Category Archives: Personal Musings

March 2, 2010 – 10:00 am

I Don’t Do Pains-in-the-Butt

Seth Godin recently wrote about short-sighted, greedy, selfish consumers in his blog post, “More, more more.” You give them an inch, and they want a pound of your flesh for the rest of your life.

He writes that basically every business owner who wants to provide “remarkable service and an honest human connection” will face the challenge of being abused by a few.

You always have options, as he illustrates: “Put up with the whiners, write off everyone or deliberately exclude the ungrateful curs.”

That last one is my personal philosophy. As Godin so eloquently puts it, “Firing customers you can’t possibly please gives you the bandwidth and resources to coddle the ones that truly deserve your attention and repay you with referrals, applause and loyalty.”

For me, this doesn’t just apply to clients. If someone is abusive, tries to take advantage, is a jerk, an energy-suck, has broken my trust in them or just doesn’t “get it” all the way around, I don’t deal with them anymore. I ignore them. I remove them. I delete them. I block them. I move on. Go bother someone else. I have better things to do.

By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Business Savvy, Rant & Raves | Tagged Fire ill-fitting people from your life, no jerks rule | Comments (5)

February 9, 2010 – 10:00 am

Living an Intentional, Conscious Life to the Fullest

Wow, it’s always surprising to see what resonates with folks, especially when it’s something that is just a given in your own life that you don’t really think twice about.

Case in point, I always write a little personal note relating to that week’s feature article topic in every issue of the VACOC’s ezine, The Portable Business.™ As this week’s topic was about the problem with multi-tasking, this is what I wrote:

“Without a doubt, one of the secrets to my success is that I simply do not multi-task. I learned long ago back in my corporate days that it is simply counter-productive. You can’t really and truly be present in your work and for your clients if your mind is divided and distracted. It’s not fair to them. This is also part of the present and conscious lifestyle my guy and I intentionally choose to live. I absolutely love technology. I used to be the type who had all the latest gadgets about as soon as they hit the shelf. But I found that I couldn’t live fully and presently in the moment if I was always hunched over the keypad of a Blackberry. Life is so much more delicious when your eyes and ears and fingers and mind aren’t constantly preoccupied. So we say “no” to too much technology. I have a simple cell phone that does one thing–it makes and receives phone calls. Imagine that, LOL! I don’t text and I don’t tweet. When I am away from the office, I am fully engaged in LIFE and ready to savor experiences with all of my senses.”

I received such a flurry of emails on this from folks who identified so much with the idea of NOT having all the latest gadgets, purposely so, yet who are made to feel guilty or “less-than” about that.

I hear you guys! It’s like peer pressure. I see this as the old “keeping up with the Joneses” mentality, but for the Internet (Internet marketers are responsible in large part for that, in my opinion, because they prey on people’s insecurities and hopes) People are made to feel like they aren’t successful if they don’t have all this stuff, and that’s just crazy. Stuff isn’t what makes people happy. Nor is it what makes them better or more successful people.

It’s okay to be conscious and purposeful about how much stuff and technology you allow in your life, and how you leverage the technology tools you do allow in your business without letting them taking over your life.

I remember a movie I saw once called The Bridge (you can watch the full movie on Hulu). It was a documentary about all the suicides that occur at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Apparently more people take their lives there than anywhere else in the world. What the filmmakers did was set up a camera, it may have been over the course of a year or something like that, and documented these very tragic events that were all too common. They learned more about some of the people who committed suicide and interviewed family members, bystanders and rescuers.

It was quite controversial because some folks thought it was exploitive. Personally, I thought they did a very moving, respectful treatment of it. At any rate, one of people interviewed was a bystander who ended up saving a woman from jumping to her death (a woman who had attempted it before and later attempted it again, that time succeeding in taking her own life). Or maybe it was a guy he ended up saving; I can’t remember, it’s been so long.

