bachelorette should use her work skills when weeding through the candidates!

The social media-savvy Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky should follow her brain as well as her heart when weeding through the potential husband candidates. The way I look at it, it’s a similar process as finding the perfect new employee or client.

You have to force yourself be keenly judgmental, observant, and analytical, but above all, be true to yourself and your instincts.

1. How do they speak about previous relationships? You wouldn’t hire someone who spoke harshly about their previous employer without taking any blame; why would you want to be around someone who talks negatively about previous love interests? It shows immaturity, lack of responsibility or a love of gossip. Either way, move on, Ali!

2. Enthusiasm and passion. You have FIFTY guys in the house. It’s time to go big or go home. To prove they are here for you, they need to be assertive and not afraid to politely ask to speak with you in private to get one-on-one time. The ones who get kicked off and complain like whiny babies because they “didn’t get enough time” are just using their time unwisely or being a pushover to more eager-to-meet-Ali guys.

3. Just because someone looks great on paper doesn’t mean they will work in the long-term. If there is something about them that irks you, don’t wait to second-guess yourself, get them outta there! (It could be something as telling as their career choice, or as trivial as their lack of eye contact or annoying laugh.)

4. On the same note, have you ever met someone, thought you knew them, but then met their friends and were completely shocked at how much you must have misjudged them? Friends and contacts of a person can explain a lot about a person’s lifestyle and interests. Ali is a social butterfly in real life and needs a man who can keep up and get along great with other guys. She should steer clear of drama-causers and attention-getters who care more about TV appearances than quality time. And when she hits hometowns, she should specifically ask to meet their group of friends to see if she can envision a life in that circle of friends.

5. Communication skills are a must! While they may be a good match on dates in exotic faraway lands, Ali needs to evaluate whether each potential husband shares her values and holds her interest on a boring night at home. I know the show would drop ratings if they had do more “normal people” things like grocery shopping, cooking at home or working out, but these are situations that tell a lot about a person’s compatibility and character. If it’s raining, does he drop you off and then park the car? Does he like to cook or order take-out every night? Is he a remote control hog and/or a weekends-dedicated-to-sports-only kind of guy? And if so, does that bother her? What does he REALLY like to do in his free time? (Or is he a workaholic like her?)

These are just a few quick things off the top of my head. I was rooting for Ali last season, but I think she played her cards right for a [strategic] second chance at love. It’s always more fun to be in the driver’s seat.

So, I didn't update for a while...stick a pin in it.

I haven’t updated my blog in months. And you know what? It feels amazing.

Heavy, dark dread used to seep through my veins when I missed a week or two of blog updates. The feeling was reminiscent of coming in past curfew and stepping on a creaky wooden staircase.

Now, I don’t feel the least bit dirty or guilty because I’ve learned to love my blog for who she is…a living, breathing online representation of my relevant thoughts and comments on the world of creativity, writing and advertising. Simultaneously, she serves as a soundboard for my tips and tricks on the subject – this helps boost credibility and shows off my “tone of voice” for those interested in hiring me for future freelance writing or editing work.

Don’t get me wrong, you will see tons of blogs who disagree and say that if you don’t update your blog a million times a day, you might as well remove yourself from the Internet. However, this can cause stress, which can cause writer’s block, resulting in content nobody cares about. Seems like a “lose-lose” situation.

The good news is that my blog (along with other pertinent social media tactics) has acted as a solid support system and only improved my freelance workload. I also used to attend way too many networking events a week, and beat myself up over missed marketing opportunities.

But the strangest thing has happened. In the last few months while my personal “promotions” have calmed down, my well of work has not run dry. In fact, I have never been busier, with a clogged pipeline of work from client referrals or residual effects from social media.

Think about it this way: sometimes you have to order lots of food from a restaurant, and then sometimes you have to sit back and actually eat what you order (while more is cooking).

It’s not like I have shut down communications from the outside world or anything – I still am constantly catching up with friends, coworkers and colleagues. And if someone shoots me over a resume of a friend, of course I will do my best to fix it up or pass along to someone of interest.

I guess the main difference is, I am here if others need me, but I don’t feel like I am shoving my business card down someone’s throat anymore. If a week or two passes by and my blog collects cobwebs, I can still rest easy.

Thankfully, word-of-mouth marketing from previous clients has allowed me to stay busy and even pass along referrals to my other favorite copywriters and marketing professionals. Here is to a great year of business for everyone!

A few wonderful coinciding quotes:

Never look down on anybody unless you’re helping him up. ~Jesse Jackson

Stress is the trash of modern life – we all generate it but if you don’t dispose of it properly, it will pile up and overtake your life. ~Terri Guillemets

Fall into the correct grammar patterns!

November is a month to give thanks to loved ones, health and happiness. Reading and writing are two of my favorite pastimes (both at home and in the office), so I decided to make a list of my Grammar Pet Peeves with easy-to-remember rules to cure the bad copywriting bug that’s been going around lately. 

(Please note: a few I already mentioned on the Blue Tide Productions Blog, but thought they were important enough to reiterate.)

