GenPink

Age of Awareness: Obama & Gen Y

Elysa Rice — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 07:11:27 +0000

According to the Associated Press, two-thirds of Gen Y supported Obama. Why? Because from a communication perspective, Obama and his campaign understood how to engage and motivate what is essentially an emerging new “tribe” in our society — not based on race, age or gender — but on possessing a radically different worldview that has been transformed via mass awareness …there is an emerging new population gaining in size and influence all over the country whose worldview continues to be expanded as a result of on-demand mass awareness. For them, awareness is exhilarating, even addictive. And it has altered the fundamental framework of their lives. For Gen Y, growing up in what I term in my research as the Age of Awareness, they have progressed through all of their developmental stages with what is essentially a sense of omnipotence. It has rewired their beliefs, values and behaviors including how they communicate as human beings.

- Obama’s Victory, Gen Y, and the New Rules for Communication

Just to clarify here … 2/3rds of Gen Yers supported Obama because his campaign tools reached our communication tools? I’d like to hope that political beliefs are not based on what form the Presidential advertisements come in. And “we will now have a President who isn’t afraid of the Age of Awareness and it will go a long way toward bridging the very divisive generational divide currently taking a toll on the world of work.”?

Am I missing something? I get that Obama’s campaign was heavy on the internet - twitter, blogs, facebook and the whole bit but I don’t see how there will be any sort of bridging of the generational divide. Just because our new President knows what twitter is doesn’t mean that my dad will care any more than he did before. I think this will help to have Gen Y be more educated and actively involved but I must be missing the mark about this “Age of Awareness”.

What are your thoughts?

Power of Declaration

Elysa Rice — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 00:14:45 +0000

Just 3 short days ago I made a declaration that I was planning on participating in NaBloPoMo this month. When I made this declaration I was caught up in the excitement of starting a new series and didn’t consider the depth of this commitment.

As an entrepreneur my work load tends to have an ebb and flow to it. This should have been taken into consideration when I decided to commitment myself to something for a full month. Fortunately for my clients, and not so fortunately for GenPink readers, my work takes precedence over my blog. So in case you didn’t already figure out by November 2nd I hadn’t kept up my end of the bargain.

So I will be writing reviews on Gen Yers throughout November but I certainly will not be doing it every day. Today I still have much work left to do because business is great this week. In the mean time here’s some of my favorite past GenPink posts that are fitting for me right now.

You can also check out over 18 months of archives by topic.

Happy election day to all my US readers!

Naked for November because Content is King

Elysa Rice — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:31:28 +0000

November 1st marks the beginning of National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo), which for those of you who don’t know is a tradition for bloggers to commit to posting everyday for the month of November. I have found having a theme or a series helps me to create multiple days in a row. I had a great success with the ABCs of Gen Y series, if you haven’t seen it you should check it out.

So for November 2008 I will be posting no fluff, naked responses to the rumors and media about Gen Y. I turned off my pink theme to signify going naked for November - starting with a blank slate and an open mind. Granted everyone has their own perspective so just to be clear my responses will be coming from my angle of - 20 something, single, southern, business woman.

A great philosopher (okay my mother) once said it’s always best to start with the end in mind. So, my end goal for the month of November is to learn more about my generation (and probably myself) by checking out what others are saying about us. On December 1st I will launch my new look to GenPink based on my survey & my findings in the next month.

My starting point for research on this topic will be subscribing to two tags on del.ico.us - gen-y & geny. If you have any great debates or research on Gen Y that’s you’d like my response to leave a link in the comments.

So just to be clear, everyday (including weekends) I will be posting something about Gen Y - either something new I learned or my response to something I found. I’d love help in the investigation process or to have this turn into a 20sb community project.

Pink Knock Out

Elysa Rice — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:54:19 +0000

For the most part I don’t talk about my personal life here but today I’m choosing to because of the topic. I am sitting in the waiting room at the hospital my mom’s lifelong best friend (my other mother) was just called back for surgery. Last week she was diagnosed with breast cancer - so today she begins the process. There are 10 of us sitting in the waiting room pretty making idle chit chat at the moment. At times like this there aren’t a whole lot of words.

One of the family friends brought Beth an amazing gift. Pink boxing gloves that are to signify being a fighter. There is a little card attached to the gloves that says:
———————————–
When all seems hopeless remember the “Steps To Become a Fighter”
Find the courage to fight
Ignite the enthusiasm deep within you
Give 100% every day
Hold on to those who love you
Think positive
Endure the fear & doubt
Remember you are not alone

We, at My Knockout Inc., want to encourage you to “keep fighting” no matter how tough your battle may be.