Anyway, he was someone who was just sightseeing and taking photos like all the thousands of other people who visit the bridge. But something he said stuck in my memory. He had been looking through his lens and watching this person who was about to commit suicide, and he said that you really are in a different world when you are behind the camera. It’s like it’s a movie and not real and he really had to shake himself out of it in time to help that person and save their life.

I know that’s kind of a dramatic story and not something that would happen to us everyday, but I remember so totally understanding what he meant because at the time I’d been really infatuated with a new camera and was being Miss Shutterbug–until I realized I was missing so much other stuff because I was always behind the lens. It’s like you aren’t really taking part or experiencing what is going on. You are just an observer and at the same time, not seeing or feeling everything fully. I still love taking pictures, but I’m more conscious about not taking it to extremes and putting it away so that I don’t miss out on all the truly good experiences–those are the things that enrich your soul. Not gadgets.

By Danielle Keister | Tagged gadgets, technology overload | Comments (1)

February 1, 2010 – 10:00 am

“A Matter of Time”

(This is a personal musing post rather than anything to do with Virtual Assistants or administrative support, just so you know, LOL.)

We don’t watch very much TV at all, but there are a few shows I like to keep up with. I love that I can do this online by using Hulu.com or going to the station’s website. Technology, you are just too cool!

Anyway, I was catching up on some of my shows over the weekend, one of which is NBC’s Dateline. One of the episodes I’d missed was from a couple weeks ago called “A Matter of Time,” which was about a doctor accused of trying to save the life of one patient by hastening the death of another (to borrow the description from their website). The patient whose death he was being accused of hastening was a young man who suffered for years from a rare degenerative neurological disorder and had been in a coma for quite some time and was being taken off life support.

What especially broke my heart was that this young man’s mother couldn’t be with her son on his last days as he lay dying. She was very poor and could only stay by his side until she ran out of money. After that, she had nothing more to pay for food or a hotel and had to return home. Can you even imagine being in that position?! This was in California, but if I had been there and somehow heard about this poor lady’s plight, I would have taken her into our home in a heartbeat so she could be with her son as he took his last breath and passed on.

My mind got to wandering about how something like this could be prevented. No one should have to leave the side of a dying loved one because they ran out of money. That just seems especially cruel and heartbreaking. And I thought, you know, they have those roommate matching services and couch-surfing websites… why couldn’t hospitals set up something similar based on that concept? They could establish some kind of online registry and the intake and servicing could be managed or at least assisted in some part by volunteer help. Those who are looking to help and have an extra couch or guest room to spare could be matched with low-income family members of patients who have run out of money like this poor woman and need somewhere to sleep and get cleaned up while they look after loved ones in the hospital.

Isn’t that a good idea?! Maybe someone, somewhere has already thought of it. I haven’t heard of anything like that in our area, but it sure would be a nice thing for those people. And it would be a wonderful gesture of good will and community relations for the hospitals.

The other idea I had (because I was thinking about how people have to eat, too, and this basic need was something this poor mother ran out of money for as well) was that hospitals could set up cafeteria gift cards and benefactors could donate funds for prepaid meal cards for low-income family members who have run out of money. The hospitals could then give out these prepaid meal cards to those who have the need.

I think I’m going to call up or write our local hospital and offer them these ideas. It will be interesting to know if anyone has ever thought of this before.

By Danielle Keister | Comments (5)

January 26, 2010 – 10:00 am

A Tour of My Office

Here’s an article I wrote and published today in “The Portable Business™.” If you’d like to subscribe, go here:

danielle012810

Aesthetics are very important to me. The space in which I work has a a very powerful effect on my sense of well-being and I love to be surrounded by things that are beautiful, fun and practical all at the same time. Form + function, don’t you know!

1. So here is my desk area:

Video-7-00m-18s

I adore my L-shaped glass desk. It’s the CEO series from Dania and it’s huge with workspace for miles. It isn’t the most practical thing because you have to dust it much more often, but I absolutely love the beauty of it. Plus, in a smaller office space such as mine, it helps open the room up and reduces the feeling of crowding a large desk in a small room normally gives.

