Tina Hui

While watching NBC New York a bit ago a passing topic of conversation between the news anchors found me also pleasantly surprised to discover that food truck popularity and obsession is also prevalent in the Empire State.  Granted, NYC is still credited for being my first awesome food truck experience when I was visiting the city in 1999 and enjoyed the glory that was a New York City gyro from one of the city’s kiosks.  Divine was the best way to describe said snack of a gyro I purchased at $4 off the streets of New York which was found to be equally delicious.  So perhaps it should come as no surprise that the gourmet food truck wave that has hit the west coast – I recall being at Off the Grid AND also enjoying a furikake kimchi burger on the side of the road in Las Vegas from Fuku Burger just a few months ago- is also a craze here in NY.  I tell you that cupcake I had in SoHo from the Cupcake Stop was really good.

The food truck craze and advertising prowess can very easily be credited to  the advent of Twitter and Social Media.  In essence Twitter has allowed mobile small businesses to market their whereabouts in the most efficient matter.  If you’re a fan or have heard that a certain “gourmet” food truck (OR any other trendy new invent for that matter) is amazing, you’re likely to want to also have a taste and experience it for yourself so you can then verify and spread the news of the find yourself.  Afterall, that’s human nature and what makes Word Of Mouth vitality the most compelling and prolific advert of all.  Few endorsements are as trusted or interesting than an endorsement by a friend and family member who has good taste or is knowledgeable on a subject matter – since they are someone you know and trust who has tried, tested and found something to be true enough to share.  Very few people would share something at random without any real merit to a friend or even an acquaintance if it was at best mediocre, some might but on the whole most people share what they have genuinely appreciated so you can too.

The ability for food trucks to set up camp and utilize the power of mobile and twitter, by attracting loyal customers to

interact with and engage with on Twitter and mobile applications is what makes for success.  In order, for any Twitter/Facebook campaign or mobile campaign to be successful, it is necessary to drive a need from your target audience to follow you – give them information and have them feel supported and fulfill their desires and lives in a  relevant manner.  The sweet spots that food trucks deliver have to do with announcing their location – so that hungry fans can find them and also by announcing any new menu items, keep track of customer satisfaction or complaints, and perhaps take note of any useful suggestions.  It’s elementary but effective and everyone feels connected – as though their opinions matter and most importantly, everyone is well fed and happy.

If not for the web, food trucks wouldn’t be able to leverage the growth potential it has now with the power of the internet and mobile communications.  A few years past, Chez Spencer which has incredible French food was one of the first in San Francisco to debut a gourmet food truck, complete with escargot lollipops and more.  The only trouble was, Twitter and mobile communications as they are today did not exist and it was next to impossible to discover when or where the Spencer On The Go food truck would appear.  On occasion, we were lucky if we received notice via a friend who spotted the truck and texted the location to us, but if your friend didn’t know you were a foodie or worst forgot to text, there would be little traffic for the food truck since this was still an underground innovative concept.  Thank goodness that Twitter, Facebook and mobile have all become available to allow this amazing food truck and many other gourmet food trucks that offer innnovative, creative and delicious treats are becoming more and more available and popular.  Long live the Gourmet Food Truck Movement!

Food trucks are amazing as a marketing vehicle in and of itself – when done right the luxury marketing phenomenon, can become one of the best ambassadors of a brand, well known or avant garde, especially for traditionally retail brick and mortar oriented companies.  The truck itself when branded correctly is a very literal marketing vehicle, on the streets getting eye balls to check out colored signeage and peak curiosity.  Better yet the truck is mobile and can either attract attention and make money on the go, as ice cream trucks have for ages and ages now, or move from one high

traffic spot to another quickly and make money throughout the day – all one has to do is now one’s city in order to take advantage of where people would be on foot and looking for food options during breakfast, lunch, 3pm sugar level drop snack hunts and dinner.  Best yet, the trucks are becoming popular catering options for events spanning from concerts, festivals, food and wine benefits to movies in the park, store or business launches and more.  On the go marketing power offline, online and in mind at its best…it would be interesting to get some idea of the profits these trucks rake in, but one thing is for sure, it might just make sense for people in the restaurant business and perhaps other businesses to be more and more literally and web mobile.  If there’s one thing that the mobile and food truck revolution we are currently experiencing has shown us, it is that becoming more accessible, available and being where ever people might have a need as folks become more and more mobile and empowered to find greater conveniences closer to where they work and live and spend their free time is definitely welcome and likely here to stay.

Frankly, being the foodie I am I would go to no ends to sample some delicious morsels.  So much so that when Japacurry showed up on my Foursquare feed a week ago, I trecked over 8 blocks to find the place – albeit to discover they’ve moved on – but with an ever determined goal to give this amazing curry a try.  Be warned JapaCurry!  I know how to make a killer Japanese curry dish as it is…so it better be pretty darn special!  Actually, it would be fun to maybe attempt a food truck food tour across the country, that’d definitely be an adventure not for the faint at heart – what with moving targets being the objective.

