sleep? If so, how do you manage to do your job, study, be a social media superstar, and have fun?
For the most part, I work from home. So if I’m not out showing property, I am on the computer from the first cup of coffee until it’s time to think about dinner! Then I might be back on the computer after dinner for a little bit.

It takes time, dedication, focus and organization! And it has become part of my routine. Just like exercise (which I don’t do as much as I should!) but the time that it takes hasn’t become a chore for me because I can be so creative with it. Any time I can be creative, I’m happy about what I’m doing. In high school and college I was involved in the Arts, then got away from it and into business, now I’m back. But now I can combine both and I love it.

How did you get into using social media? Did it start out with a blog like it did for me?
That’s exactly how I started. When I was an innkeeper, I learned a great deal about web marketing. So when I got into lodging brokerage, The Swan Agency Sotheby’s International Realty has a beautiful website, but I wanted my own, for my listings, my focus. So in December 2008, I designed a blog through Google Blogger (mainelodgingbroker.com) because I didn’t have the time to have a website designed by a professional. Besides, I wanted to take a stab at eventually designing my own! So after my blog was established, I joined Facebook and Twitter. And I follow my stats very closely. Seeing the impact of just these two social media sites, I expanded my blogging and photo blogging, primarily for business.

This Week In Business: Dress Rehearsal Edition

It’s finally spring in this corner of the world, I hope you’ve been enjoying nature equally where you are at!

Matt and I are finally giving our workshop Saturday and in regards to that, it’s been a week of learning software here at Breaking Even Communications. Here’s what’s been going on:

I am trying ManyMoon project management software.
I use Google Applications a lot for my business. (Full disclosure: I own one share of Google one thing I was looking for was integration of project management software with my Google Calendar. It was in looking around that I stumbled on the Google Apps marketplace. This is kind of misleading, as I assumed all these programs would cost money. Au contraire!

I looked for the highest rated project management apps and found Manymoon. There are both paid and non-paid versions of the software (I’m clearly trying out the free one) but it allows me to schedule tasks that I can associate with individual projects and that will be imported into my Google Calendar. Also, I can collaborate with multiple people on the same project, though I think we all need Google accounts to sign in.

Too Cute Tuesday: DIY Shaving Cream

Every Tuesday, it’s a craft, a cocktail, and friends. Because DIY is fun and you don’t have to be Martha Stewart to make something cool. For more fun, check it out on Facebook or see all the Too Cute Tuesday posts at www.toocutetuesday.com.

April is my favorite month. National Poetry Month, my birthday, and Earth Day all happen. Also my world gets less muddy outside and I can start wearing sandals.

This month we salute Mother Earth with environmentally related crafts. This week, we made our own shaving cream, inspired by a combination of eHow and Planet Green. Chef Dan showed us and made hot lemonade to spice things up. Yay Tuesday!

Materials:
1/4 bar of soap (2 inches x 1 inch x 1 inch)
1/2 c. water
double boiler situation
1 tbsp. glycerin (It naturally comes in liquid form… which I didn’t know before this evening)
a few drops essential oil (optional- we used lime)
mug

Cocktail of the Night
Hot Lemonade: Combine juice from one large lemon, 1-2 oz. maple syrup, 1 tbsp granulated or brown sugar, 1 oz dark rum. Fill with hot water.

Chef Dan shakes things up. If you have a hot kitchen, might as well make a warm cocktail!

1. Read article in Planet Green about melting glycerin and adding oil to create shaving cream. Think it’s easy.

2. Go to your local hippie-dippy store to pick up glycerin. Realize you can only find liquid glycerin. Hmmm.

Fun Saturday: Peeps

At the end of the week, I write about whatever I want. Because I can.

I’ve been long teased about how much I like Peeps. I figured there was no way they were manufacturing them just for my benefit though!

Peeps are little marshmallow animals with a sugar-y coating on the outside. Yellow chicks are the normal color shape but now you can get all kinds of other shapes and colors. It’s a great time of year for them but you can get them in seasonal varieties for most major holidays now (green trees for example in December). No more waiting for Easter baskets!

My favorite thing to do with my stash is slit open the package and let them age 2-3 weeks so they get a little crisp on the outside. Here are some people who are far more clever:

From my friend John, it was Peeps Sushi from Serious Eats:

Peeps sushi, not quite so 'serious eats'.

All you need is Rice Krisipie squares, Fruit by the Foot, and Peeps to create. For the instructions and more photos, click here.

From my friend Kate, results from the fourth annual Washington Post Peep Diorama contest. (I think they called it that so I’d finally have to learn to spell ‘diorama’). Here’s the winner:

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