Jen Butson

Hey everyone – here’s the first episode that I promised!

If you want to leave a question for me to answer on the next show, you can leave it as a comment to this post!

- Jen

JLTV? Yeah, we’ll go with that for now.

Starting next week, I’m going to start doing small videos for my company, Jennifer Lee Promotions. I will be educating viewers on the promotional products industry, tips and tricks when ordering products, and also exhibit some cool products that we offer. It will hopefully be really cool and interesting, and you’ll all learn something from it!

SO, send me your questions, either by commenting to this post, or emailing me at Jen@JenniferLeePromotions.com. I will feature them in the video and answer them for you Send away curious people!

When marketers are given a task, to come up with something so new and fresh that not only will they gain a lot of support from their immediate audience, but the concept will go pretty much viral on the interwebs. Insert the team that came up with the idea to use a safe and light adhesive to adhere banners to the asses of flies. Then let them loose in a book fair. Good freakin’ job! It’s this type of thinking that gets me so excited about marketing!

Growing up, I always knew there had to be a balance between the things you learn from books and the things you learn from living to be successful. But without paid-education (college, university, etc.) no one takes you seriously. Which, I love my school, but when it comes to a competition of academics – depending on the topic – sometimes life education is the best education. When someone tries to figure out your qualifications for something, the first thing they ask is “have you taken ______ course yet?”. Sometimes yes, sometimes no. But, for example, if it’s a competition about entrepreneurship and I’ve been running a successful company for the last 10 years, do I really need to take a course about entrepreneurship to be good at the competition? Probably not.

Have you had an instance where you were denied something because, on paper, you maybe weren’t the most qualified?

So somewhere in Europe, someone decided to create a show where kids would test brand-name products and say how it made them feel. Then, a group of colourful spandex-clad dancers would interpret this “feeling” into a fun dance. Oh, did I mention there’s a green screen too? Here’s the video for Gushers.

Everybody has something they are afraid of. The dark, public speaking, heights, spiders, death, the list goes on. I am no stranger to this fear. About 4-5 years ago I developed severe anxiety and panic attacks. This anxiety was so crippling that I cancelled a trip with my best friend the night before we were to leave, almost quit my job because I couldn’t leave home for 2 days to go to training, and thought I’d be a hermit for the rest of my life just to avoid the feeling of panic.

This is what I think most people do. Most people avoid the thing they fear to avoid feelings of anxiety. Avoiding presentations because the fear of public speaking is too much to bear, or any other form of inhibiting your life in one way or another. This is what I almost did.

When it came time to apply for Universities in high school, I knew exactly where I wanted to go: University of Ottawa. I knew it would be the perfect place for me. But I questioned myself…what if the anxiety is too much to bear? What if the panic attacks take over and I breakdown and have to move back home? What would be the point of living a life where I feared everything I did? I contemplated the local University just as an easy option. I’m sure it’s a lovely school, but Trent…you’re not my type. It’s not you, it’s me. So when I applied to my 4 Universities, I applied to uOttawa, McMaster, Brock, and Concordia – all schools at least 3 hours from where I’m from. I didn’t even apply to Trent because when it came down to accepting offers, I didn’t want to give myself an easy way out and quit. I didn’t even give myself the option. So I got in, accepted, and got really excited, and scared as hell. I had anxiety right up until I moved, and most of my first year. But I didn’t let it stop me…why would I let my own mind defeat me?

I bought a book shortly after I realized what was happening to me all those years ago. And the most important lesson that taught me, is that when anxiety happens or I start to panic, just ask myself this one question: What is the worst possible thing that could happen? Whenever I thought of this, it was really never that bad. So then I imagine the worst case scenario happening, and I’d feel calmer. Even to this day, I have to use that technique.

There’s a lot more to this story, but I want to get to the point of this post: redirecting fear. Instead of letting my fear beat me, I beat it. It’s true that my disorder will never actually go away…but I know how to manage it, instead of it managing me. So why do we let fear control us?

I started my own business in July, and I’ve had a similar reaction from a lot of my peers: “Wow, that’s so amazing. I wish I could do that.” Well, why can’t you? I have done a lot of things this year that have pushed me to the limit, but all of it has made me that much stronger – and happier.

So this is my task for you: do one thing a day that scares you. Push yourself to the limit. If it scares the crap out of you, try it! What’s the worst that could happen?

When making a logo, it’s uber important that one keeps in mind the ease of branding. As in, how much shit will I be able to put this logo on? If your logo has fine details, you can’t have it embroidered on clothing easily, and it must be printed in a large size to be recognizable (this is my promo products side talking!). And, as Starbucks has done…if you can make a cake out of your logo and make it still look good – you’ve got a good logo. These “moon cakes” are available in China only, so don’t think you can throw some candles on it and make it your next birthday cake, you Starbucks addicts!

Guess what today’s post is about – unions! Most recently, this is how I’ve been affected by unions:

- Toronto garbage strike: 39 days. My brother got married in Mississauga during this strike, and pictures were to be taken at a beautiful park. Because of the strike, this permit was cancelled within a week of the wedding because no one was around to clean the park, and no doubt they needed it for a dumping ground.

- Out of the few days I was at my parents’ place, I had arranged to complete my G road test. Tomorrow, actually. Well, as we all know, that union (Steelworkers Union – who gave them that name anyway?) is striking as well. So this test had to be cancelled.

So I pose this question: What gives unions the right to inconvenience my life because they’re not happy with their jobs? If I’m not happy with my job, I quit. So stop bitching about your overpaid, underworked jobs and give me my damn license. What does your job involve – sitting in the passenger seat of a car that I’m driving and criticize my every move. The highlight of this strike is “job security”. Um, sweeties…we just got out of a national recession – nobody has job security.

Everything about the modern day unions is messed up. Oh, let me explain the title of this over-due post. There should be a law that says (especially for government agencies.) within a certain time period (a couple days or so) a mediator should be made mandatory to ratify some sort of deal. The cost of this mediator should be split between both the union (this is what they pay union dues for) and the company.

(via YesButNoButYes)

Dear HTC,

Ever since I purchased the S720 on August 28th, 2008, I have had countless problems with the device. The “smart”phone would take on a mind of its own and erase messages from memory, shut off whenever it felt like it, and sometimes give me attitude by not turning on at all or showing me a white screen (I assume this is the cellular phone equivalent of flipping the bird.). Being a pricey $550 phone, and ‘competition’ to the Blackberry smartphones, I expected my phone to cooperate with me. I showed it love, compassion, and patience (maybe not so much patience).

Today, the phone (“Hank”) went into what seemed like epileptic seisures. It would shut down, restart, cycle through screens and freeze on “Windows Mobile”. Then, it would repeat this process. Because I am stuck with this phone for the next 2 years of my contract, this is how it’s going to go: Everytime Hank decides to be moody or throw a fit, I will put a quarter in a jar. It shouldn’t take too long to rack up enough quarters to then buy myself a Blackberry. I just hope RIM takes quarters for payment.

Sincerely,

Jen Butson