The Great Dana J

My First Race of 2012: ING Miami

January 27, 2012 By DanaJ 2 Comments

This weekend I am doing my first race of 2012! It’s the ING Miami Half.

I have 3 races lined up for this year already! Amazingly, I’m doing one race per month so far from January-March. This one is the only half marathon. The other two are fun 5ks with friends. Maybe I should add “do one race per month” to my smart goal list? I’m still working on that and I promise to share when I’m done. The ING Miami is my second half marathon. I did the ING in Georgia in 2010. Since I’m working on setting goals more with everything I do, I have to put out there what I would like to accomplish on Sunday during the race. No, I’m not trying to PR. At all. I believe I finished around 2:23 for my first half. I walked a little (about .5 of a mile around #8) too because there was a hill and I stretched. So my goal for this weekend is simply to run the entire time. Hopefully, I won’t get all competitive and push myself to run extra fast. I’ve been training and the course is pretty flat!

For my race training I used products from Vega Sport. I sampled them one day at Whole Foods in Sandy Springs. I swear the samples always do me in at Whole Foods. That’s how I get into new products. I’ve tried Vega products before but what I really liked about the Vega Sport is the taste! Pretty good. I tweeted about the products and they reached out to me about training with them. I’ll do a full review of my favorites on Monday.

Products from the Vega team

Well, I have a busy day today! Packing, working, writing, errands and a quick run. Do you have any big plans for the weekend?

Filed Under: Life & More Tagged With: half marathon, Miami, race, running, training, vega, vega sport

I Made Dumb Goals Last Year

January 4, 2012 By DanaJ 1 Comment

The year 2012 is here and everyone is talking about resolutions and changes to be made. Honestly, I started about 2 months ago reflecting on 2011. It wasn’t the best year of my life but it by far wasn’t the worst. I’d say the year falls somewhere in between the two and I’m okay with that. Overall, I learned many valuable lessons throughout the year. But one thing that I did recognize about last year was how I didn’t set goals. Okay, I did set goals but they were ambiguous, broad, they weren’t in writing (in one place) and they weren’t smart. In fact, they were pretty dumb. Dumb meaning, there wasn’t a plan to get them accomplished.

I entered into 2011 with general broad goals for the year since I really don’t do resolutions. Those things were:

1. Stay in shape

2. Find a new job

3. Move

4. Save $10,000

5. Blog more

Notice how broad those goals are? No details about how, what, where and when. Except #4 which was pretty straightforward despite the “how”. If that was a party invitation, I wouldn’t make it to the main event! I spent 2011 searching for and working towards things when I didn’t even know what I wanted. Trying to accomplish things that weren’t really in alignment with my goals or my life. Doing things in vain and wasting valuable time and money. Trust me, reading that makes me realize why I spent so much time confused. Yes, I accomplished several of those goals successfully and I’m proud of myself. The thing is I could have accomplished them ALL if I had made them more specific. For instance, with goal number 1, what does that mean? I did one 5k in 2011 compared to the plethora of 5ks, 10k and half marathon I completed in 2010. Define in shape? How come I didn’t make it more clear what I wanted to do? Going forward, I want to make goals with a plan. SMART goals.

I posted this photo on Instagram last week from the January Women’s Health Magazine. I also saw it in the January Essence Magazine and my friend Niki posted it on her blog today in an infographic. Obviously, if I keep seeing it everywhere there’s a lesson to be learned about how to effectively create goals.

I’m going to think long and hard about my SMART goals and vow to share them here on my blog. Stay tuned.

Filed Under: Life & More Tagged With: goals, life, plan, smart goals, strategy

Embracing 2011

December 31, 2011 By DanaJ Leave a Comment

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I thought about how best to end the year on my blog. I thought about listing the best and worst moments or doing a countdown. But honestly, those ideas just weren’t thrilling me. I know that this year has been a great learning experience and that’s what life is about. Instead of focusing on the small details that made up 2011 I found an affirmation that pretty much sums things up. It’s from The Daily Love. No matter what kind of day I’m having, I find inspiration reading emails from them anytime. I hope this helps you too.

I let 2011 go with joy.

I let 2011 go with gratitude.

I let 2011 go with acceptance.

I receive the learning of 2011 as Grace.

Happy New Year!

Filed Under: Life & More Tagged With: 2011, 2012, affirmations, new year's

A Brave New World – The New Facebook Timeline

December 20, 2011 By DanaJ Leave a Comment

My senior year in high school we read Aldous Huxley’s futuristic novel Brave New World. At the time, I thought the book was out there – in a good way of course. It was all about this future that in 2004 I couldn’t imagine. Somehow, in 1931 Aldous Huxley imagined up this future society in the confines of his mind. The book is really spectacular and by far one of my favorites ever. Just thinking about it makes me want to get back into science fiction books.

