DanaJ

Father’s Day Hoopla

June 14, 2013 By DanaJ 1 Comment

Father’s Day is coming up Sunday. Get excited!

My dad Christmas 2012 – I want him to react like this on Sunday opening his Father’s Day gift

All week on social media, I’ve noticed dad’s expressing their opinions about the lack of hoopla around Father’s Day. I have to admit, I noticed it too. Father’s Day marketing isn’t as aggressive and the attitude around Father’s Day isn’t really there. Maybe the marketing isn’t there because Mother’s Day is a big money making holiday I’m sure! But the attitude around father’s day is not fair to the dad’s of the world! I had a great dad, and I think Father’s Day shouldn’t be tarnished for people out there who did and for the dads out there who do raise their kids! I asked my dad what he wanted for Father’s Day and he said nothing. He’s getting something for sure. So far, here’s what I picked him up:

Not sure if he will be wowed, but I know he will use those for sure!

If your dad is anything like mine, he won’t be difficult to please. The best and most used gift I ever gave my dad? A Nike gym bag that he uses every week when he goes to workout! I like giving gifts that they need and ones I can see them using In case you are still on the hunt for a Father’s Day gift, like me, here are two cool campaigns I’ve spotted across the net:

1. Coach – Coach has compiled a wonderful list of Dad gadgets from iPad cases, key chains, wallets, baseball bats and money clips. I noticed their list in a recent email campaign. I would never think to shop at Coach for my dad. This email gave some great ideas for items to buy for dads. I liked the belts and money clips. My dad didn’t ask for those so, I wouldn’t jump out on a limb to get him one!

From coach.com

2. Oscar Mayer – Say It With Bacon campaign allows you to purchase a case of bacon (12-20 strips), a multi function tool and a personalized card stock note. Very clever marketing campaign! I think this is the perfect gift for a dad who likes bacon and very well put together by the Oscar Mayer team. I think this would be a cool campaign for Christmas too! Bacon loving dads need a gift then as well. I like the 4 Cs of bacon part:

From sayitwithbacon.com

Well, looks like I will be spending some time this weekend adding an item or two to the socks that I purchased. Have you noticed the lack of hoopla surrounding Father’s Day? What do you think?

Filed Under: Marketing & Social Media Tagged With: father's day, gift giving, marketing, shopping

Never Forget a Good Book

June 3, 2013 By DanaJ Leave a Comment

Summer vacation is finally here for kids and teachers here in Georgia. Thankfully, the break has a positive impact on traffic! As a child, that’s the part of summer I loved most: discovering new books and participating in summer reading challenges! Wishbone Design creates unique children’s bikes. The bikes have been featured on Rachel Zoe’s The Zoe Report (which I love btw). Starting today, Wishbone is launching The Read With Me project. The mission behind the project is to awaken the reading bug in children all over the world. Today, I’m sharing my favorite kids book for children aged 1-5!

Since my mom was a teacher, she constantly had me reading. From buying us books all summer and throughout the school year to library summer reading contests. One of my favorite authors happened to be Shel Silverstein. I loved Where the Sidewalk Ends in elementary school. My teacher used to read it out loud. Before Where the Sidewalk Ends, I loved The Giving Tree. In fact, as I type this, the book sits right above me on my bookshelf:

The Giving Tree tells the story of a boy and a tree. The book chronicles the boys entire life. While a young boy he spends lots of time with the tree playing and eating apples. As he gets older, he wants less to do with the tree. He only comes back when he wants something from the tree. The book is symbolic on many levels. As we get older, it’s hard to make time for the things and people that we love. We don’t visit, call or send thank you notes like we used to. We take and take and take. Like many people, I struggle with this. For the past few weeks, I pulled away from posting and updating all of my social networks as often. I needed a break! So many of us only know what’s happening in our family because of social networks and that sucks. I don’t like texting much. I want to talk to people and hear voices and not text every so often. That’s not wrong? I’m going to start calling more and texting less.

My copy of The Giving Tree, which is comfortably worn in

Share your favorite children’s book with Wishbone on Facebook for a chance to win a Wishbone bike and a Gecko Press book for the child in your life. To enter, all you have to do is “Like” Wishbone’s Facebook page and leave a comment sharing your favorite childhood book or your children’s favorite story. The twist? While we all love a good Dr. Seuss read, we are looking for the unsung heroes of literature for children aged 1 to 5. There are so many wonderful children’s books out there from different cultures, in different languages or that are simply flying under-the-radar. Think outside of the box Here are a few other favorites from my childhood to get you thinking:

1. Abiyoyo – by Michael Hayes

2. Love You Forever – Robert Munsch

4. Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters – John Steptoe

5. The Pain and the Great One – Judy Blume

6. Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day – Judith Viorst

I had a great time reminiscing on some great kids books for this post What’s your favorite kids book from childhood?