I also have the separately purchased ergonomic keyboard tray that slides out in front of the computer. With the amount of time I spend on the keyboard, this is critical to wrist health!

keyboard

I have a rolling filing cabinet under my desk.

rollingdrawer

This is great for keeping tickler files and other things you need on a daily basis at your fingertips.

This is my latest pen holder:

penholder

As you can see, it’s not technically a pen holder at all. I don’t like typical office organization tools; they’re so boring and humdrum. I like to find interesting and unusual holders and things at antique stores and yard sales. This latest holder was actually a Dollar Store find. I like the Asian-style flavor and it certainly holds more than the typical pen holder.

My corner cabinet:

Video 11 0 00 10-05

2. I love my zebra chair!

chair

It’s stylish, fun and practical. I have never liked high-backed office chairs with arms. Even in my corporate days, people thought I was crazy to be turning my nose up at the expensive executive chairs I was given in favor of something much easier to move around in. I can’t stand those dang chair arms getting in my way.

3. This is one of my filing areas:

filingarea

I have a very sturdy Hon two-drawer lateral file. I prefer lateral files because a) they take up less floor space by using space along the wall instead; b) they offer greater filing capacity; and c) contents are much easier to file and access than in front-loaded drawers.

I like to use colorful binders for documents and manuals I refer to frequently. They add visual interest and style to the room. On the top shelf, you can see that I like to use glass vases to hold my creative supplies.

artsupplies

The small vase holding my Sharpie collection is actually a glass candle holder I got from Target. I’ve also found interestingly patterned and textured holders from Toilet & Bath departments, LOL.

4. This is my basket of small electronics accessories:

basket

I found this gorgeous double-walled basket at a yard sale last summer for $1. This where I keep all my extra cords and chargers. It’s practical while adding beauty to the room. I use ziplock bags to keep things organized.

baggie

All the cords and plugs and accessories for my cell phone go in one bag. All those for my digital recorder go in another. All those for my camera go in another, and so forth. Then I mark the baggies with a Sharpie so I know which bag goes to what.

5. “The Wave” by Hokusai is one of my favorite classics.

thewave

I have this awkward space underneath my office window. I couldn’t figure out what to do with it for the longest time because the baseboard heater always threw a wrench in the works. When I came across this panoramic poster online, I knew it would be perfect visual interest for that area. I took it to my local craft store where I had it Color-Plaked which adds this clear, durable texturized coating over the top of the particle-board mounted piece. The way they do the wall-mounting in the back (they call it Color-Float) is ingenious. I couldn’t begin to describe it, but it makes the piece stand out from the wall for a really interesting effect.

6. I use split tubing to organize computer and electrical cords.

splittubing

This is a great way to disguise those ugly cables and cords. Since my desk is glass, I have nothing on which to screw in any kind of cable organizer so this is perfect. I got mine at Home Depot where you can get one pkg of 8′ split tubing for a mere $2.99. Cords are easily tucked into the tubing with your fingers. The tubing is also easily cut with scissors so you can measure out precise lengths.

7. I have a badass surround-sound computer speaker system which is great for listening to music, movies and business teleseminars.

speakers

8. This is my vision board:

visionboard

I created my board so that it could be used as a permanent art piece as well as a vision board. It hangs on the wall in front of where I sit at the computer so that I look at it each and every day. What I did was take three cork panels and glue them to a piece of cut particle board. I then painted the entire thing in a pretty plum color and had the frame shop screw-in the hanging wire. Voila! I use clear pushpins on my cut-outs so whenever I want to update my board with new intentions, I just swap things out.

9. This is my printer:

printer

I recently switched to an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner so I could free up more desk space. I love the sleek, all-black coloring as well. I really don’t know much about which brands are better than others when it comes to printers, but I’m very happy with this HP Photosmart Plus and I have to say, HP has some fan-freaking-tastic customer support.