You are a champion in the eyes of those who love you and we hope the gloves bring you encouragement every day. Remember to “never give up”.
http://www.myknockout.com
———————————–
I think this kind of stuff is so cool. The picture below was taken with the trusty iPhone.

Tooting Your Own Horn: The first PodCast

Elysa Rice — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:53:40 +0000

First, let me just say yippie I made my first podcast! Did I mention I’m a little quirky and get excited by very odd things? So, the topic of my first podcast and this post is tooting your own horn. My intention with podcasting is to have it be a supplement to my blog and also to make sure that I don’t repeat myself. So in an ideal world my podcast listeners would also read the blog posts and vice versa but I will make sure that each entity stands alone.

I did a little googleage of the idea of tooting your own horn and turns out there are quite a few books on the topic. The one that comes up immediately is Brag!: The Art of Tooting Your Own Horn without Blowing It by Peggy Klaus. No offense to Peggy but I’ve got about 800 books on my to read list (~~I mean listen to~~) so I don’t think this one will make it. But I did find some interesting questions that spark some creativity in learning how to self-promote. The book’s *cough* broken *cough* website has 12 Self-Evaluation Questions that are quite intriguing. My favorite question is “What obstacles have you overcome to get where you are today, both professionally and personally, and what essential lessons have you learned from some of your mistakes?”. That is a serious thought provoking question.

My thoughts on self promotion/tooting your own horn:

Don’t Be Shy: It’s a must
Be tasteful
People are actually interested to hear these things about each other
Only brag about things that are braggable
Listen & pay attention to know when enough is enough

What do you guys think?

*On a side-note yet related topic you can subscribe to my podcast for future episodes (and to hear this one) via iTunes or RSS. After listening to my first draft I realize I talk a bit too fast so I’ll slow it down next time. Also I sound like a big dork, but this is no secret to people who actually know me.

Pink Planes: AA Miles for the Cure

Elysa Rice — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:18:40 +0000

On my flight today back home from the New Marketing Summit in the Boston area I was browsing through American Way Magazine. An interesting headline caught my attention “Red, White, Blue and Pink.” I knew this must have something to do with breast cancer since it’s October.

The first paragraph of the article:
“I’m guessing that one of the things that leaps to mind when thinking of American Airlines is the distinctive look of our airplanes: the gleaming metal combined with our signature red, white, and blue stripes. We’re proud of our colors, but we’re also proud that a select group of American Airlines and American Eagle aircraft, we added a flash of pink to the mix. Specifically, eight airlines now sport fuselage-length versions of the iconic pink ribbon of Susan G. Komsn for the cure.”

I love it when big companies stand behind causes. And as the daughter of a cancer survivor and the neice of a recently diagnosed breast cancer woman I am an advocate for as much cancer research as we can get.

Things I did not already know that I learned in this article:
- AA has pledge to raise $1 million a year for 8 years for Koman as the first Lifetime Promise Partner.
- The eight planes are notable that 1 out of every 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer during her lifetime.
- The 5 year survival rate for women with breast cancer (that’s caught before it spreads) is 98%, up from 74% in 1982.
- During the last quarter century (our lifetime), the amount of money spent by US government on breast cancer research has increased THIRTYfold!

Miles for the Cure donations can be made at http://www.aa.com/komen and AAdvantage members earn 5 miles for every dollar donated ($25 minimum). Again so very cool!

disclaimer: I apologize for the lack of formating and lack of links in this post. This was written on the iPhone on my flight from Boston to DFW.

Gen Y Generalized

Elysa Rice — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:21:17 +0000

I just posted a statement on twitter that I decided I had enough energy about to turn it into a full blown blog post.

Let’s back up and tell you where this mini-rant is coming from. I am currently sitting at the New Marketing Summit and I just heard Timothy Young speak about Collective Creativity & Gen Y. When I first read the write up about what Timothy would be speaking about my initial reaction was “here we go” let’s put Gen Y in a box and tell those of us at this conference how to market to “them (me)”. As Young was speaking I realized that since he was indeed one of “us” his generalizations weren’t too far off. I am a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to this. It doesn’t bother me as much when a Gen Yer tries to generalize us.

So here’s my generalization – don’t put Gen Yers in a box, don’t try to generalize us, it’s our uniqueness that is our box. We are a generation about being who we are and if you try to label or categorize us it won’t work. To test my theory I made a list of 9 of my close girlfriends and myself to have a list of 10 Gen Y – twenty something females.

