Yellow Dog Consulting

Sales & Marketing Consulting for solo-preneurs.

December Pop Culture Round Up: Holiday Edition

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IMG_2125Alright folks, it’s the most wonderful time of the year- and that includes Pop Culture! Instead of my monthly favorites, I figured let’s go with a fun theme, so here they are, some of my favorite Holiday Pop Culture things, please share yours in the comments!

Reading

There’s too many options here- but a couple of my all time favorites include:

The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore. He’s one of my favorite authors, and his Christmas story is pretty great. If you like it, make sure to check out my favorite book, Lamb. 

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. You may not have read this book since you were 12, but it holds up. Still hysterical and fantastic. Pick it up for the 10 year old in your life!

Red Ranger Came Calling. This is a family favorite book, such a fun story AND it takes place on Vashon Island. I finally went to the tree a year and a half ago, it was awesome.

Watching

A Muppet Christmas Carol. Yup, this is my favorite Christmas movie. I watch it every year!

White Christmas. I have a musical watching family, and every year I have to watch this movie!

Elf. Yeah, this is the new favorite of course, SANTA! I KNOW HIM!!!

Christmas Vacation. No Thanksgiving is complete at the Case household without watching this movie. I didn’t grow up with it, I married into this movie, but I love it as if it’s my own.

Simon Birch. Not a Christmas movie per-se but easily the best Christmas pageant scene EVER.

Listening

I tend to his shuffle on my iTunes playlist for the holidays. My go to work music is A Charlie Brown Christmas. It’s the perfect holiday work music. Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr., Jackson 5, and Stevie Wonder round out my favorite Christmas albums.

And no Christmas is complete with out Bob & Doug MacKenzie’s 12 Days of Christmas or David Sedaris’ Santaland Diaries (I prefer the audio to the book because he’s so perfectly snarky!)

However you survive or celebrate the holiday’s pop culture is an obvious necessity to make it through! What’s your favorite pop culture at the holiday’s?

Growing Your Business With a Dog Walk

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IMG_5136Every morning, I get up, drink my coffee, check my email and catch up on social media. Then I get dressed and Hank and I take a 25 minute walk through the neighborhood. It’s my favorite part of the day. Not because we get our wiggles out so we can be productive for the day, but it’s the time of the day without interruption. Before the chaos of my inbox and meetings and clients gets going, I get to think.
I usually spend this time working on a problem. I might have a client project that I need to mull over. I may have a crazy day and need to think through the logistics of getting it all done. I may need to get out all the snarky comments so I can send a professional and appropriate email response when I return. Sometimes it’s personal, sometimes it’s business, sometimes it’s a client, sometimes it’s my company.
When Hank and I get back from our walk, we’re both ready to go for the day. He’ll calm down and sleep all day (and hopefully not snore) and I have my action plan ready to go. It’s the most valuable time of the day, and has led to great inspiration! And when I need to throw something? Duh- off to the dog park we go!

What do you do for your “processing” time?

Ask Yellow Dog: LinkedIn Endorsements

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imgresI received this email today from a friend of mine:

What is the etiquette for endorsing people on LinkedIn?

Is it merely to gain more brownie points with someone you want attention from?

Is it to attract those people who are reviewing someone’s profile?

And here was my response:

LinkedIn Endorsements- honestly, no idea. I typically DON’T endorse people, especially those I don’t know/haven’t talked to in a couple of years. It’s super obnoxious and I’m trying to decide if I should turn it off (which is an option) or if that’ll hurt my SEO/search results in LI. But, I think it’s just a popularity contest and pretty ridiculous.

I obviously haven’t turned off my endorsements yet, but it did get me thinking- what’s the deal here? You can already see how many connections I have, NOW you want those folks to tell others how awesome I am at certain things? Isn’t that the job of my profile? Yes I get that it’s helpful, but I have not placed any stock in the endorsements I receive or those I see others receiving. It seems similar to the Twitter idea of “I follow you, so you’ll follow me back and we’ll inflate our numbers together!” Kind of useless.

Instead, I suggest you have a really great LinkedIn profile page. A professional headshot (your kid is cute, but does she run the company?), a comprehensive bio, and a thoughtful work history. Make recommendations of individuals because they did great work, not because they’ll write one in response (which we all know is nice).

LinkedIn is ramping up their efforts and updating their engagement strategy. Just because they are, doesn’t mean you have to. Hopefully they continue to make it easy for us to make updates and add details and work history. Don’t worry about doing everything all the time. Make sure you’re hitting the pieces you want and that work for you. And if the endorsements aren’t your thing, turn them off, or hit ignore when they pop up, like I do.