It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, but I just love reading and making curated lists filled inspiration and information. Below are upcoming events, interesting reads, and more from my perspective.
Starting with this quote that has continued to stick with me a lot recently.
Last week as I was scrolling through Instagram, this image and quote from Humans of New York caught my eye.
I’ll be honest, I don’t write as often as I should. But this quote was a true awakening. It reminded me of when I just graduated college. Almost every single day for about an hour I would just write and recollect my thoughts at nearby cafes. It was one of my most fondest memories. It was my personal getaway to recap the struggles (and still struggles) of the economy and post-grad life, finding my way, logging weight goals (I lost 80lbs in about a year during my senior year and documented it both on and offline), and reenacting fun I had with friends in college. I could relive it all or just reflect, even for a few short moments. It was pure bliss.
Immediately after reading this quote, I grabbed a new Moleskine notebook and got started. I’ve been writing every single day since then ( a whole week straight so far! ). Just like anything else you need to make time for it, and it’s definitely a habit I’m excited about forming.
I’d love to hear from you: What are your daily improvement habits? How do you strike a balance to make time for these habits?
For me, I’ve started to only bring a book with me whenever I’m running out the door, that way I can squeeze reading time into my commute time. Then, I’ll set aside an hour to write in the evening and use my Lift app to hold myself accountable. It’s also fun to check things off a to-do list.
Would love to hear from you! Let’s explore in the comments below.
“The best way to bring everyone together is through food.”
A few weeks ago I took the leap and pursued my side project with my good friend Megan Frantz, called Women Who Brunch. A monthly Meetup group and event series which gathers a group of women together over the most important meal of the week. Each month we curate the restaurant, conversation, speaker, and experience.
There were a number of reasons why I wanted to start this up. One of which was to meet new women, I don’t think that there is enough opportunities for women to support and connect with each other. The other reason was of course to have an excuse to eat delicious pancake carbs and check out a new restaurant. In all seriousness, I’m excited for what the future holds for WWB. I’ve always wanted to start my very own foodie community, while having the freedom to curate the best experience possible.
Our inaugural event on August 3rd, was more than I could have asked for, with two great speakers Megan Nuttall and Monica Lo. Both of which spoke on the subject of “Passion Projects”. I’ve known these two for almost a year now and have constantly kept up on their new ventures. Recently, they received Google Glasses to beta test and have been using them for a photography project in which Megan will in turn write a piece about their experience. During the brunch they were also so kind as to bring their pairs of Google Glass for our attendees to play with. Successfully, we also had a sold out brunch event and I got to meet a lot of amazing new ladies along the way.
Looking forward, I’m eager for what we have on the horizon. For our September brunch we’re bringing back Megan Nuttall, the theme will surround “Crafters & Makers”, as she also runs her own Etsy store called The Invisible Kitten. We’re going to have some fun icebreakers in the works and so far received a great discount off the Maker’s Faire, which is by far one of my favorite Queen events. For October, the lovely Angela Giacchetti of Eventbrite NYC will be joining us as our guest speaker for an “Events” themed brunch. And finally, we also launched our website this week!
The only thing that could make my life complete was if Jimmy Fallon showed up as an honorary bruncher – a girl can dream…
Join us for brunch on September 15th at the Jane Restaurant! Brunch on, ladies!
Last week I had the privelige to tour the NYC Google offices. Coming up in September, Digital DUMBO is hosting an event with Google Local and saw this as a great opportunity to visit their offices and meet a fellow Community Manager. (Side note: We both went to UCF, I love small world coincidences like that.)
I’ve always had an obsession with visiting tech and other great brand’s offices in New York. Then I thought being the OCD list maker I am, wouldn’t it be fun to write down all the offices I’ve visited as well as the ones on my office “bucket list”.
Here’s my list. What are some of your favorite offices in the city?
Tech & Awesome Brands I’ve Visited:
Google – They have about 4 cafeterias on one floor with great food + Legos.
Buzzfeed – Everything you’d image the Buzzfeed office would be.
Foursquare – Customized conference rooms named after badges, cafeteria with a calligrapher that comes in each week to write out the upcoming menu and craft beer for the following week.
Warby Parker – Dream company + Showroom inside their offices!
Shutterstock – Photos on each elevator door.
AOL – Catered events.
AppNexus – Have their own auditorium space and cafeteria space for events and talks.
Flavorpill – Graffiti, high ceilings, lots of light, Friday lunches.
Tasting Table – Spacious, lots of light, test kitchens on site.
MKG – Each conference room is different and has a theme + word search board and photo booth.
Percolate – I haven’t seen the new offices, just the old one!
Tumblr – They have their own Grady’s Cold Brew fridge and Tumblr user artwork around the office.