Here’s what I know about just 10 Gen Y women:
• 3 are married, 2 are in committed relationships, 5 are single (2 of which were engaged in the past but did not get married)
• 2 are parents – 1 of which is married and the other is a single mother, and another of the group is currently trying to get pregnant
• 3 of us are bloggers
• 1 of us (me) is on Twitter
• 2 are vegetarians, 2 others have been vegetarians in the past
• 3 are sports fans
• Professionally: 1 entrepreneur, 1 student, 2 teachers, 1 stay at home mom, 5 work full time for a company
• 3 are blondes, 7 are brunettes
• 5 of us are artist/creative types
• 6 of us have unlimited text messaging plans
• 8 of us are on facebook
• Education: 1 with a masters, 1 with a bachelors currently working on a masters, 6 with bachelors degrees, 1 currently working on bachelors, 1 with no college degree
• 3 currently in debt

I could go on for days and while I was coming up with this list I was trying to think of things that I could say that would generalize all 10 of us. And what I came up with is we are all 20-something women. I’m going to send this to all 9 of the other women to see if they can come up with another commonality but I’d venture to say my group of friends is a pretty great example about why Gen Yers should not be generalized.

So here’s my 2 cents for those of you trying to market to us – let us know your company’s uniqueness. Yes Gen Y is a collective group of people but we are all individuals and some of us like to feel like we aren’t just one of the masses and therefore feel more comfortable working with companies who recognize that about us.

So Gen Yers … does it both you when your read/hear generalizations about Gen Y? Do you have any generalizations that ring true for you as a Gen Yer?

Managing To-Dos 3 Tiered

Elysa Rice — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 16:57:00 +0000

I have a 3 tiered system for managing my to-dos. I thought I’d share my system with you guys today and see how you manage your to-do list.

First of all I’ll say for the most part I am a digital person in most areas of my life so I do have 2 forms of to-doing that involve the computer. But sometimes when I have 800 things to do I feel less stressed when I have a written list to go by so I can figure out where to start. So here is my system:

Gmail Inbox: I use filters & labels and archiving to keep my gmail inbox fairly lean. If something is still in my inbox then that means I have something left to do with that project. Hence my gmail inbox is my to-do list. Sometimes I even send myself emails to so that I’ll have it on my to-do list. Most of my friends have come to realize as well if they need me to get something done it’s much easier to email me then try to call.

Gmail Inbox

Remember the Milk: The second tool that I use is Remember the Milk. RTM is a great task and to-do list organizer. My favorite thing about RTM is that I have my to-do separated by categories - so during the work day I generally am only working off of one of my work related tabs. At night, weekends, and sometimes during lunch I’ll use my GenPink tab where I have post ideas stored or follow-ups I need to do. I am also an iPhone user so I have the RTM app to add stuff on the go.

Trusty Pink Notebook: And last but certainly not least is my trusty pink notebook. I used to keep post-it notes, random notepads and all sorts of loose paper with stuff everywhere. Recently I sat down and compiled all of those items into a list in my notebook that fits in my purse. Having it all in one place certainly makes my life easier.
My 3 favorite things about the notebook –
a) the sense of accomplishment from physically crossing out a complete item
b) I can see in order of how long something has been on my list so even if it’s not high priority if it was written a while ago I will get it done. On RTM sometimes days go by when I don’t click on the personal tab because I don’t have time.
c) When I have only a brief break (perhaps in between meetings) it’s easy to scan my list to see if there are some minor things I can knock out quickly.

So I’m curious how do you manage your to-do list?

GenPink reDesign Survey

Elysa Rice — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 04:42:55 +0000

As you may or may not know from reading GenPink I am a graphic designer. I design both print and websites for small to medium businesses. Lately I’ve had the serious urge to redesign GenPink. But I don’t want to just design a new template I want to create a whole new GenPink 2.0 - yes I’m a dork.

One of the biggest questions that I’ve bantered back and forth about for the 18 months that I’ve had GenPink is just exactly how Pink should I make this blog. On one extreme there could be we only talk about bras, pantyhose, cupcakes, ya know the topics that are sure to any self respecting man running. On the other extreme I have thought, ya know what why am I trying to differentiate this as a Gen Y women’s blog - why don’t I make it all inclusive. On some posts I have more guys than girls respond, this is the main reason I’m asking this question.

So this is where I need your help … more or less pink on GenPink. I created a really short survey - try 3 questions and I’d love as much input as possible. Also, if you have any other suggestions on what I can add to GenPink 2.0 I’d much appreciate it.

I’ll give an update on the survey results before I start on the redesign process.

PS - Are you following me on twitter? I’ve had an influx of followers this past week, I’m starting to feel a little hollywood.

Some Serious Link Love

Elysa Rice — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:52:26 +0000

It’s been a while since I passed out the love to the great interwebz (thank you lolcats). If you follow me on twitter you already know that even on days that I don’t write full blog posts on genpink I’m usually posting fun finds on twitter or my tumblr page.

These are the great things that I’m enjoying lately:

Have any link love to add? Shameless self promotion can be excused if it’s really worth sharing.