1. Review your sentences and remove the word “that.” In most cases, your sentences still make sense without that word. The more you can condense your sentences and tighten up copy, the better.

2.   Finally, an easy way to remember they’re, their, and there!:

They are = they’re. Think of it as a drunken slur, you are just running the words together quickly.

So clearly, their = the “other” one, used for possessive. Easy to remember because an “heir” gets stuff. It just has a T in front of it.

And lastly, “there” indicates a location or destination. Also easy to remember because it is like the word “here” (another location/destination) with a T in front of it.

I.e. They’re going to pick up their car from there.

3. Capitalization versus little letters? Depending on the type of site and copy you are crafting, capitalization comes into play in a big way.

The Big Game. A powerful title, needing all caps.

That’s what SHE said. (Self explanatory.)

Eenie,meenie, miney mo…I may choose not to capitalize any of this sentence if I think the viewer will get the ambiguous feeling better without them.

4. God bless bullets. Not the ammunition, but the lovely little dots that help us categorize an otherwise bulky and confusing paragraph. We should all use them more often to help structure thoughts, outline documents and sum up reports. All too often a paper comes across my desk that is completely essay-style, and it takes too much brainpower to decipher meaning. Help your supervisor (or audience) sift through your thoughts by keeping similar content in list format.

5. Alliteration is always an appropriate option. If it rolls off the tongue smoothly, try typing it out and seeing if it also flows well when your eyes move over the text. If I had used words that started with other letters like “Alliteration is typically a reasonable selection,” it just wouldn’t resonate properly.

6. Make dashing sentences by using perhaps the most underrated mark of punctuation – the em dash. Add a little drama and anticipation to your readers, and leave them wanting more. Girls should be good at this one. The width of the letter m, em dashes may replace commas, semicolons, colons, and parentheses to indicate added emphasis, an interruption, or an abrupt change of thought.

Examples:

It was my favorite day of the week – payday.

He was the hardest-working intern we ever hired – period.

7. Commas suck, any way you splice it.
A comma splice is the incorrect use of a comma to connect two independent clauses (a phrase that is grammatically and conceptually complete: that is, it can stand on its own as a sentence.) To correct the comma splice, you can:

* replace the comma with a period, forming two sentences

* replace the comma with a semicolon

* join the two clauses with a conjunction such as “and,” “because,” “but,” etc.

Example:

Let’s go to lunch, I am hungry.                    INCORRECT

Let’s go to lunch. I am hungry.                    CORRECT

Let’s go to lunch; I am hungry.                    CORRECT

Let’s go to lunch because I am hungry.    CORRECT

8. Active verbs are healthy verbs! Active versus passive verbs
While there are exceptions to the rule, powerful sentences require action verbs to get the point.

The ball was dropped on this project by our team. INCORRECT
We dropped the ball on this project. CORRECT

If you every use the words “was, were, have or has been” family, ask yourself why. If it makes more sense and sounds better flipped around when you say it aloud, then in probably looks better on paper as well.

9. OMG. Text Jargon is NOT okay in the work environment.
Instant Messages to your colleague is one thing, but sending an email, ad, memo or report is quite another (no matter how close you are with clientele). I’d love to commend Marc Brownstein on an excellent post in Ad Age about this subject: U Think U R Such a Professional? Plz!

10. Don’t use words that are “too big for a sentence’s britches.”
There is a time and a place for showing off your vernacular and if you can’t tell the difference, it harms you more than it helps you. For example, a simple headline doesn’t need to use extensive vocabulary, especially if it makes readers stumble over the words. Nobody has time for it – they will drop it and move on to something else. Of course, in a 10-year strategic plan for your company, colloquial speech is accepted and in most cases, expected for the high-level eyes browsing the document.

Hope this hints help. What are your big pet peeves when it comes to grammar and writing?

You don’t have to be a Ghostbuster to realize Halloween is my friend.

Some of my own favorite homemade costumes in the past have included:

-          Team America outfits (complete with the soundtrack blaring from car en route to party)

-           Dirty Martini drink with a olive hat that you could actually sip cocktails out of with a giant pixie stick straw (my best friend, the Cosmopolitan drink, had an equally cute outfit, complete with a cherry-on-top hat).

-          Rainbow Brite, with my old school colorful shoe-lace ribbon clip

-          I tried to pull of a cute Transformer costume last year, but didn’t have the time to prepare. Can’t win ‘em all, I guess.

Making creative, crowd-stopping costumes is an art; but thinking of them is a science.

I thought I’d put my creative costume brainstorming powers to good use and share some fun ideas for this year’s Halloween festivities. Consider this my good deed, since I am not giving away candy to Trick-or-Treaters this year. My motives are purely altruistic and have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I am sick of seeing the same “sexy [insert nursery rhyme character here]”’s flouncing about every single year. =)

New adage, courtesy of moi’:

Give a friend an idea, they will be a stupid nursery rhyme character again next year.

Show them how to think of these ideas on their own, and they just might pleasantly surprise us next time!