Bitly – Pufferfish every where!
Tattly/ StudioMates – Always full of fun surprises.
Ogilvy – Huge and fancy.
Times Square Alliance – Over looks Times Square, of course.
Birchbox – So pink!
Artsy – Probably has the best view of the entire city. Like Top of the Rock good.
Vemeo – Huge and snacks galore! And they have their own popcorn machine.
General Assembly – Open space, good classroom environment.
Huge – The whole office has design in mind. They also name their conferences after celebs. Justin, Britney, Kim.
Sesame St. – Interactive Sesame Street coffee table, their creative department is more fun and colorful.
Squarespace – Customer support has their own floor, and they have pretty great snackage.
Contently – Epic bookshelf in color coordinated order.
MediaBistro – Went there for classes, it was a pretty ordinary office.
Attempt at trying a Buzzfeed-y type post…For some of these places, only the South Florida 90’s kid generation will know these places best.
1.) 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea – The Ride at Walt Disney World
Best
Ride
Ever
2.) Funscape
Short lived but so magical. Funscape was located on Cypress Creek road right next to Regal Cinemas. It was like an indoor mall with 2 levels of arcade games, food, golf, bumper cars, and my personal favorite 3-D mini movie rides.
3.) Blockbuster Golf & Games
I had either my 10th or 11th birthday here. It was awesome.
4.) Discovery Zone
I miss you so much. We’ll always have that slide. RIP: 1990-1999
5.) Mars Music
Music store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1999-2002. I took my guitar and singing lessons here. 😦
6.) Tower Records
Music chain based out of California from 1960-2006. Had to visit there when I went on vacation to LA, long live music stores.
7.) Virgin MegaStore
At its peak, there were 23 Megastores in the US. My 2 favorites were the one in Orlando, FL which was the first I had ever been to, last time I was there it was a Lady Diana exhibit and it’s flagship store in Times Square which closed in 2009 and is now occupied by Forever 21.
8.) Peaches Records & Tapes:
I fondly remember the Boca Raton, FL location, and bought my first tape here, I’m pretty sure it was Hootie and the Blowfish. There’s still one location of this former chain still around in New Orleans, LA.
9.) Wally World
The only hotel to stay at when you were a kid headed to Disney World. Indoor pool, character dinners, arts and crafts, games, kangaroos, heaven.
10.) The Factory
I went to so many concerts here in high school. It was probably the best time in my life. It was also next to a porn store, my dad loved dropping me and all my friends off here.
Side note: I also took these photos from their Myspace page. I’m getting old.
Truth is this obsession has only been going on for about 2 months now. When I wanted to start my own “30 Day Vine Challenge”. I wanted to challenge myself to start taking a video a day of NYC life, then gradually became obsessed with the Vine community and all the Vine ‘personalities’. At first I wanted to make this into a ‘Top Video Personalities/Comedians to Watch” list, which it is. But the more I did my research the more I noticed how the top Viners each really have their own niche.
Let’s start with some videos.
Note: Best way to view these is by turning on/off the sound to each Vine one at a time.
KC James
Had to put KC at the top of my list because he’s a personal favorite. He’s hilarious and always changing his Vines up where most others on this list will stick to only one of two Vine themes they’re known for, but not KC. He has a number of “Vine Series” including: How to Recover After an Embarrassing Slip https://twitter.com/iamkcjames/status/335109992803868672 “Magic Vines” – Which are stop-motion Vines that create interesting concepts (flying, disappearing, etc.)
Best known for Huckle Bee Bob (He’s even brought this costume to Europe) and pretty much torturing is puppy with cat noises and dressing him up as a triceratops.
Rudy hasn’t posted too many of his Vine’s on Twitter. And Vine hasn’t quite figured out an easier way to share Vine’s other than your own but I did manage to find a “Best of Rudy on YouTube” — That’s right, someone other than Rudy has too much time on their hands.
He’s best known for his characters Isaac and Alberto, Isaac as Siri, chair spinning, mi madre, foreign parents (aka making his mom say really long sentences in English), and Lion King in random places. These all make sense when you follow his Vine’s as religiously as I do.
The key to standing out on Vine?These Viner’s create content that is unique, interesting, and funny, while pushing their ideas to the next level. All these Viners are known for their own unique themes, series, and ideas.This translates to a community of Viners. Remake Vines and collaboration between the rest of the Vine community start to begin.
I’m always so surprised when I see that most of these great Viners are from Cali, they all know each other and show up in each others Vines. And if they’re not from the same state they do collaborations or remakes of each others work. It’s amazing when it unfolds.
