GenPink

Waiting for Success

Elysa Rice — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:14:26 +0000

Love this quote! I subscribe to Heart Math’s daily newsletter - everyday a fun/inspiring quote, always with beautiful photography, arrives in my inbox.

If you like quotes as much as I do - tumblr is a great, quick way to post and keep track of your favs - check out mine here.

Collection of Top 10 Resources for Gen Y (and everyone else)

Elysa Rice — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:45:48 +0000

A while ago I did a round up of 101 one hundred and ones and I must first say I got some very odd keyword search referrals for quite a while after that. Today’s post is top 10 lists - sparked by a impulsive decision to peruse through my older delicious bookmarks. So here are several different top 10 lists of tips, resources, articles, etc. all of which apply to the gen y/millennial crowd that I’ve been saving for a rainy day, or ya know a New Year.

General Life Advice

10 Articles That Changed My Life: great resources from fighting depression, to doing what you love or finding out if you should be an entrepreneur.
10 Simple, Sure-fire Ways to Make Today Your Best Day Ever: it’s a new day and a new year why not start now?
10 virtually instant ways to improve your life: habits you should set aside to reduce your stress and increase your quality of life.

Career/Money

10 Reasons You Aren’t Achieving Success: is lack of vision or fear of success holding you back?
10 Mantras for Emerging Leaders in 2009: accountability, adaptation, being a team player and other great tips to set yourself apart as a leader from Harvard Business Publishing.
Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn: Guy Kawasaki provides list of ways to increase the value of LinkedIn
10 Ways Personal Branding Can Save You From Getting Fired: Dan Schawbel shares how you can use personal branding to become an asset to your company
10 Ways Your Resume Irks Hiring Managers: if you happen to be among the masses job hunting (or even if you’re not) having your resume without spelling errors & other common mistakes is very important
10 Most successful top ways to make money online: with the economy the way it is, this is a great time to look into multiple streams of income, especially if you’re a tech savvy twenty something

Personal

10 Things Science Says Will Make You Happy: how things like money, attitude, culture, health, and our day-to-day habits affect our well-being.
10 Effective Ways to Increase Your Energy Levels: exercises you can use to increase productivity and energy levels. I know I need to get better about a schedule.
10 Ways to Speed Up Dinner-Prep Times: anyone who knows me (or follows me on twitter) knows I like to eat, but life gets busy so I’m all about good food faster
Top 10 Ways to Lock Down Your Data: because we don’t want crazy people to steal our stuff!
10 essential apps for new iPhone owners: there are numerous recommendations for iPhone apps, this is a great place to start if you are new the iPhone carrying club

Also

Top 10(ish) Gen Y Blogs: New Years Edition: collection of Gen Y bloggers.

Have any top 10 resources I may have missed - perhaps one of your own?

Joy, Contribution and Journey of 2009

Elysa Rice — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 23:35:32 +0000

January 1st marks the beginning of numerous New Year’s resolutions. It’s always an interesting conversation starter to ask any audience (large or small) "do you create New Year’s Resolutions?".

The problem, as I see it, with New Years Resolutions are that they are made in haste, as an opportunity to break self imposed standards during the holidays. So many people over spend, over eat, & over indulge in November and December with the claims that come January it will all turn around. I am however, not against making resolutions because I think it’s very important to have measurable goals and something to work towards.

My solution has always been to create big picture goals that resemble more of a pathway than a particular to-do list. To-do list type resolutions never work for me because my focus and priorities change as the year progresses and consequently by February I can’t even remember what I wanted to accomplish. I think setting a goal with a 12 month deadline only breeds procrastination which results in guilt.

I went to a leadership training in October of 2007 and one of my biggest take aways is that in order to accomplish any goal you must always be taking steps in the direction of your end result. Which of course means you know what your end result will look like and then make sure to take steps towards that every day. I set goals or "resolutions" for myself every month in the different categories of my life: personally, professionally & for this blog. When I create my year at a glance goals I am working from an eagle eye view of what I want my year to look like at the end, knowing that life happens and plans change and life rarely unfolds the way we expect. I actually wrote my list about a month ago but recently I came across two blog posts that have inspired me and helped me to focus my goals even more.

Chris Brogan recommends coming up with 3 or so keywords that tie to goals and work from there. The thing that I love about Chris’ approach is that it’s broad enough to encompass multiple areas of life, yet it’s also narrow enough that I will definitely be able to remember in February what my 3 words were.