1. Beyond Blockbusters: What are your favorite movies this year? Think deeper than the #1 Blockbuster that has a hot couple everyone will try to imitate.For example, if you are into animated movies, try imitating Coraline or better yet, a cloud with meatballs.Into cheesy comedies? Give a nod to Ben Stiller in Night at the Museum with a security outfit, and staple bunch of animals on your outfit.If you are four guys and can play it off perfectly, try being the guys from the Hangover. Don’t forget the chipped tooth and baby doll in the pouch.Show your love for the recently deceased in a respectable way. For example, this would be a nice year to not leave Baby in a Corner…My rule is: avoid prepackaged nylon versions that are being sold for $100 at a party store. Unless you want to run into your twin all night.
2. Television Break: As much as you might clear your social calendar to watch Grey’s Anatomy or Entourage, it might be tough to re-enact – unless you happen to have an extremely diverse-looking group of friends. If someone doesn’t “get it’ within ten seconds, it probably isn’t that distinctive of a character. Props can make or break a posse as well. I’ve seen four striking ladies – 2 brunettes, a redhead, and a blonde – totally pull off Desperate Housewives outfits. Mostly because of the red apples or muffin baskets in hand, a “dirty laundry” basket, bright lipsticks and flawless character mannerisms.Taking this a step further would be a very memorable commercial or SNL skit you think would be fun to re-enact. i.e.) Dirty Mouth? Clean it up!
   Kristin Wig’s Target Lady, anyone?
3. Ball is in Your Court: Famous Athletes are fair game. Don’t they say imitating is the best form of flattery? I am not sure exactly who they are, since I have a feeling we’ll see some ref-shouting Ms. Williams’s in a tennis outfit, just like we saw a few stoned Michael Phelps’ performances last year.
4. Current Events CAN be fun!: Whether you are playing off the Octo-Mom or creating your own little political satire, 2009 brought plenty to parody. What better way to lighten the news then to poke fun of it in costume-form?
5. Gauge Your Audience: If you can further play off the theme of your audience or location too, even better. For example, if you are attending a co-worker’s party and you are all in the advertising business, it might be fun to Mad Men-ize a few colleagues and show up with red ties and cigars.
   

If you are hosting your own party and want to get even more creative, you could ask everyone to bring their own carved pumpkin. The best / scariest / most creative wins something. Scariest edible treats are always a good time as well.

Hope my creative costume ideas helped! If nothing else, we are giving Bo Peep a much-needed break this year. High five.

Well, I know about energy, passion, and brainstorming.

I also am one of the few people that recognized what they loved to do at an early age, with my first published literary masterpiece* printed in the 4^th grade.

*By masterpiece, I mean a compilation of my schoolwork that my teacher loved so much that she found a printer to sponsor a beautiful rendition of my compiled essays.

However, there is a double-edged sword in having a profession where you love what you do every single day.

Entrepreneurial spirits tend to have a handful of other inventions or blooming companies you “moonlight” (stay up late working on your own projects) every single night. When you ask this type of person, “So, what’s new?” the answer is almost always a laundry list of projects and sites and books and blog and classes and new organizations and…are you still reading? I would have dozed off by now with my eyes open. You are probably one of these go-getters yourself. Good for you.

In a regular workday, I stare at the computer screen for hours on end, swapping syllables and cutting/pasting sentences so much it looks like a fridge magnet game. Then finally, everything just fits perfectly, and the perfect article or story gleams back at me. I barely have time to pat myself on the back when my momentary satisfaction is stolen by another sales letter or advertisement tapping my shoulder, waiting impatiently for me to write in time for deadline.

I know many creative designers and social media activists feel the same way. While I can’t fathom the notion, I imagine that is also how it works for other people passionate about other occupations (like number-lovers adding up budgets).

The problem with these kinds of people in an office or work environment where they actually love what they do? The moonlighting fades.

Since the passion is lit all day in the office while you are hammering away at your favorite tasks for your company, you can be burnt out by the time you get home. Ready for activities or creative outlets or god forbid, to relax.

Instead of spending time cultivating you big-money, game-changing idea, time goes by and you get comfortable working for “the man.” For some people, security and benefits are more important. For others, getting in this rut is dangerous and will ultimately make them unhappy if they don’t at least ATTEMPT to move forward with their lifelong goals.

• Take time out for yourself and soul search.
• Stay involved with activities outside of work that make you happy – whether it’s sports, or a more obvious form of networking. You never know who can help you take your dreams to a reality.
• Don’t make the office your new home, if you don’t plan on being there forever. Offer to take on a wider variety of projects. Take advantage of lunch breaks and office hours/holidays. Leave work at home when you can. Make one night a week a day for your projects only, and hole up to cross items of your to-do list.
• Timing is key. Bad economy is a bad time to start some businesses, while others are finding a niche market and finding it the perfect launch time. Perfect your business plan to incorporate timelines and profit margin comparisons.
• Dive in, don’t just dip your toes. If it’s worth doing, and you feel that strongly, starting out will always give you anxiety and make you nervous. Whenever you decide to move forward, as scary as it may be, don’t. look. back.