10. This is my glass whiteboard:

whiteboard

I could not live without this thing, seriously. Whenever an idea flits through my head, I can swivel around in my chair and capture it instantly. I use it for my to-do lists, too. I save on so much paper and once I complete something, I simply wipe it away. I recently found a magentic glass whiteboard vendor in California and am so stoked! They are very expensive (the size I’m getting is a bit over $700), but to me well worth it. Shipping would cost an extra $600+ so we’re making a roadtrip out of it down to San Fransisco to pick it up ourselves.

Resource: Craigslist is awesome for finding great deals on office furniture, equipment and supplies. I got my practically new, perfect condition Hon lateral file drawers that way for $50 from a company going out of business. They would have cost well over $300 brand new. The whole reuse/recycle/repurpose mentality really appeals to me, and if you ever want something that is mail-order only, pop in a search of Craigslist and you just might be able to pick it up locally without the wait.

PS: Email me a pic of your office space and I’ll share it here on my blog with your name/business and a link back to your website!

By Danielle Keister | Also posted in Cool Stuff, Fab Ideas | Tagged Office Space | Comments (2)

January 14, 2010 – 10:00 am

Will You Join Me in Letting the People of Haiti Know They Are Not Forgotten?

With all the human rights abuses and natural disasters that happen all over the world, it can sometimes feel really overwhelming. You think, omigosh… I’m just one little ol’ person. I’m not Amnesty International or Red Cross. What can I do that will have any impact at all? I can’t shoulder this burden of human woe and misery all by myself.

How I ended up answering that for myself long ago was to give myself permission to not take on all the cares of the world. As a mere mortal, you can only do what you can do. No one is ever required to shoulder the world’s burden alone. The Universe is pretty smart at divvying up life purposes. Your life purpose might not be foreign aid and volunteer humanitarian relief (and if it is, trust me, the Universe will let you know). But you can support those efforts through your financial contributions and spreading the word. What we as individuals might think is only a tiny, meaningless drop in the bucket is actually huge because of what all our collective drops amount to together. So I trust and leave it to the Universe to make the right opportunities known to me about when, where and how I can help, and I remind myself that every effort, not matter how humble, contributes to the whole and matters very much indeed.

To reduce the overwhelm, I do tend to focus on helping my own community and countrymen first. Like I say, we can’t be responsible for all the cares in the world… it’s just too much to bear all by ourselves individually. I sort of look at it like the concentric ring theory… if everyone took care of their own backyard and community first, problems could be taken care of locally and support could eventually overlap beyond local boundaries and extend outwardly from there.

At the same time, I fervently believe that we are all our brothers’ keepers. There are just certain events and situations that catastrophically exceed the community and resources available to our fellow human beings in other parts of the world… the kind of community and resources we in the U.S. are blessed and fortunate to have. Those are the needs that end up speaking to me and that the Universe calls to my attention. And Haiti is in such need of our support right now. Can you imagine living through that kind of devastation and not having the kind of medical care and emergency support that we have in our own country? Can you imagine the misery and suffering and despair and utter feeling of hopelessness? I just can’t sit back and not help in my own small way.

Here’s what I plan on doing… First, I’m going to make a personal donation today to a Haiti disaster relief organization. I ask you to do the same. Remember, every single little bit counts. Your $1 donation is as helpful and important as the next person’s $1000 donation so please contribute something, anything. It really, really matters.

Then, I’m going to make a second donation of 10% of all sales on my Virtual Assistant business products this month. I don’t tend to market that stuff much because it’s not the real business I’m in (I’m in the administrative support business), but you may see a slight increase in marketing so that I can beef up the contribution efforts of my pledge. If you are in my affiliate program, please do let your audience know that 10% of their purchase will be going to Haiti disaster relief. (And in case you are wondering, you will still get full commissions from all your referrals).

Please join me in letting the people of Haiti know the world cares about them in their time of need right now.

By Danielle Keister | Tagged Haiti disaster relief | Comments (0)

December 24, 2009 – 10:10 am

Happy Holidays to You and Yours!

