This week was busy at Breaking Even Communications but since I was waiting on a few different stages of some ongoing projects, I found myself with a little time for some professional development then usual. That’s right, I schooled myself!
Here’s what happened:
I attended a webinar, and actually paid attention.
Most of the time, I am quite the slacker webinar attendee. I am usually filing papers or making lunch while I listen to a presentation. When I listened to a webinar sponsored by Verizon and given by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. I made myself get out my notebook and actively listen for the next 45 minutes.
You know, paying attention really does help you get more out of things! Being a good student paid off in some new ideas for improving my product. Partnerships with complementary organizations and video testimonials anyone?
Wish you had sat in on the fun? All of the Verizon sponsored webinars are achived here. And it looks like there are a few good ones for me to go back and listen to later.
I got a couple iBooks from a school sale for a song.
Those of you who live outside the state of Maine may not be familiar with the fact that Maine has a laptop program, which gives students 6th grade and older access to their own laptop. Beginning in grade 7 or 8, students can take it home after signing a sort of “I will be responsible and so will my parent/guardian” agreement. Every few years, the schools replace the machines, which are all Apple iBooks. To make a bit of cash (but probably more accurately, save themselves from disposal fees), the schools sell them off on the cheap, in my local case $25 a pop.

I emailed the technology cooridnator at the school for information about this when he told me that first, the laptops would get offered to students, then to staff, then to the public. Fat chance I’ll ever get a computer… or so I thought.
My friend Michelle emailed me to tell me the sale was happening for the public on Wednesday at 3:30. I found out Wednesday at 1 pm. We hustled down to the school early to see a line out the door. We ended up being literally in the last group of people to get laptops. My two (limit two per customer) have no working CD drives and didn’t come with chargers but at the very least have a basic operating system and internet browser. They’ll be great computers to lend out to participants without laptops for that workshop my friend Matt and I are giving in April.
I’m learning how to do more on Youtube.
Video is the new Facebook. (Just kidding, I really have no basis to make claims like that, but it got your attention, right?) I can say though that people love to watch videos, and I’m trying to do more on my blog with it (via one a week with Too Cute Tuesday) and in the meantime, experimenting on Chef Dan’s channel.
It sounds basic but it was fun to finally understand, for example, how to annotate (I almost made my pie say via speech bubble “Je m’appelle crème brulée, Enchanté!” just because I could) and that I couldn’t somehow include a .pdf file of Chef Dan recipes on the channel (I’ll have to host it on my own site and just link it).
While it is fun to work work work (and bill bill bill) a majority of my work life, it is necessary to take time out to learn more about my industry, business, and what’s going on in the world in general. It was nice to have a week to catch up and develop some new projects at the same time, but here’s me promising to do this a little bit every week rather than these occasional information overloads.
Have a great rest of the week!
By the way, if you happen to be on Facebook and love reading about business, marketing, and social media, I post links I think are pretty cool on the Breaking Even Communications Facebook page.

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