Enough about the hoopla between the quantity of women in tech.  I’d rather know about the quality of women AND men for that matter that are in tech, creating amazing new realities and stretching boundaries everyday.  And while there is much buzz about there not being enough women in tech innovating, I’d rather be inspired and listening to the women and men in tech who have been there and are attempting to create share wisdom and insights into taking their experience forward.

Over the years, I’ve attended many events and panels for tech.  Lately, the topics tend to blur and the discussions are echoes of what someone already touched upon a few hundred times.  While this is an inevitability since if you’d gone to one event you’ve gone to many of the same kind – and also since we all share the same collective pools of knowledge, it’s always refreshing when a panel surprises you and gives you relevant inspiration or motivation.

http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?channel=facebookevents&clip=pla_9d59cba3-07c9-44a6-b68b-4d8312b9be62&autoPlay=false

(Sorry the livestream is just not WordPress friendly, but do watch the click via the link!)

I truly enjoyed this Women in Tech Influencer panel that was hosted at the Facebook Live Event quite simply because they were relevant and shared relevant insights that could be reassuring and comforting to any number of start up geeks and aspiring entrepreneurs.  As I embark on this crazy new adventure as a startup CEO with at least three ideas I wish I had the energy to launch at once – it is great to learn that the lack of expertise I have in coding which is more than sufficed by our very talented and gifted Director of Product and CTO are not major failings.  It’s good to be assured that my sitting here and being extremely specific in our prototype will help us avoid costly and time consuming mistakes.  And it helps to be affirmed that picking the idea that solves a need and is interesting and is a good starting point.  And that if we should fail, we can, at the very worst, get back up and try again – at least we have another idea in the wings?   Its also motivating to have a woman tell you to speak up more as a woman.  It is a fact that women should stand up and be proud of work they’ve done well more. Brag. Own it. Get the raise. Men DO.

I am definitely not beyond admitting that social conditioning was successful in that I am not so great at speaking up for work I am actually proud of and that I know female friends who are the same.  Humble, quietly diligent, dedicated and producers of great results, some of the most brilliant women I know never toot their own horn as much as a man of the same credible capacity would and have – though they should.  Oddly, women are also not always great at cheering each other on as well – and it’s true all of this needs to change.  If we were better at boasting about the projects we have had the chance to champion and cheered each other’s success forward, we’d probably suffer less from people discounting our work and potential as well.  Not one to be a hypocrite here, the lack of posts here is a testament of how odd it feels at times to speak of one’s work – but panel discussions like the one above and supportive peers do encourage more content.  Since perhaps, what seems like insignificant candid reflections to me could be of interest and possibly even helpful to someone else out there – maybe.  Watch the panel.  These women code, run companies and know what they are talking about and spoke from experience in a way that you can relate to if you’re at all tech or startup inclined.  I am happy to have them as inspiration and to look up to.

WOOT!

It took ages for me to update my blog since my second to most recent post and this has to change.  And it shall especially after my new discovery upon trying to enable easier commenting – and perusing the settings options on my www.wordpress.com blogs.  Notice if you will, the newly available sharing functionalities that are now available at the bottom of this post and every post I’ve ever written.  They are now a built in WordPress.com setting you can easily enable, customize and make available on your WordPress.com blog(s)!!

As of this past Monday, August  23rd 2010, WordPress.com blogs are now Share enabled!!

READ: WordPress has FINALLY enabled WordPress.com users with customizable built in sharing buttons to their existing platform to the most recognizable and widely used of sharing platforms.

This has made my horrible hack job of adding a copy paste code enabled sharing button in posts past to date look utterly hideous, but I’m ecstatic since this is one new feature that will definitely make blogging more enjoyable, less time consuimg and pain free.

If, like I, you’ve been using www.wordpress.com rather than www.wordpress.org as a blogging platform, you would understand the value add of this new built in feature.  For myself, in posts past, I had to hack in this Share button:

What can only be remembered as a clunky, time consuming and rudimentary hack involving a copy and paste of the code or manual input of the image url and the url itself is now history!  Often times, I’d forget to include the share button all together only to have to go and hack it in when I did remember and a Tweet counter was just out of the question to figure out a way to include.

What is the value add you ask?  How happy are we www.wordpress.com simpletons of www.wordpress.org with their enhanced plug in functionality and layouts with this new feature?  Numbers always speak for themselves so for those of you unfamiliar of what it was like to not have a easy non hacked sharing option, I’ll data mine speak as simply as possible by saying the following: as of 4:57 AM on 8/26/2010 <a mere 3 days since Thursday is just beginning in the US since the feature has been launched and a mere 2 days since the blog post announcement> that WordPress blog announcement of the feature above has gotten 754 (with me being Miss 457th like). THANK YOU FOR LISTENING WORDPRESS!!

