Stuff I Felt Like Saying | lynette {radio}

The 25% That Matters

July 22, 2011 by Lynette ·

I strive to make 25% of my professional life ‘for free’ and provide mentorship, services, and my time to people or ideas that truly matter to me. My work with Podcamp Philly, Social Media Club Princeton NJ, and most of my ‘online’ persona is given away freely. It’s my face to face work that earns me a buck to feed my family.

My rule has been that I need to get the 75% paid work first before giving my 25% away. I’ve broken that rule with the Women of Google+ project but I love the concept, so I’m working 15 hours a day to fit it all in. Today I am meeting with my younger cousin to help him and his partners get a business off the ground (handling all their tech & providing any smart words of wisdom from decades in business). It makes me happy to give back to my awesome family!

I realized the other day that a lot of people that ‘know’ me from only online get the vibe that I don’t earn a living (or in a good number of cases – am required to give everything away for free) just because I ‘work’ online. I don’t toot my horn about all the face/face work I do, all the training, all the projects, etc. because then I feel like I’mselling. Maybe I should be a bit more pitchy in here The personal satisfaction I get for helping in person is honestly a bit more rewarding, online everything is taken for granted.

On an even happier note, good friends of mine and my husband’s gave birth to their first child today – a baby boy! Today is going to be a ~~good~~ great day…

Filed Under: stuff i felt like saying

Just a Tech Geek Girl

June 7, 2011 by Lynette ·

Some days, like today, I kind of wish I was a fashionable gal – home decor queen, style fashionista and a domestic goddess. I could write lots of blogs on home decor and the latest trends in fashion and shoes and kitchen plates. I like to read about all that, but don’t think that I’ll ever be that glamourous. I’d love my house to look like something in a magazine, and actually know where to go to buy all that stuff. I buy the bulk of my clothes at the local warehouse store – no, not Walmart or Target – but at BJs and Costco. I’ve been banned from Payless by my podiatrist, so now I’m like a fish out of water with regards to shoes. (Do fish wear shoes? Never mind…) I would have pretty dishes and glasses in my kitchen cabinets instead of decades old Tupperware bowls that are past their prime.

Maybe someday. Just not right now. First I have a house to purge and weight to lose. Luckily I’m making great progress on both. Now I just need to find out how to combat my finely-tuned inner cheapskate and stop shopping for clothing the same place I purchase toilet paper.

Sadly I’m just a tech geek, and that isn’t very glamourous – *ever* – unless you’re iJustine. I need to be a geek girl with a sense of style – and not just on my computer desktop!

Filed Under: stuff i felt like saying Tagged With: BJs, Costco, iJustine, Payless, Skimbaco, Target, Tupperware, Walmart

Podcasting Crew From Days Gone By

May 3, 2011 by Lynette ·

I was very sad to hear an old podcasting friend Garrett Husveth from the Haunted New Jersey podcast passed away this week. I have been spending a lot of time lately going back over old connections & friendships from 2004-2005 and my early days of my podcasting in and around the Garden State. Garrett and I (and a bunch more friends – Steve, Bob, Brad, Rob, Todd, Harold, Anya, Gene, Annie, Chris…) were all the beginnings of the New Jersey Podcasters Association. It was 6-7 years ago, but it honestly feels like a lifetime.

Flipping through old pictures on Flickr really makes me feel how long it’s been since 2004. I found an old picture of all of us at a NJPA meeting (I took the picture, evidence of my attendance by my purple file folder in front of my chair). It was Garrett’s office we would meet at and leave pizza boxes all over. Our group did all sorts of cool things back then. Bob interviewed Greg Olsen (astronaut) – we all thought that was totally ‘the shit’ to interview a famous person. We got a table at the local college computer fair and made it our mission to educate fellow geeks (especially the local Star Trek fan club) about podcasting. We had cool stickers and tons of podcasting gear. We took over our local Panera’s with mixing boards and microphones and laptops – and ate every byte of the free bandwidth. (I’m certain we are the reason why they have limits on how long you can suck their Internet feed without getting kicked off.) We tried our hand at a two-way Skype meetings so our members wouldn’t have to drive so far to ‘hang out.’ We published podcasts of our interesting-only-to-us meeting and gossiped endlessly about download statistics or how much money was going around in sponsorships or advertising.

Anya (Brad’s teen daughter), Annie & I were the only female podcasting members, unless you count Chris’ then-girlfriend that hung around with us & hated podcasting. It was a man’s world for sure, and being a woman in the space wasn’t hard (as long as you could hold your own technically) – and helped you stand out from the rest. Now the market is brimming with content and competition, but back then it was wide open spaces and blue skys everywhere. It was creative, geeky, and rewarding. Most of all it was FUN.

Anyhow, looking back and thinking about Garrett made me smile. The path we have all taken is so very different from each other. I’m glad for those of us that are still here, mourn for those that aren’t, and hope for easy travels for us all. Thanks Garrett for your friendship back in the early days. We all needed each other to become what we are today – you will be missed.

EDIT – Hometown Tales put up a podcast in dedication to Garrett.

Filed Under: podcast, stuff i felt like saying Tagged With: Garrett Husveth, Haunted New Jersey, New Jersey Podcasters Association, NJPA, podcasting

The Great Social Media Conference Controversy

April 15, 2011 by Lynette ·

Over the past few weeks there has been quite an uproar online regarding the state of current social media conferences – namely BlogWorld & New Media Expo. The original Podcast & Portable Media Expo / PPME (which is what half of the conference was called before it floundered and BlogWorld bought it) is near and dear to my heart for many reasons. It’s where as a podcaster in 2004 I could go to meet my own kind, make and meet friends and foster new business. To be truthful, a good number of people attending were hobby podcasters. People that did this for fun and passion and as a creative outlet rather than for the purpose of promoting an *existing* business. They had aspirations of making it ‘bigtime’ but in truth a good part of the crowd made enough money to cover their hosting costs and maybe get some new gear. Sure there were the early rockstars like Adam Curry, Rocketboom, C.C. Chapman, Cali Lewis and others, but even they were just starting in the new media business and crafting business plans on the way. The most heated debates were over things like finding sponsorship, the CPM vs. flat sponsorship debate or how to get invited to the illustrious PodShow (now Mevio) private parties and snag a ride on the Hummer limo. Marketers and business professionals that understood the power of this new medium were busy in back room conversations or quiet dinners making the deals that really mattered – and changed the future. [Read more...]