I had so much fun taking video of the holiday lights in our area (using my awesome Flip Ultra) and then putting it all together using my Camtasia video editing software. Unfortunately, I had a heck of a time trying to get it uploaded anywhere. Still not sure why. It’s under the allowed size limits and seems to meet all other specifications (except for YouTube, where the video can’t be over 10 minutes long and mine is 57 seconds more than that).

Anyhoot, I ended up having to use Camtasia’s Screencast service in order to share it. It’s not ideal, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless! (Click on the link below to be taken to the video page.)

By Danielle Keister | Comments (0)

December 15, 2009 – 10:00 am

My Christmas List

I’m 45 years old and my dad still makes me and my sister give him our Christmas wishlists. This just gets harder and harder to do each year because I just don’t need anything and anything I do need, I just buy myself. But to appease him, we still go through the motions. I couldn’t possibly deprive him of his joy of shopping for us, now could I? Here are some of the items on my own shopping list this year; maybe they’ll give you some ideas for the folks on your list.

1. Cocoa Noir Dark Drinking Chocolate from Christopher Elbow. Always a great choice for me. Restocking someone’s exhaustible supply of something they love is a nearly fail-safe gift idea. Of course, since I was 15, my dad has given my two of my favorite things: chocolate covered cherries and Jiff creamy peanut butter both of which I was so over many, many, MANY moons ago, LOL. Now it’s just a running gag. I usually get at least 6 boxes of the cherries so I just regift them or use as stocking stuffers.

2. You know you’re a business geek when office supplies get you exited. Which makes gift cards to places like OfficeDepot and OfficeMax a good choice for the business geeks on your list.

3. Generally speaking, I hate giving gift cards (or worse, cash). To me, it says “I couldn’t be bothered to even try to think of something you’d like and you aren’t important enough to spend my time shopping for.” But obviously, in reality, we all have those people who are absolutely impossible to shop for. Like me for example, LOL. I’m always reading business books and go through them faster than you can blink so you can never fail with an Amazon gift card.

4. I’ve been holding off on getting this just because I knew it would give my dad something to put in my stocking that I needed: 4 Port USB Squid. Too useful.

5. I generally stay away giving clothing or decorative items for the home because those choices are so personal. I haven’t bought my daughter clothes since she was pre-teen because she is just too picky and I never get her style right even when I think I’ve finally dead-on, LOL. And I always dreaded gifts from my husband’s sister because she was into crafts and every year I’d get some hideous teddy-bear-in-a-wicker-chair or goose-with-a-blue-bow-tie themed handcrafted item that I would just as soon die than have to look at in my house every day, LOL. So I try not to inflict that kind of situation onto others myself.

6. But speaking of clothing, a few years ago I bought this Donna Karan wrap thing that I absolutely adore. You can twist and turn it into all kinds of interesting ways to wear it. But it wasn’t cheap, let me tell ya (it cost a couple hundred buckeroos). Then Victoria’s Secret came out with the same kind of wrap called the Soft & Sexy Wrap in all kinds of luscious colors for waaay cheaper. This might possibly be an exception to my give-no-clothing rule because it is just so versatile and stylish and fits with every body type. Oh, and it’s on sale right now, too.

7. Another exception to my no-clothing rule might be arm warmers. I have a million of ‘em. I wear them more for style than for keeping warm. I think they make great stocking stuffers because you don’t need to know anyone’s size and they are pretty utilitarian. My favorite online vendor for arm warmers is Sock Dreams. The gal there is a total sweetie. The orders go right out and she’s always getting new styles and colors all the time. A couple years ago, I bought some gorgeous chartreuse colored arm warmers (I am a total sucker for that color) from Nordstrom’s for $60. I have worn them exactly twice. And you know which ones I end up wearing just all the time? My $9 Cronert ones from Sock Dreams! (She has socks, leg warmers and other related stuff, too.)