So I read back over my list in my journal and came up with 3 words for me: Joy, Contribution & Journey.

Joy: It’s very important to me to find and create joy both in my own life and those around me. For me joy manifests through creativity, music, cooking, reading, learning and being with my favorite people. I also think that it’s important to find a way to bring joy into otherwise mundane tasks. Life is too short to be grumpy for no reason.
Contribution: Contributing as far as a goal for myself is about always working towards something bigger. It’s important to me that I’m contributing to my future and to the lives of others. My purpose in blogging to to contribute to and learn from the blogging community. Contribution is also about the small parts that make up the whole. Taking time out to do household tasks on a daily basis may not seem like much on a small scale but overall it contributes to creating peace and comfort in my home. In 2009 I will be contributing to my health, finances, & education specifically.
Journey: “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” - Greg Anderson. As someone who is results & goal oriented I often have to remind myself that the journey is part of the fun. Celebrating accomplishments as they come instead of always striving to step up the next rung of the ladder.

The other post that inspired me to refocus my resolution was Tiffany Monhollon’s Forget Resolutions. Tiffany recommends picking one theme - her’s being discipline. And so for me, my theme for 2009 shall be joy - finding, creating & inspiring joy in myself and others.

What would be your 3 goals and/or your theme word for 2009?

Other recommended reading on this first day of 2009:

Are you freakin’ kidding me??

Elysa Rice — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 03:57:00 +0000

Yes, it’s Christmas and yes I am on a rant! Before I go there let me just say, today was lots of fun, just got back to our hotel room. For those of you don’t follow me on twitter - I’m in Kentucky (long way from TX home) with the fam. We are staying in a fun little hotel not too far from the house where all the festivities are.

So, I just got back and decided to turn on good ‘ol tweetdeck to see if there were any fun Gen Y posts I may have missed today. And to my excitement someone had tweeted a link to Gen Y: When You Wake Up Unemployed. This has a been a fairly popular post of mine around the interwebz but I still get excited to see links to my work. So of course I click through to the link and to my amazement it did not go to MY website. So … let me get this straight, a blog post that I wrote is published IN FULL on another website without my permission. NOT COOL! Not cool at all man. Come to find out several popular posts are being “syndicated” onto this blog, and this guy is republishing full content. My initial thought was I was going to contact the original authors of the “posts” on this guy’s blog to let them know their feed was being scrapped. BUT there were over 20 posts today on Christmas Day. I don’t really want to link to the website from here and drive traffic to him - but I also want people to know about this ridiculous shady activity. I’ve already contacted him, telling him to take my post down. I hope that there is an easy way for the other bloggers who’s content is being scrapped to find out about this dude.

So there’s the end of my rant! Thanks for listenin’ y’all!

Best of 2008: GenPink 2.0

Elysa Rice — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 08:04:37 +0000

Happy Holidays! At the end of the year I like to look back at all that I’ve accomplished, all that has changed and all that is yet to come. This has been a great year for me personally, professionally & developmentally. If I had to sum up this year for me in one word it would be - learning. There have been various events (both good & bad) that have resulted in a great deal of lessons I will carry into the next stage of my life.

Here are some of my favorite posts of 2008. I have some BIG plans for 2009, I’ll reveal those very soon!

Saying "No" - Men vs. Women: Are we still in the 1950s? Does a man’s "NO" mean more than a woman’s?

Disconnected in a Connected World: Are you guilty of texterbating?

I think I am, I think I am: Are you still living your life off the lessons you learned in nursery rhymes? You should be!

ABCs of Gen Y/Life in your twenties: This was a month long series, that I LOVED! Everything from activism, dating, career to being naked. Check out each post - there were some great guest bloggers in this series.

Is Gen Y really Lost?: A great video - watch it!

Is is possible to be in love with more than one person?

Who is Happier?: who is happier - men or women and single or married people?

This is why I’m hot: You are your own walking advertisement. At any given time you are advertising something about yourself. So here’s my advice … be an advertisement for "why you’re hot".

Think Pink: Hey did you know there are psychological benefits of the color pink? Also love this quote I believe in pink

Things to do before your 30th: Making a list of things I want to do before my 30th! I’d love for you to make your own list.

Success is a State of Mind: Is a person who runs a marathon more successful than the person who runs the half?

