Before we begin, let us first take a moment to wish Yvette Pistorio a happy birthday.

We’ve been hearing the countdown for at least a month now. Clearly I’ve had a very good influence on her.

At the count of three. One. Two. Three.

Happy Birthday, Yvette!

Now on with the show. Oh wait! Speaking of shows! Who’s going to see Iron Man 3 this weekend? I CANNOT WAIT!!

I heart Robert Downey, Jr.

NOW on with the show.

This week’s Gin and Topics is brought to you by Lindsay Bell, Jessica Malnik, Sean McGinnis, Lara Wellman, and yours truly. Continue Reading »

At the now infamous Social Slam, where I keynoted last year, I met one Ms. Liz Reusswig in the lobby of the hotel.

Our fate was sealed from that moment on.

A communicator and marketer by heart, she not only runs a boutique agency focusing on those services for clients, she founded Kids Theatre News.

Which makes total sense. If you missed her daughters performing in a recent Gin and Topics, I highly recommend you go back and watch it (they’re in the number three spot). They are not only adorable (and I want to kidnap them), they are extremely talented.

So it makes sense their talented, wonderful, charming mother would create a “one-stop shop” for all your theatre news. It only serves central Pennsylvania right now, but if I know Liz, it’ll eventually branch out and become the place for all things good and fair in kids theatre. Continue Reading »

Yesterday afternoon, I took a break and went out for a bike ride.

It went from winter to summer in Chicago and it’s supposed to go back to winter tomorrow so it’s important I take advantage of the warm weather when I can!

As I turned onto our tree-lined street that has four-way stops at every other block, an SUV behind me honked. Apparently she didn’t like where I was riding in the road. So I moved over and let her pass.

But at the next stop sign, she got stuck waiting on a turning car and, after a stop, I got in front of her again. She pulled up as close as she could behind me and honked her horn again.

As a side note: When you honk your horn behind a cyclist, it scares the poop out of them. If you do it to an inexperienced cyclist, it’s pretty realistic you’d scare them enough they’d fall off their bike. Continue Reading »

Welcome to 30th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (Honora, A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), and me!

For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.

This week we have thoughts on success, the future of cars, and perspective. Continue Reading »

First things first, a huge thank you to Rebecca Todd for filling in for me while I was on vacation!

You’re all kinds of awesome, Beck, and I can’t wait to see you in a couple of weeks!

Secondly, everyone wish Mr. D a happy birthday! It’s tomorrow and we have a weekend of fun planned. Book of Mormon tickets, dinner with friends, and lots of gifts. I may even make a cake! Well, maybe. That sounds pretty aggressive right now.

Anyway, happy birthday Mr. D!

Now, without further ado, I bring you this week’s Gin and Topics. Videos are courtesy of Jason Konopinski, Susan Cellura, Angie Finley, and yours truly. Continue Reading »

If you saw last week’s #FollowFriday, which Chuck Kent produced while I was still on vacation, you’ll know precisely why he’s today’s recommendation.

I met Chuck first online – either here on the blog or on Twitter – and then when I spoke at the Orbit Media Wine and Web event in December.

From there, our friendship was sealed and we keep finding ways to work together or run into one another.

While preparing to be away for two weeks, we were brainstorming who could take over #FollowFriday in my absence. At the time, Chuck had just begun his weekly #SocialSaturday song and video and I wondered aloud if he’d be willing to do something special for us. Continue Reading »

Here in Ohio the forsythia is about to bloom, trees are budding, and daffodils are everywhere.

Spring has sprung, which means it’s time to start the annual spring cleaning.

It happens every year.

And, in between washing walls and windows, putting away sweaters and mittens, and hauling out the flipflops, you can take a few minutes to spring clean your digital presence.

Like traditional cleaning, you need to do it and it isn’t always fun, but the results are well worth the effort you invest.

You can break your digital spring cleaning up into groups of tasks and do a little bit at a time, or pull a marathon and go through it all in the same day. Continue Reading »

It’s already time for our next Livefyre Q&A…today with C.C. Chapman.

C.C. is the best-selling co-author of Content Rules (a book he wrote with the fabulous Ann Handley), but also is a blogger, speaker, podcaster, freelance writer, photographer, creator of the digital “man cave,” and most importantly – dad.

He’s one of the early adopters of, well, everything digital and his name is thrown around on the “best of” lists consistently.

His latest book, Amazing Things Will Happen, is about how to get what you want out of your life.

A short departure from his typical marketing teachings, not only helps you set goals to achieve your dreams, it helps you dream.

C.C. is a gentleman, he’s a scholar, and he’s joining us today! Continue Reading »

When it comes to search engine optimization, there’s so much confusion and new rumors popping up all the time, it can be hard to know what to focus on.

Google changes their algorithms once a month and it’s hard to keep up on the latest ways to manage your website or blog content.

Whether you have an online business or just want more traffic to your website, you need to understand the basics of SEO.

In this article we’ll review five simple basics you can use to improve your website’s SEO for the long haul. Continue Reading »

Welcome to 29th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (Honora, A Better Mess), Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), and – for the last time, as Gini’s back on Monday – me, Lindsay Bell!

For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t suscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.

This week we have thoughts on willpower and habits, why we all need the help of others, and the latest trend in baby rearing (no pun intended). Continue Reading »