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Babies are now exposed to all sorts of technology while in the womb. After looking through the new Facebook timeline, it made me reminisce on this book. The new timeline is supposed to get us ready for the future. See, many of the children born from the last 7 years or so will have their entire lives documented on Facebook if they like it or not. The new timeline design is for the future. That future when everything that has been done in a person’s life will be documented on the site. I have friends with photos ranging through the entire timeline of their lives. From prom to high school graduation through the birth of a child. I understand we all don’t go in that order, but regardless of order it’s all documented on Facebook. Here are some things I really like about the new design:

1. I like how Facebook has recognized important life events and lets you post them in your profile. Some significant life events that you might want to tell your friends about like buying a home, losing weight, travel and new tattoos. Other random stuff that Facebook has listed: telling your followers when you get contacts or glasses. I guess that would be significant if it was a huge dramatic change. But still a slight stretch.

2. The Facebook Cover is a great new addition. I appreciate being able to have a more unique Facebook profile now where I an add a personal photo. Right now, mine is a photo from Thanksgiving with my grandmother.

3. The year timeline on the right side of profiles is a great addition. I had a great time reminiscing on my experience cheering in college and reading old comments.

4. Nosy people have less stuff to search through while looking at Facebook. Come on now, everyone that has a Facebook is at least slightly nosy. And now the timeline helps you see where people were 7 years ago. As if that makes a huge difference on how they are now.

I hope with the new Facebook timeline, Facebook will also improve their apps. My iPhone and iPad Facebook apps had to be deleted because they wouldn’t cooperate. That’s another post though, of course.

How do you feel about the new Facebook timeline?

Filed Under: Marketing & Social Media Tagged With: aldous huxley, brave new world, facebook, future, marketing, new timeline, Social media

Silverpop Agent ROI Atlanta event recap

December 1, 2011 By DanaJ 1 Comment

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending the Silverpop Agent R.O.I Digital Marketing Tour 2011 at Intercontinental Hotel in Buckhead. The event lasted about half of the work day. Silverpop pulled out all of the stops and the hotel offered us a wonderful lunch, snacks and cocktails. I had lots of white tea to keep warm and I even picked up my first HonestTea to try later. I found out about the event on Twitter after seeing a tweet from Silverpop. We (FiPath) are also new customers. Here’s a gift they sent us last week:

Tootsie Pop and PopRocks were inside of the cup. I like the “pop” theme and the mug is perfect for tea.

I learned so much great information about how to create an effective email that our members at FiPath would love to read. One of my responsibilities is to manage and create content for the email. Or as Meg Heuer describes it, I am a Content Strategist. Sounds snazzy right? I really enjoyed being in a space with other professionals who experience the same frustrations as me. There’s no “how to” book for this crazy social space. I guess now it’s “mocial” now (social + local + mobile) as described by Loren McDonald. I took some great notes and I won a prize for most unique tweets! Below I have a recap of the top 5 takeaways:

1. The “forward to a friend” email option is dead. - This got me thinking. When was the last time I did this? Umm…well over a year ago. Nowadays, I share emails via Social media sites before I press forward to a friend!

2. Don’t make all of your emails a hard sell - Ask yourself, do you want an email that always says “Buy this” “Deal here”.

3. Care enough to send the very best email – Don’t send what you think people want to see. Or what someone tells you people want to see. Research!

4. Do not re-purpose advertisements and direct mail pieces – This one made me chuckle. I hate seeing re-purposed ads in email form!

5. Be human – Please and thank you aren’t called the magic words for nothing! These relational words make emails more human.

Filed Under: Marketing & Social Media Tagged With: email marketing, future advertising, interactive, marketing, mocial, silverpop, Social media

What I Know For Sure vol. 3

October 28, 2011 By DanaJ 2 Comments

- There is nothing wrong with my heart. An EKG and ultrasound confirmed that.

- Having an ultra sound on my chest was not really how I pictured my first ultrasound.

- Taste of Atlanta is so fun. But it took about two days to recover.

- I just had the wildest idea: I should do a triathlon. Now I can’t stop thinking about it.

- Speaking of Taste of Atlanta, I have enough photos of all the wine I sampled (thanks to Maxine) to create an entire post. (Coming next)

- I ran into 3 women with 2 or more sons in Target. I said a silent prayer for them. Those kids were showing out!

- Sometimes the most rewarding relationships can’t be labeled. They just are.

- I know some incredibly supportive people.

- Not having clearly defined goals is detrimental to success. Seriously.

- I really dislike texting.

- Hearing “No.” = Something better is always waiting.

- I’m going to make more time to blog here. It’s one of my goals

- I found this great fall dress last week at Lizard Thicket. I can’t wait to wear it:

Filed Under: Life & More Tagged With: fall, knowledge, life, Lizard Thicket, Taste of Atlanta, wisdom

The Great Dana J

My First Race of 2012: ING Miami

I Made Dumb Goals Last Year

Embracing 2011

What I Know For Sure vol. 3

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