Disclosure: I was approached to write about the Wishbone contest, this post is not sponsored and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: books, contest, reading

Nike Women’s Half Marathon in DC

May 3, 2013 By DanaJ 1 Comment

TGIF! This time last week, I was excited and nervous to head to DC for the inaugural Nike Women’s Half in DC. I don’t think the excitement really hit me until last Friday. Training for this one was tough because of my allergies. Sure enough, my allergies unexpectedly got worse in DC. I guess it was the Cherry Blossom trees? I was stuffy, sleepless and had nose bleeds while there. I guess despite the homeopathic allergy medicine that I took with me, my body just couldn’t get used to the atmosphere quickly

Regardless, I had a wonderful time. Running with Team In Training made the race even more special for me. Seeing coaches on the sidelines cheering us on. Children with Leukemia or Lyphoma screaming, “You’re running for me, don’t quit keep going.” I literally teared up at that last 3 miles when my body was saying “hell no”. My mind refused to quit.

At the starting line! Notice my puffy eyes . Thankfully, when I started running everything felt great. I only felt my allergies before/after the race.

I found my name on the runners wall outside of Nike Georgetown!

The Team In Training inspiration wall with photos of people with Leukemia and Lymphoma

My Favorite things about running the Nike Women’s DC half

DC is wonderful. The weather was not too hot and not too cold.
I loved not driving. We took the metro or walked wherever we needed to go. I never took a taxi or got behind the wheel and I’m so grateful after dealing with Atlanta traffic on a week day basis
The Nike race apparel – this was my first time buying race apparel and I’m glad I did. The outfits were cute and Nike had lots of options in different colors and styles. I bought my outfit at one of the race day partners, Macys on G Street. Coincidentally they had Friends and Family 25% off that weekend and a special event in store to celebrate the race with smoothies and a gift with purchase.
The race route was scenic and peaceful
Running with Team in Training and going to the Inspiration Dinner
Team in Training coaches cheering us on
The one cheerleader on the side who handed out gummy worms (thank you kind stranger, I needed those!)
Nice, well informed volunteers
And of course, the Tiffany finisher medal. How could I forget that?!

{from Instagram}

Tiffany finisher necklace

Other side of the Tiffany finisher necklace

My least favorite things about the race

Lack of port-a-potties along the race route
Water stations being unprepared and not having water to give out. This really slowed things down
Lack of availability of the commemorative race shoes. I was really disappointed when I couldn’t find 1 pair of the Nike Frees in my size I wanted the shoes more than any race souvenir. I wish the shoe sale opened just to finishers first then elsewhere after. Wishful thinking I guess…
Not starting the race with corral wave times. I felt like we were all running into each other while racing. It wasn’t pleasant at all.
My allergies! Next time I run a race in the spring I should try to keep this under control so that I can actually sleep the few nights prior to the race. Not sure how to do that with races out of state though, but maybe it’s possible.
The expo – The expo focused only on Nike merchandise and some of their employees weren’t too nice in that tent. Compared to other expos, it was kind of boring.
The expotique post race – the line was way too long. Over an hour wait just to look at finisher merchandise
Nike Georgetown – the store was way too crowded for a pleasurable experience. I wish they had better crowd control in there.

So, since the race on Sunday..I’ve been thinking about my fitness and running goals. I have more races coming up and a few fitness goals that I would like to document better here! I know I haven’t done the best job of that in the past. But I’m going to work on it. Sharing will keep me motivated and pushing for greatness.

I will share more soon! In the meantime, Happy Friday.

Filed Under: Fitness Tagged With: half marathon, nike women's half marathon, race, running

What’s Your Leadership Style? – Chick-fil-A Leadercast Giveaway

April 30, 2013 By DanaJ 12 Comments

I’m back from DC! I will do a race recap on the Nike Women’s Half later this week. First, I have a giveaway to announce! I’m working with Chick-fil-A to tell you about the new Leadercast app. Last year, I had the opportunity to attend Chick-fil-A Leadercast in Atlanta. At the time, I was in between jobs and trying to remain optimistic about everything coming ahead. I couldn’t afford to go to Leadercast or any of the satellite viewings since I wasn’t getting paid. In a crazy turn of events somehow in one week I heard Dan Cathy, President and COO of Chick-fil-A speak at a young professionals event and met him in person. Then, I ended up seeing him at the Dwarf House in Fayetteville where a guy I took a guy I was dating at the time because he had never been. I thought surely I was destined to go to Leadercast. But alas, the day came and I didn’t have a ticket.