Managing To-Dos 3 Tiered: How I manage my Gen Y busy lifestyle & a multitude of to-dos. How do you manage yours?

Gen Y Generalized: The not-so-general-generalizations of 10 Gen Y Women and what they do & do not have in common.

Age of Awareness - Obama & Gen Y: Do you think Obama’s use of technology and the internet will bridge a communication gap between generations?

Internet Schizophrenia: The great debate of personal vs professional use of Facebook, and should you have multiple accounts.

Gen Y: Waking Up Unemployed?: With the number of layoffs rapidly rising, what should you do if you find yourself unemployed?

And if you still can’t get enough, there have been a great deal of twenty something advice series posts & here’s my favorites from 2007 GenPink 1.0.

Time has been a commodity this year and I’ve met so many great bloggers & internet celebrities. So I have one favor to ask of you - and that would be for you to develop your own Best of 2008 & link to it here. I’d love to know what I may have missed throughout the year, without having to go back through your archives. And instead of just blankly throwing this request out there, I am specifically asking for this request from (in no particular order). In case you’re wondering, you’re either on this list because you’ve been in my feed for a while and I’m afraid I missed something or I just discovered you sometime in 2008.

Tiffany, Rebecca, Zandria, Chuck, The Ryans, Derek, Monica, Greg, Dan, Ramit, Ari, David, Janet, Tina, Olivia, Andrea, Rachel, Kerri, Molly, Allison, Shanti, any and all Brazen Careerists I may have missed as well as 20sb, and of course anyone else who wants to - I especially want Gen Y bloggers!

A very Merry to you! I hope that whatever you are doing as 2008 comes to a close, you are experiencing joy.

I wish you a Pink Christmas

Elysa Rice — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:25:23 +0000

In this case the word pink can be taken literally & figuratively …
literally: I love pink so a Pink Christmas would be quite fun
figuratively: pink can just represent happiness

I’m embarking on a 12+ hour drive from Texas to Kentucky with the fam so I’m sure my Christmas will be entertaining to say the least. I’m not sure of the internet situation so I thought I’d say a Merry Pink Holiday to all of you.

Here’s some fun linkage for ya:

Dreaming of a Pink Christmas: Pink Martini

Coca-Cola Snow Globe Cupcakes — So Cute!

If you didn’t send out Christmas cards, it’s not too late these New Years cards are a fun idea.

December Party: Holiday Hideaway and Pink Elephant Gift Exchange

I have 2 questions for you:
#1 - What’s your favorite holiday song? - mine’s Silent Night
#2 - What are you plans for New Years? - mine … still undecided.

Yum Saturday: Holiday Edition

Elysa Rice — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 08:25:32 +0000

It’s been a while since I did any food/cooking related posts and I figure since it is the weekend before Christmas (crazy) I would do a little round-up of some recipes that sounds ohh so yummy to me.

Recipes:

Crispy Chrismas Sashimi

Turkey White Chili

Christmas Breakfast Sausage Casserole

Peanut Butter M&M Cookies

Applesauce Pie

Thai Basil Chicken

Grandma’s Half Moon Spiced Cookies

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Other Food Related Finds:

Study Shows Girls Have Superior Taste to Boys

2008 Best Online Recipe Resources

PS- For those of you viewing this in a reader, click over and check out the new face of GenPink (new logo & new look). You can browse by topic, see popular posts you may have missed. And if you’re a newcomer come by & introduce yourself.

Also, check out some of my previous Foodie posts:

Skip the restaurant, make it yourself

Yum Saturday Roundup

Yum Saturday

Gastrosexcual - New Generation of Men Who Cook

K is for Kitchen

What is your favorite holiday recipe?

Gen Y: Waking Up Unemployed?

Elysa Rice — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 04:29:19 +0000

Unemployment - the "u-word" as I’m seeing it referred to in the headlines of my google reader is touching the lives of several Gen Yers in my social sphere. Last week we had a dinner with all of my graphic design friends and one of the girls at dinner told us not only was she laid off but her whole company was closing down. So the question to ask here is what’s a girl to do?

Don’t Panic & Don’t take it personal: Step one seems a little obvious, but I tell you it’s important that this be the first step. This is the first time for many Gen Yers to experience being laid off so it’s easy to make it personal, which will do nothing more than keep you from making the next step.

