RSS“So, You’re A Shill For Paula, Right?”
September 2, 2008
That was the title of a recent email. There was no text, but I think the title said it all. Excellent. I’ve been wondering when someone would ask.
What will I shill?
First, I had to look up the meaning of the word “shill”. The dictionary in my computer tells me that a shill is “an accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others”. The usage in everyday language is more relaxed, but still implies two agents working in concert to promote sales.
I’m not really a shill for products, any more than any woman who shares information that might be of help to other women in her community. Women have individual and particular tastes about products and that’s just fine.
Ideas
If I’m a shill for anything, it would be for ideas, though more as a proponent than for mutual financial benefit. An example is the idea that women belong to certain color groups, or seasons if you follow the outlines in Carole Jackson’s great book, Color Me Beautiful book. I am absolutely a believer.
The Human Cooperative
I’ll also elbow my way to the head of the line for “Shills of the TED Conference” (TED home page here). The list of all the themes covered by speakers at TED are here, at the Themes A-Z. Whenever human beings leave behind all their hangups in the spirit of sharing, cooperation, and building something together, I want to be there. Watch Dan Gilbert tell us about happiness:
The internet
The internet itself is what I am the biggest shill for. It has brought us freedom of speech, idea, and expression. For all of us, by all of us, the ultimate democracy. It brings us the sublime creativity of our fellow human beings. Listen. It brings us this:
That video was uploaded to YouTube by Sethtann.
Now there’s a song of praise for you. A brotherhood of man. Amen.
Feeling a little tingle?
Where could it take us from here?
Do you know the book, The Cluetrain Manifesto (TCM) ? If that book is not my religion, then it is at least my anthem. I will write a review of it one day. You can read it online for free here . It is about the wonder and importance of the internet. The last paragraph sums up all that I am about, my reason for being. It lights up my life. On the home page, scroll on down to the 95 Theses. You’ll get the idea.
I proudly take my position as a shill for TCM. If you run a business, if you want to share an idea, if you spend any time on the internet even just browsing, if you want to sell something or buy something, if you have a human voice, read this book. Human conversation has been suppressed for too long by jargon-bleating, party-line-towing corporate robotics. Nobody’s listening anymore. They might as well be talking Klingon. We’re all talking to one another instead. I’ll be a shill for that community any day. It’s where I’d love AGT to go.
But why PC?
Because they understand, whether by accident or intention I’m not certain, what is written in that most excellent book. And although I recognize they’re not in it to lose money, I also believe that fundamentally, they sincerely want to empower women.
I don’t get paid by Paula’s Choice. They did agree to work with me because I want to learn how the internet works. Paula’s Choice doesn’t control what I say and never try to. They don’t suggest topics or coordinate their activity with mine. Because I also want to understand how money moves on the internet, Paula’s Choice agreed to help set up an affiliate program where I receive 8% of sales that link to Paula’s Choice (PC) through A Greener Tea (AGT).
I’m not sure how much I have so far, maybe $35 or so. It doesn’t matter. I just want to know how the links are set up, how the counters work, and what this language sounds like. They’ve been very patient despite my blunders and haven’t laughed when I tried to speak this new language.
So, why not Apple or Title Nine? They also make a product I like and they talk to us like we’re real. It’s because I’m really into skin care, you see. PC is a small, affable, flexible, and accessible group of people who talk to you in a real human voice. They have a position - you never wonder what they’re about. They behave with rare and refreshing transparency at every level. They are closer to TCM than any other corporation I know. A woman at the helm only enhances the image, but that’s just me.
Sure, there are many businesses like this. I just haven’t got round to inviting them to the picnic yet.
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That was the title of a recent email. First, I had to look up the meaning of the word “shill”. The dictionary in my computer tells me that a shill is “an accomplice of a hawker, gambler, or swindler who acts as an enthusiastic customer to entice or encourage others”. The usage in everyday language is more relaxed, but still implies two agents working in concert to promote sales.
Read moreThis Month in O, September 2008 : Great Finds, Great Advice!
August 25, 2008
September 2008’s issue of O, The Oprah Magazine is called Get Your Life Back, with features entitled Too Busy To Live and Oprah’s Cure For Feeling Overwhelmed. Now you know why I bought it. Time is the one thing I have the least of and that Oprah doesn’t have any more of than I do. And, she couldn’t buy more if she wanted to.
Those phrases capture the problem for most of us women who are trying to make some changes and figure it all out. WHEN??? Just when are we supposed to do this??
Everything in this issue was terrific. Here’s the short list :
1. Tons of beautiful things I actually would buy and could buy! Many finds under $100 . Handbags, jewelry, wine, furniture even. Fabulous stuff. I think they actually went out of their way to fit into real budgets for the millions of us who really do like Target.
2. The article about Willa Schalit, with her strong and healing presence , empowering women in Rwanda not with charity, but with fair trade. Lovely items, on sale at Macy’s or online.
3. Real life advice on real life questions (questions I actually have!), about money, relationships, speeding morning routines, and health. This is advice you could use, not read and forget. Many myths (like “Will it harm my family that so much of our food is microwaved?”) are deflated with straight up talk.