The morning of Leadercast, I received a phone call from one of my Twitter followers, Kentara inviting me to Leadercast as her plus one. She knew how badly I wanted to go through my Twitter posts!! The two of us had never met face-to-face, despite the fact that we both went to University of West Georgia. Our relationship was Twitter only until that day. Honestly, I felt like my prayers had been answered and Leadercast just happened to be what my soul and heart needed. I had the entire day free, of course, since I wasn’t employed and I had the opportunity to learn, grow and eat free Chick-fil-A for the whole day Couldn’t get much better than that. Now, Kentara and I are friends and I’m so grateful for that day last year where she blessed me with the chance to go to Leadercast. As a young professional, it’s vital to build leadership qualities in our professional and personal lives. Listening to all of those amazing speakers last year really motivated me! Leadership has to be cultivated and grown over time. That’s a really important thing that people often overlook!

Attending Chick-fil-A Leadercast 2012

I have a giveaway for my readers! Chick-fil-A Leadercast has a new blog app! The app gives a 7 question test and lets you know your leadership style. Mine is The Visionary:

I think the app did a good job narrowing down my style. I’m good at seeing a situation accurately and not through rose-colored glasses! I also consider myself flexible in group situations. Bravo Leadercast app!

I’m giving away:

- 1 Copy of John C. Maxwell’s new book: The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth
- 1 Chick-fil-A Leadercast Exclusive Audio Download Card, which includes access to audio segments from past and present events!
- 3 Chick-fil-A Digital offer cards for a free Chick-fil-A Sandwich Entrée of your choice.

I can’t lie, I have really wanted to get my hands on that new John C. Maxwell book since hearing him talk about it at Leadercast last year. So whoever wins, I hope that you are just as excited about it as I am

To enter: Please use the Chick-fil-A Leadercast App to determine what type of leader you are. Then comment on this post with your results including your email address and if the app did a great job of identifying your style. You can comment up until Friday of this week – May 3, 2013 and I will contact the winner on Monday!

You have to comment and put your email address in order to win. It will NOT be shown publicly!

Leadercast is coming to Atlanta on May 10, 2013 at the Gwinnett Arena. To learn more about Leadercast, click here.

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: chickfila leadercast, giveaway, leadership

Off to DC

April 26, 2013 By DanaJ 1 Comment

I can’t believe that this week is almost over. I must share this Evian commercial. I found it on Twitter.

Lol. What a cute commercial

My cousin April came over for a visit a few days ago. She brought some products from her new Pink Zebra business. I’d never heard of Pink Zebra before. With a name like that, the products have to be fun

I had the chance to smell the scents above, Relax – Red Delicious Apple and Garden Lilac. My hands down favorite?

Relax. The combination of lavender and vanilla won me over. The scent of vanilla has always been a favorite of mine. There are over 50 different fragrances. You can even mix and match them, add a wick and create candles. I plan to see what I can find from Pink Zebra for Mother’s Day this year. For the first time (possibly ever) I feel kind of stumped on what to get my mom. Here’s a link to if you need some inspiration like me, or would like to check out Pink Zebra for yourself. Check out Pink Zebra for yourself if you need a little inspiration too.

Right now, I’m watching Scandal and I’m packing tonight to head off to D.C. for the Nike Women’s Half Marathon this weekend!

This is the race I have been fundraising for with Team in Training!

Filed Under: Life & More Tagged With: nike women's half marathon dc, pink zebra

Lose to Win and Blackberry Z10

April 19, 2013 By DanaJ Leave a Comment

Did anyone see Fantasia Barrino tonight on American Idol? While flipping through channels I stumbled on Fantasia performing her new song Lose to Win.

{via}

I have been a Fantasia fan since American Idol and her very first CD. I’m looking forward to her new one coming out at the end of this month. Obviously, the words to the song got Fantasia pretty emotional and the performance gave me chills. If the song Lose to Win sounds familiar, it’s a sample of the Commodores song Nightshift. This week I’ve been struggling with allergies and tonight I tried a new treatment.

Acupuncture! So far, I feel less congested and more energized. I will give it a few days before I really give feedback. Seems like in addition to allergy symptoms, I also have flu-like symptoms too. Fortunately, I received treatment for both. Acupuncture is not painful, I found it relaxing. I decided to try an alternative treatment because I don’t like over the counter medicines and the shots from the allergy doctor make me feel fatigue. I also dislike getting the steroid shot for allergy relief. I always feel miserable and over eat for weeks after receiving them.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been using and enjoying the new Blackberry Z10:

{Instagram}

Opening the box was an experience. Since I have a Christmas birthday, opening up any gift outside of the month of December brings me joy! The packaging was sleek and cool. Those are also two words I would use to describe the phone. It’s slim, but slightly longer than the iPhone. I prefer a longer phone because that I can hold them easier without getting hand cramps on long phone calls! One of the worst things about the phone is that there’s no Instagram or Evernote. I use Evernote across every device that I have and on desktop. So that was a disappointment. To use Foursquare you have to connect to BBM so I haven’t done that yet. I’m going to test a few new to me apps before I say that the Z10 doesn’t have all that I need. I do like the swiping functions, but since I skipped the instructional video I was lost for a bit. (Obviously, I was too excited to watch the videos ) Time for bed, I have a long day tomorrow. Before I go, I just wanted to share that…

I’m 50% away from reaching my LLS fundraising goal! Pretty exciting. I have until Monday to get to 100%.

