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Spark & Hustle Recap with Intel Small Business Advantage

My friend Rachel speaking at Spark & Hustle. She was amazing!

Last week I had the privilege of attending Tory Johnson’s Spark & Hustle conference for women in small business.  It was a great experience!  I learned so much to apply in a practical way to the business side of this blog (and let me tell you it was SUCH a relief that everything was TRULY practical and applicable! You don’t always get that.), I got to hear from some inspiring women in small business, and I got to spend time with my friends Rachel and Luanne, awesome small business owners themselves!

The lovely Rachel of BacknGroovemom
My BFF Luanne of Lulee's Lollies fame!

My attendance at Spark & Hustle was sponsored by one of my favorite companies to work with, Intel.  They also sent me to the conference with a Lenovo ThinkPad Edge quipped with Intel’s Small Business Advantage tools.  These tools are awesome for those in small business who don’t really have a tech guy at the ready.  When I have tech trouble, my tech guy (aka my husband) is usually at work when I need him and not close by!

 The SBA tools allow your computer to take care of a lot of maintenance issues virtually by itself!  Here are some of my favorite features:

  • Software Monitor – Did you know there are viruses out there that can come in and turn off your anti-virus software?  Eek!  Neither did I!  The software monitor feature lets you know when your anti-virus software has been turned off or compromised so you can take action right away.
  • Data backup & restore- this feature allows you to schedule backups of your data (veeeery important, I have learned! The hard way!) and maintenance to run in the off-business hours so this important step gets done AND doesn’t interfere with your work day.
  • USB Blocker – I LOVE this feature.  It allows you to choose which type of USB devices you’ll allow to be plugged into your computer.  So let’s say you don’t want anyone but yourself to be able to plug in a mass storage device – you can allow that only after the user enters a password.  Meanwhile, other devices like cameras or printers can be plugged in by any user.  A great way to keep your files protected from anyone who might want to remove them.

I’ve loved using Intel’s Small Business Advantage tools and I know they’ll be keeping me and my data in business safely and securely!   Thanks to Intel for sending me to Spark & Hustle and supporting women in small business!

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Unsettled.

You know how when your kids were babies, they’d act weird or sleep a lot and you’d just start to wonder what was up and – bam! – they’d hit a development milestone and suddenly it all made sense?

That’s how I feel right now. About myself, not my kids. I can walk and I’m already potty trained (and I’m only 33!), so I’m not entirely sure what to expect. But I just feel restless. It’s hard to explain, because I don’t understand it myself.

I feel… unsettled.

I think part of it is that I’m still trying to figure out what is going on with me physically. In the next few weeks I have appointments with an endocrinologist, cardiologist, and psychiatrist (my other doctors, my husband and my dad think it’s time I stop self-prescribing my anti-depressants based on what I read on the interwebz. I’m fairly confident in my abilities but I am willing to give it a shot).

I took myself off Prozac this week.

Hmm. Related? Perhaps.

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Jenny’s Life Klass: What Not to Put on Your Facebook Status

Welcome to Jenny’s Life Klass!  I know you’ve been dying for more essential life instruction, so today, in lesson 4 we are discussing a BIGGIE: What Not to Put on Your Facebook Status.

Pay attention, people! This is important!  I am going to save you from getting un-friended or unsubscribed to by people you went to junior high with. You cannot live without this information!  So commit this to memory, or better yet, bookmark this post and read it immediately before you post a Facebook status.  Every. Single. Time.

Here we go!

1) Do not use the acronym “LOL” in your status more than once.  I’d prefer you not use it at all, but if you must,  you are permitted only once and in ALL CAPS. Writing “lol” is totally stupid.  Sorry, but “Lol I’m so hungover lol” just makes you sound DUMB.  And also? Being hungover is no excuse for using “LOL” twice in one status!

 

2) Do not post motivational quotations at 3-minute intervals when you are trying to psych yourself up for something. While I am happy that you are working on overcoming a mental hurdle of some sort, I have just lost all respect for you because I am picturing you listening to Zig Ziglar on your iPod while rocking back and forth with your eyes squeezed shut repeating “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it! People LIKE me!”  I’d like you a lot better if you kept the “if you believe it you can achieve it” gar-bage to yourself.

 

3) Do NOT brag about how much money you are making in your home-based business.  If people with “regular” jobs (like Emily, for instance, or my husband – certainly not this girl!) posted photos of their paychecks or said how much money they were making, it would be deemed WHOLLY inappropriate. BECAUSE IT IS!  I’m glad you’re happy, but…find another way to recruit. Or I will un-subscribe to your feed  like it’s MY job.

 

4) Don’t get passive-aggressive with your ex.  I know you’re not FB pals with them (scandal!) but someone he or she knows will read the status and tell them what it says. WHICH YOU KNOW, because that’s why you are doing it!  Statuses that begin with “I don’t usually say things like this but…” shouldn’t be written! PERIOD.  Work your custody issues with your baby daddy out in a less public forum.

And finally, and this one’s for Emily…

5) Don’t randomly Capitalize the words In your facebook Status lol lol lol.  Random capitalization is the bane of Emily’s existence.  You all are driving her c-c-c-craaazy and I need her sane!  Plus, you look really, really stupid when your status reads: “Had such A Good day with The family went for a Picnic and Had some great Food.”  After I read this, I’m not happy you had a good day with your family, I’m MAD that I had to read about it in a way that was so degrading to the English language.

So.

Be a good JLK student, and get your FB act together!  You can do it, and if you do, I’ll totally un-hide your posts and we can all live in FB harmony for like, ever.  As long as we never have to see each other in real life.

Go forth And Do better! (Lol lol lol.)

 

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