8. One of the things I gave a few years ago that was a big hit were crepe kits. I bought a bunch of these crepe mix packages from this vendor up at the Freemont Sunday Market in Seattle. This mix is great because all you do is add water–everything else is already in there–and it comes out perfect every time. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a website for this vendor (shame on them, LOL). All they have is a mailing address on their package–not even a phone number so I’m going to have to get up there soon to get my own stock replenished. Anyway, what I did was also get a bunch of crepe rakes (these are little wooden tools that you use to swirl and spread the batter evenly on the crepe pan) and put a package of the crepe mix, a crepe rake and a few crepe recipe cards (there are all kinds of sweet and savory crepes you can make) into a gift bag all together. It was a fun little gift, creative, and if you have a large group of people to shop for (like maybe business associates or something like that), it won’t cost a fortune to put together.

9. I’m doing a theme like that this year for some of the people on my list. Do you have a World Market or Trader Joes or something like that where you live? If you do, look for the section where they have all their little mini picnic packaged items. I picked up little sausages, cheeses, mustards, cans of lobster pate and salmon pate and some other things (all picnic sized) as well as boxes of good smoked salmon, crackers and some other hors d’oeurvey type stuff and put all of it together in little baskets. My dad loves to entertain. He always has a New Year’s Day get-together so I thought this would be perfect for him because he won’t have to shop for this kind of stuff and can just get the basket out from under the tree and put it all together.

I would really love to see you take your practice to an entirely different level in 2010 so you can earn better and stop struggling to find clients. As my gift to you this holiday season, from now until Sunday, Dec. 20, you can get this guide for $47 (a $20 savings).

By Danielle Keister | Comments (0)

December 10, 2009 – 10:00 am

Be Thankful

I came across this little ditty on one of those little flyers you find in various greasy spoons… you know, the kind that have funny little jokes and crosswords to amuse yourself with as you wait for your food. I’m not usually a fan of platitudes as they often tend to be too cheesy or nauseatingly sweet. Uck. But this one is very simple and plainspoken–just my style–and so it naturally resonated with me.

Be Thankful

author unknown

Be thankful that you don’t already have everything you desire.
If you did, what would there be to look forward to?

Be thankful when you don’t know something,
for it gives you the opportunity to learn.

Be thankful for the difficult times.
During those times you grow.

Be thankful for your limitations,
because they give you opportunities for improvement.

Be thankful for each new challenge,
because it will build your strength and character.

Be thankful for your mistakes.
They will teach you valuable lessons.

Be thankful when you’re tired and weary,
because it means you’ve made a difference.

It’s easy to be thankful for the good things.
A life of rich fulfillment comes to those
who are also thankful for the setbacks.

Gratitude can turn a negative into a positive.
Find a way to be thankful for your troubles,
and they can become your blessings.

By Danielle Keister | Comments (0)

November 27, 2009 – 10:00 am

Hysterical

Omigawd, you have to read this… I can not stop laughing. Anyone else find this as hysterical as I do? (tip of the hat to Peter Shankman for sharing this gem)

http://www.27bslash6.com/p2p.html

The whole thing is just beyond witty, but I think my favorite lines are:

“I would then travel several months back to warn myself against agreeing to do copious amounts of design work for an old man wielding the business plan equivalent of a retarded child poking itself in the eye…”

and:

“Usually when people don’t ask me to design them a logo, pie charts or website, I, in return, do not ask them to paint my apartment, drive me to the airport, represent me in court or whatever it is they do for a living.”

Oh, and the graphics… can’t forget the graphics, LOL. So perfect.

Obviously, the post isn’t supposed to be politically correct, and it just wouldn’t be as funny if it were. But amongst the irreverence, there’s this little nugget of truth (in response to the client’s trivialization of the work and request for what amounts to free services):

“Actually, you were asking me to design a logotype which would have taken me a few hours and fifteen years experience.”

By Danielle Keister | Comments (1)

November 26, 2009 – 10:00 am