Trafcom News

8 things you didn’t know about me

And maybe you don’t WANT to know, but Collin Douma has asked me, so here goes.

1. I am related to Athenagoras, Patriarch of Constantinople.
(As my late mother would say: “That and 50 cents will get you on the subway.” Of course today it’s more like $3.)

2. My first career was as a systems analyst. I thank my mentor Tony Halaris for introducing me to technology (an IBM 360 – w00t) when I worked as a student in the Computer Center at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York. (See the photographic evidence.) After several years in IT, I switched gears to study magazine journalism at Ryerson in Toronto. I’ve had my own practice, Trafalgar Communications, since then.

3. Early in my second career, I wrote prolifically for parenting magazines and even penned a parenting book (still in print). Do I consider myself a parenting expert? NO!

4. I grew up in Astoria, Queens (home of Archie Bunker), but was fortunate to go to a private Catholic girls’ high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Some of those “girls” are still my best friends today.

5. I gave birth to my second daughter at home. By choice.  And I wish I had done so the first time around.

6. Offer me a hunk of cherry cheesecake, a slice of apple pie or a bowl of wholegrain pretzels, and I’ll pick the pretzels every time.  Yes, I am addicted to salt. Perhaps I was a sea creature in a former life.

7. Years ago, I attempted to become bilingual and diligently studied Spanish in high school and college. Sadly, my Spanish skills have languished since I moved to Canada in 1983. My French isn’t that hot either.

8. Every night, no matter how late I get home, I must read before going to sleep. I just finished The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis – a very nicely written humorous political novel.

I’m tagging Lee Hopkins, Heidi Miller, Terry Fallis, B.L. Ochman, Luke Armour, Sue Horner, Michael Seaton and Tod Maffin.

Happy New Year

Greetings from snowy Toronto. I hope that wherever you are, you’re looking back on 2007 with gratitude and looking forward to 2008 with excited anticipation.

Thanks for reading this blog and for commenting. Please let me know if there are any particular communications-related topics you’d like me to write about in the new year.

For now, I wish you peace, joy and prosperity.

The reason for my blogging silence

Here's a hint... (No, I'm not taking flying lessons.)

I'll have lots to share with you next week!

Autumn and winter take a meeting

I just had to snap a photo of this burning bush flocked with snow. It's a glorious day in Southern Ontario -- if you don't have to drive anywhere.

I have not "fallen off the face of the earth"

A faithful listener of my Trafcom News Podcast has emailed me (twice) asking WHERE the latest edition is. Anyone who has worked with me knows that I am a stickler for dates when it comes to clients' deadlines.  Of course my own projects suffer in the process. This month, I've been particularly busy. However, I hope to record the next Trafcom News Podcast later today and post it tomorrow.

Thanks for missing me!

Darren Barefoot kicks off Third Tuesday Toronto

Darren Barefoot’s 1100 Stacies presentation  was a terrific start for Third Tuesday Toronto’s 2007-2008 season. Last night the social-media crowd at the Ground Hog Pub received Darren and his message warmly. Lots of questions followed his 45-minute talk because the audience was engaged and eager to learn more.  I wonder how many people woke up this morning feeling  inspired to look for creative ways to “do good.” I surely did (but why did it have to be at 5 o’clock?).

Thanks to CNW Group for sponsoring Third Tuesday Toronto this year by picking up the direct costs associated with running this event. In November, Jeremy Wright of B5 Media will be the guest speaker; in December it’s Richard Binhammer of Dell’s digital media group. As chief organizer Joe Thornley says: “Third Tuesday is a free monthly meetup for Toronto area communications and marketing folks interested in learning and sharing more about the practical applications of social media in business.” If you’re in Ottawa or Vancouver, you’re in luck; they have Third Tuesdays too.

If you haven’t yet experienced a Third Tuesday, check it out. You’ll meet interesting new people, renew old friendships and spark some fresh ideas.

(And yes, yesterday was Monday. Dates are chosen based on speaker availability.)

If I knew then what I know now

In her Teaching PR blog, Karen Miller Russell tossed out a few blog topics for PR bloggers, all aimed at enlightening students. One of these was: “If I knew then what I know now.” How could I resist?

My full answer would be the length of the Encyclopedia Britannica or perhaps the whole of Wikipedia. However, I think I can share the Reader’s Digest condensed version in one quick post.

Here it is: When I first started working full-time, I thought my job was to work as hard as possible and to do everything perfectly. It didn’t take me long to discover that my REAL job was to make my boss look good.

I’m not trying to be glib here. Yes, you must accomplish your tasks on time and with competence, but no one expects you to be perfect. You’re going to make plenty of mistakes along the way. If you can support your boss’s efforts, however, you will do well and you will be recognized for doing well.

So how do you make your boss look good? Find out what makes him tick. Uncover her greatest needs in the organization and then try to help her meet them. Is Project A more important than Project B? Does he need assistance in a particular area to make HIS boss take notice?

If you make the move to your own business, as I have done, you need to transfer these skills to making your clients look good. (Yes, now I have 20 bosses to please.)

Here’s a question for the students: What do you think of this advice?

What’s on YOUR not to-do list?

Tim Ferriss of The 4-Hour Workweek shares his “not to-do list” with “nine habits to stop now” to increase productivity.

I wish I could comply with No. 2!

How to put your priorities straight in three easy steps

1. Spend the weekend with friends you’ve known for almost your whole life.
2. Scare yourself silly by traveling in a Beechcraft prop plane to get there.
3. Reflect on how fortunate you are to be alive.

Singing the hard drive blues

In my former life, I toiled as a systems analyst, where backups were built into everything we did. We drew up schedules for backing up the files on our disk drives, which today seem laughably huge compared to the number of bits and bytes they contained. When I started my business in 1985, I carried this philosophy with me, and backed up all client files on a regular basis. For years I was quite rigorous about backing up. And actually proud of it.

Last year I bought a spanking new MacBook. For some reason, over the last few months, I became a little lax about copying my files onto other media. I can’t explain why. (No excuse would be good enough anyway.) A couple of weeks ago, at lunch with a friend, we began talking about computers, and I told her I was going to buy a backup system I’d seen at the Apple Store. Well, a week later, before I had a chance to get to the Apple Store, I faced a dead hard drive on my desk one Monday morning. It just sat there, mocking me, refusing to boot up my system. Yes, I have other Macs in my office, but this one was my baby.

You don’t need to hear the whole sorry tale. Bottom line: the data was unrecoverable by conventional means, and I decided not to ship it to a data-recovery firm. As I told my friend Sallie Goetsch, author of the Backup Blog, ALMOST all my files were backed up, except for the ones that weren’t. Yes, lesson learned. Ouch.

I am disappointed that a 13-month old machine, which is treated as tenderly as a newborn child, could fail so completely. And, yes, I am now backing up my files about four times a day to a second hard drive and to my virtual iDisk. My former systems-analyst-self would be pleased.

P.S. My Apple dealer handed me my dead drive without a fuss, despite Apple’s much-maligned policy of keeping drives that have been replaced under warranty. I’m displaying it on my desk as a constant reminder.