If you are interested in helping me, your donation is tax deductible and I appreciate gifts in any amount. Click here.

Good night!

Filed Under: Technology Tagged With: acupuncture, american idol, blackberry z10, fantasia, fantasia barrino

Forward Thinking at Digital Undivided

April 16, 2013 By DanaJ Leave a Comment

This past Saturday, I was fortunate enough to attend Start Atlanta presented by digitalundivided (DID) at Spelman College. I went into the event not sure of what to expect at all. I found out about the conference from an email invitation. Honestly, I learned so many great things and met many great driven individuals. To break it down:

digitalundivided (DID) is a social enterprise that builds forward thinking initiatives that fundamentally change the digital space by increasing the number of urban women digital entrepreneurs.

After my personal experience working at two different technology start-ups and doing social media for technology firms it’s hard not to notice that women and especially urban women are few and far between in these groups. It frequently gets lonely and it’s hard to ask questions sometimes. I remember standing at Venture Atlanta in 2011 wondering where is the diversity?

Throughout the day at DID we heard from men and women who are in the process of building businesses from the ground up. We also heard from venture capitalists and angel investors on how to create a pitch and get funding and taking out loans for your business.

Managing Director, Kathryn Finney opened the day by introducing us to her passion for technology and background as a blogger (The Budget Fashionista) who got started at the very beginning. She also gave tips on how to start your business now:

1. Start it – Kathryn recommended just doing something. Regardless of how fantastic the idea or concept seems right now. Get started. It doesn’t have to be perfect just begin.

2. Draw out your ideas – Seriously, draw out what the idea should look like on the web. Use paper and pencil, Powerpoint, Word, whatever floats your boat just do it.

3. Build a landing page – Build a landing page and test out keywords using Google Adwords to see what people are searching for in relation to what you want to create.

4. Build it yourself – Learn some basics and build what you can yourself before spending a large amount of money.

5. Share your idea – This one is hard. Regaradless of the stage your idea is in, you must share it. Period. don’t keep it a secret, don’t try to make everyone you talk to sign an NDA, just tell them. Your idea should be solid enough to share and you need feedback from potential consumers.

You don’t have to have a complete idea or concept. Just take action. Take it today and make it happen. Nothing ends up how it started. Does anyone out there remember the original Facebook with the line of text for a wall? Yeah, look where we are now…who could have imagined that? For me personally, all of those steps are hard. Especially sharing the idea. Start Atlanta was worth spending a beautiful Saturday seeking knowledge as opposed to relaxing. I left there motivated and ready to share information with my friends who are sitting on great ideas.

Do you have an idea you’ve been sitting on? Get it out of your head and start creating!

Filed Under: Marketing & Social Media

Digital Undivided

April 10, 2013 By DanaJ Leave a Comment

Last week I attending a screening of the movie 42. 42 is a biographical story about Jackie Robinson. Prior to seeing the movie I did not see much marketing for this film. However, I remembered seeing the trailer featuring Jay-Z’s song “Brooklyn We Go Hard” numerous times well in advance building anticipation. This movie doesn’t really have any big name stars outside of Harrison Ford. At first, I couldn’t even tell which actor was Harrison Ford (he plays Branch Rickey btw). I thoroughly enjoyed the main characters and thought that they did a great job in the roles they played. Great casting! I like how this film didn’t have much fluff to it. The primary focus was on baseball and the racial injustices that Jackie Robinson faced. The film also focused on teamwork: between husband and wife, community and the baseball team. If you’re dating someone, this is a great movie to go to together because there’s a mix of a love story, and action shots from the sport. My date really enjoyed the film and it opened the door for great dialogue when we left. Chadwick Boseman, who plays Jackie Robinson did a wonderful job. He’s a great leading man! If you plan to see a movie this weekend, consider 42 it’s worth it.

(Wikipedia)

I received an invitation to attend Digital Undivided on Saturday at Spelman College. The conference is focused around starting and growing a business. Topics will range from venture capital to site development and marketing. The conference will also allow 12 individuals with a business idea the opportunity to compete for $5,000 to help start and grow their business. I plan to do an event recap after the conference so make sure to check back. Click the photo for more information. My readers receive 50% off the listed price with the code FRIEND:

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: 42 movie, digital undivided

Never Forget a Good Book

Nike Women’s Half Marathon in DC

What’s Your Leadership Style? – Chick-fil-A Leadercast Giveaway

Off to DC

Lose to Win and Blackberry Z10

Digital Undivided

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