Keep the ball rolling: I’ve seen a few people say "well I got laid off I’m going to give myself a vacation before I start job hunting." Here’s my advice - don’t do it! Number 1 job hunting could take weeks (if not longer) you will have some time to catch up on sleep on the days you don’t have an interview scheduled early. Number 2 you must go on the momentum you have built up from working - it’s far too easy to get into the habit of sleeping late and feeling sorry for yourself.

If it’s to be it’s up to me: Job hunting is not a passive game. You can not sit at home and expect your doorbell to ring. You must treat looking for your next step as your job.

Be a walking/talking/interactive commercial for yourself. Do whatever it takes to show that you are invaluable to your next job - create a blog in your field to showcase your knowledge, set up an online portfolio if you are in a creative industry, get endorsements on your LinkedIn profile, give away your services for free to a non-profit while you job hunt.

Create multiple streams of income. Think of things you could do to bring in extra money while you are job searching - do some freelance projects, sell things on etsy, or sell things around your house you no longer need. The smell of desperation is not a very nice perfume to wear to a job interview.

Network & make friends. Ever heard the saying it’s not what you now it’s who you know? With the connectivity available through technology it’s just a matter of time before you are connected to the right person. I’ve seen numerous postings on twitter about people asking for connections. The internet is a great way to get your resume/blog in the right hands. Meetup.com and several other sites are great resources for finding networking events to meet people.

Take risks & put yourself out there. Is there a place you’ve always wanted to work but have never even applied? Find out what it takes to get in with that company and at least give your best efforts to get an interview. Many people who are unemployed are too embarrassed to ask for support - this is not the time to be a lone ranger. Send your resume to everyone (yes everyone) you know and ask them if they have any leads for you. My mom has helped my ex (yes you read that correctly) get an interview. People love to help however they can. You won’t know until you ask.

Some additional resources:

Employees, Freelancers and Entrepreneurs - How to recession-proof yourself

5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Career

Maybe there will be a recession. Here’s what to do just in case

I heart Etsy!

Elysa Rice — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:17:27 +0000

Etsy = Love

My favorite Etsy Sellers:
This is a screen shot of my etsy favorite so sorry their profile’s aren’t linkable.

Are you an Etsy seller? Who are your favs? Leave some linkages in the comments!

PS- I found etsy on twitter yesterday @etsy. And if you’re in the Dallas area there is an Etsy Dallas blog! One of these days I’m going to take myself away from business designing and make some fun stuff to sell on Etsy.

Internet Schizophrenia

Elysa Rice — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 04:21:13 +0000

I’ve been having a debate for a while about personal vs professional internet presence. The question has been whether to combine my professional internet self with my personal or to create a two separate “worlds” if you will.

Let’s explain:

Facebook: Do I want someone I meet at a networking event to be friends with me on Facebook? If I accept them there is a chance they will go through my old pictures and find pictures of me on my 21st birthday with my tongue sticking out. So do I ignore their friend request? Or the other option is to put every professional connection I make as friends with Limited Profile access. What about random internet strangers? Do I really want Jane Doe in Idaho to see pictures of my family Christmas? So this leaves me with a 3rd option - create a second Facebook account.
I do have 2 internet identities -

a) 26 year old blogger, random pink loving girl who likes to read about Gen Y

b) Freelance Graphic Designer & Internet Marketer

Twitter: This is the arena that I have really debated this identity crisis. For the most part I post about random things in my day like "I just ate the most ridiculous/random lunch - fried pickles, popcorn shrimp, & mac/cheese". Now how professional does that sound? Hey I post about macaroni & cupcakes randomly do you want me to design your company website? Don’t get me wrong I am great at what I do but I certainly have a professional, business consultant side and a random macaroni loving side and I generally don’t mesh those two worlds. The internet however is all one big web meshed together.
So what I have been doing is using twitter just for fun, and a way to promote the blog, and allowing "work" contacts limited access on facebook. But as of tonight I’ve decided that internet schizophrenia might be the better option for me. I created a twitter account for my business and a facebook account that I will upload portfolio pieces and samples of my work. I will use both of these as venues to post marketing tips and current projects and all things work related. Since LinkedIn has always been in the professional realm it will stay as is, and I guess I will get over the paranoia that it’s odd that a stranger wants to know where I worked 2 years ago.

Does anyone else run into the internet split personality issue or is it just me?