You can follow all these great talents by looking up their names on the Vine App — as well as myself, Nicole Monahan (shameless plug!) I mostly Vine NYC life, office puppies, events, and subways musicians. 🙂
Best piece of advice: Talk to as many people as you can and often.
It occurred to me that over the past year I’ve conducted 16 informational interviews with wonderfully talented people from Birchbox, Bit.ly, Warby Parker, Buzzfeed, Flavorpill, Eventbrite, Foursquare, and MKG. What also occurred to me was the fact that I haven’t been sharing the advice I received from so many great people. This really clicked for when I had an informational interview last week at the Foursquare headquarters. Besides fangirling over their fancy offices and meeting Dennis Crowley in person, when I sat down with Anna Frenkel, Head of Consumer Marketing at Foursquare I realized she was giving similar advice that Talisa Chang, Product Marketing, at Foursquare did months earlier…
Become a problem solver.
Here’s some highlights from both interviews:
Talisa:
In your cover letter you should list how you’re going to solve their problems. List details, be specific. Provide challenging examples.
Get into the company’s mind. What are you going to bring to the table? How can you improve their company?
Seek out competitors. Ask yourself, what would you do differently?
Have an active mind.
And finally my personal favorite quote from Miss Talisa. “Go where there’s momentum. Go where there’s energy.”
Anna:
Began at Foursquare in customer service and community management and started looking for pain points that they were facing and presented a solution for them.
On Prioritizing: Ask yourself, where can I make the biggest impact?
On figuring yourself out, start thinking about:
What is it about a company or job that really interests you? Do you love building Facebook Pages? Content on Twitter? Narrow it down and be specific.
What is it about these social media platforms that I wish I would have done? What problem was (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, etc) trying to solve?
I’ve learned two important things from these interviews. Not only does Foursquare like problem solvers, but what these interviews made me realize was how so few companies look or ask for these things. It seems to become more about your resume, what you’ve done, and who you know and less about why this company in the first place or what problems still need to be solved.
Another thing I’ve realized was that I’m clueless in what is it about working in my industry that really interests me. In this economy and more specifically my industry of tech and startups, you’re expected to wear all hats. Even now I do a little bit of everything from event planning, to social media, to marketing and promoting, to community management. Honestly, I was completely thrown off by this question from Anna — How can anyone narrow it down, when you’re expected to do it all? Yet, I understand the importance behind the question. It really forces you to find what you love. And for me, I enjoy being a community manager. I love connecting and interacting with fans of a brand. I love story telling. I think that’s why I like conducting these informational interviews, it’s about learning from everyday people. I must say I’m also pretty obsessed with research, finding what works and what doesn’t with brands, identifying opportunities, and finding what new trends are out there. Above all though, I really would love to Instagram all day. 😉
“We cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them” – Albert Einstein
Keep your team informed without the spam. Group mailing lists that automatically build and maintain your intranet while you work. Honey stores everything in the cloud for easy reference. Share once with everyone who will ever be involved with your project.
I’ve been currently using this with my team members to share articles and ideas found while browsing the web. Although, like the description says I’m sure it can be used for many other projects. There’s a plugin to use on your browser and find it more useful than when I tried using Stich/Evernote.
UP is a wristband and app that tracks your sleep, activity and food—then helps you use that information to feel your best and stay motivated with teammates.
Focusing on my health led me to this recommendation. It only works with iPhones and iPads right now, but the best part is that it tracks everything — you’re sleep, food, and activity. Knowing more about how I sleep, move, and eat have been so fascinating and helpful. New York is stressful enough, take care of yourself!
Applauze helps you discover, plan and attend the best events around you.
Just discovered this app and love the interface. You search your location and it pulls up both free and paid events in your area. Best part is you can purchase tickets right through the app with no hidden charges.
+++++++++++++++++++
That’s all folks! I’m now officially starting vacation. BUT I always love productivity and apps. Please send recommendations my way!
What started out as this month’s theme, turned into a recap of these sidewalk chalk signs I’ve unknowingly been collecting for the past 2 years. There’s a bit of everything from food to markets to holiday themes.
Are there any others out there like Birch Coffee that have a consistent theme? I think what they’re doing is so interesting. These examples are pretty much exactly how I like my content/social — with design, humor, interesting facts and language in mind.
Social Media Week is this week which means it’s going to be crazy! I’m also excited to announce that I’m producing my first event with Digital DUMBO — coffee should be my best friend this week. Additionally, I thought I’d use my own blog as a visual schedule to map out all the events I want to go. The biggest challenge to myself is: A.) Going to everything and B.) Writing out a wrap up by the end of this week.
Challenge accepted. Here’s what my Social Media Week looks like, what about yours?
Nicole Monahan 