4. The Yes, You Can section, where O’s creative directore Adam Glassman styles 40-something women is really interesting. The women look real, or as close as modern magazines get. He demonstrates how we can look sexy, or arty, mix prints, and more, without looking ridiculous.
Am I the only one who hopes wide-legged pants is a fancy that will soon pass? Maybe I have an aversion because I remember “baggies” when I was in Grade 9. These look exactly the same. Everything looks good if you’re 5’10” and a size 2, but here’s my whole point : WHO IS???
5. 3 10-minute weight workouts that work arms and legs together. I ripped them out and stapled them together. I’ve been doing a set each day. There’s not even time to sweat! These are good moves that will make a difference. Several are done with eyes closed; presumably, that’s for the balance challenge, without sight to corroborate that upper and lower body are making the right choices at once. There’s also a 10min. Cardio and Yoga plan.
6. The article “Just Say What You Want, Dammit” . A topic every girl and woman I know (including me) could work on. The article was decent, if the examples were a little extreme. The advice was basically “Keep trying”. Because speaking up is such a weak point for so many of us, I just like the reminder to be kept on the front burner.
I can’t read the minds of others and cannot expect them to read mine. It’s not that they won’t. It’s that they can’t. And yet, most of the time, what you do want is just fine with everyone else, and you could have had it with ease if you’d just said something.
In keeping with the theme of the magazine, there are no long, reflective articles to get through. There is one but it anchors the whole featured section on saving time. The rest is snappy but very engaging.
Even Oprah gets overwhelmed (how could she not?). She writes about re-centering herself, getting back into each moment. My brain is almost never in the now. I live in the future. The closest I seem able to get to the present in by acknowledging all the things I have. So much is right in most of our lives that we need to spend more time celebrating that.
What else? I was not even a bit nervous to let my 12year old daughter read the entire magazine. I was pleased that she read it! This never happens.
There’s a Merle Norman ad with a lovely grey eyeshadow for a winter (if you ignore the green).
I can’t remember when I’ve enjoyed a magazine so completely. I think you will too.
-->September 2008’s issue of O, The Oprah Magazine is called Get Your Life Back, with features entitled Too Busy To Live and Oprah’s Cure For Feeling Overwhelmed. Now you know why I bought it. It was worth every cent.
Read moreDan Kennedy : 26 Behaviors and Beliefs to Attract Wealth
July 3, 2008
If you want to be an actor, it will happen faster if you spend your time with actors. Once you think, act, and react as they do, you place your life on a similar track to theirs. The outcome is that your life will begin to more closely resemble their lives. The idea of getting on the same track is called “congruency” in personal growth jargon.
Do what rich people do.
Why Do You Want To Look Younger?
June 27, 2008
Mary wrote a great comment at the end of the article This Month in Vogue : Sex in Magazines . She questioned why young girls today try so hard to be seen as sex objects. I define a sex object as someone whose only feature or purpose of interest is sex. Any other aspect of their being is expendable.
This same question applies at the other end of the age spectrum as well, doesn’t it? Women have themselves carved up and injected … for what? What is looking younger going to get us?
[ KEYWORD : GIVE ]
May 24, 2008
If you read the post on The Price of Happiness, and you tried it out a few times, you may have noticed the tranquility that is derived from being thankful. Maybe you were as surprised as I was by how quickly it happened.
As soon as you feel thankful, you automatically feel looked after and cared for. This knowledge brings you to a sensation of inward peace. I thought about this for awhile and wondered if I could turn the beam outside of my own body.
EMPOWERED MEANS OVER MYSELF
May 6, 2008
We talk about being empowered women. Just what are we empowered over?
We talk about the fact that others treat us as we have taught them to. We talk about deciding our future instead of letting it happen to us. It sounds like the idea is to learn to have power over others. But that’s not it at all.
Read moreFEAR, FAILURE, AND THE VOICE OF WISDOM
May 3, 2008
In my years of working with women investors I have come to appreciate our ability to acknowledge and manage complex and intense emotion. Does this sound like the words of a psychologist or a financial advisor? I believe that you cannot advise people about their wealth and the market place without a strong understanding of human motivation and behaviour. This will become quite evident as we enter 2008 and experience periods of volatility.
Read moreKEVYN AUCOIN : ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE
April 1, 2008
You may remember Kevyn Aucoin from the article on the light concealer. He wrote a handful of books about makeup and its application prior to his death. He died at the height of his fame of complications from a brain tumor, at the age of 40. At that time, having him do your makeup came with a price tag of $4500
Read moreBOOK REVIEW:NICE GIRLS DON’T GET THE CORNER OFFICE
February 3, 2008
As women, our social conditioning teaches us to be kind, cooperative, to get along, and keep the peace. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could behave in this way that comes so naturally, and be perceived in the way we intend…as kind and nice?
Here is how we’re really perceived : WEAK. And not just by [...]
BOOK REVIEW : DON’T GO TO THE COSMETICS COUNTER WITHOUT ME, PART 2
January 24, 2008
You can find Part 1 of the review for this book here.
By the B’s, I’m angry
I’m not angry at the exaggerated claims. I’m used to ignoring that.
I’m not angry at the inflated prices. If you agree to take the saleswoman’s word, without accessing this totally available information, it’s your own fault.
I am infuriated at [...]
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A Greener Tea
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