Needless to say, my enthusiasm and WordPress appreciation has definitely just tripled.  LIKE LIKE LIKE!  And PS for you WordPress.org folks, they’ll be launching a WordPress Share plugin next week – so hang tight and say adieu to your hacked WordPress.org hacked plug in to date as well – my dearest sentiments to the third party share plug ins out there, who had made our blogs shareable and social to date. <Thank you for having existed and bettered my attempts at blogging.>

Have a WordPress.com blog too? Customize and enable your sharing options today! Log in and follow the WordPress.com Dashboard path here to select, customize (even with customizable icons and layouts if you have the CSS Upgrade) and enable for all of your WordPress.com blogs simultaneously:

From Dashboard > Settings > Sharing

Yep. It’s that simple and lovely.  PLUS you can allow or disallow the showing of the sharing buttons on a per post basis as easily as you can select to allow comments and likes or not at the end of every post you make. Sharing, user minded blissful functionality and happiness all in one. My Thursday is now going to be gorgeous.  Thanks again WordPress!

How many hours do you get of shut eye? I average anywhere from 4-7 and if insomnia strikes I’m lucky to get 3-5 broken hours of sleep. Being a night owl, it makes it hard to sleep early as I like to be up and find that the night is the best time for inspired and motivated work, but exhaustion does come to pay a visit and I do find myself sleeping out of exhaustion at times and can be found irritated when I can’t stay awake longer and log away more productive hours.

Parents Connect by Nickelodeon hosted a recent post on Facebook which asked the question: How much sleep do you get a night?

The Results from 53,873 people who voted as of 8/9/2010:

12%  -   Under 4 hours
67%  - 4 to 7 hours
21% - More than 7 hours

It seems that nearly 70% of the sample size are only catching 4 to 7 hours of sleep.  According to endless amounts of studies like this one, this number should be closer to 7 to 8 hours of sleep since that is considered as healthiest for most people.

Granted that said poll was taken with a sample size targeted initially to parenting adults to gauge how much sleep they were getting – a quick browse shows that adults, parental or not answered this poll with enthusiasm.  The overwhelming conclusion is that few people are getting the sleep they need – and it poses some interesting questions.

In these economic times – felt and realized or not, dependent on one’s own individual and independent circumstances – could very likely have an indirect correlation to this increasing lack of sleep.  Everyone is working increasingly long hours or studying – or perhaps a combo of both.  Even our stay at home counterparts are likely affected by the longer hours worked by friends and family – gone are the days where a job meant a predictable 9 to 5 hour schedule – hours are prolonged and climbing at work and that does translate to those closest to you as their schedules are also disrupted.  As the web makes it able for us to be up and working, social networking, keeping up with the millions of updates around the world 24/7 one begs to know what one can do to keep awake and yet get the sleep they need to be fully functioning as a human.  If anything the recurring theme in my life and likely yours is that needing to stop and sleep and not being able to just carry on being a human droid and just hammer out deliverables and live life well around the clock is becoming something of a nuisance to your own effectiveness and productivity levels – unless you’re one of the envied few who have truly made it and have made a living enough to just enjoy a bit or have someone else stay awake and do the work for you. <Lucky ducky>

According to Business Week the problem, in a nutshell-to-go is this: “Succeeding in today’s economy requires lightning-

fast reflexes and the ability to communicate and collaborate across the globe.  ’We’ve added a new set of standards without fully dropping the old,’ says Thomas H. Davenport, professor of information technology and management at Babson College and author of the new book Thinking for a Living…That helps explain why time pressures seem to be getting worse. Globalization and the Internet create great new opportunities, but they also ratchet up the intensity of competition and generate more work — especially with the existing corporate structure still hanging on tightly.” Even if the remark is dated as far back as 2005, this often holds true today – startups and enterprises are engaged with one another more than before and as the enterprises angle to compete in the online space and as startups sprint and sometimes clumsily disrupt the old ways of doing business with faster web enabled solutions.  The two worlds do continue to collide and even the best run start ups still experience enough growing pains internally between the demands of the web and the supply of human capital that can oil the machine and keep things humming in sync.

Curiously, in the aim to conduct an informal study of my own, how many hours a week do you sleep?  What keeps you from getting more sleep?  Do you feel there might be a correlation between the web’s existence and the access to information and activities around the clock and sleeplessness?  Is sleeplessness attributed to lifestyle or is sleep cycle just dependent on life stage?  It would be interesting to create a more in depth study of sleep patterns and preferences matched to life stages, age, lifestyle and even going so far as to also analyzing the effects of being an early bird over a night owl over a course of years – though I’m sure this study exists in some government or science archive someplace.

Is sleep listed as a hobby of yours as well – I know it is for me, since I get so little of it – but then again, after a while now it seems I’ve adjusted and sometimes wake up early bursting to get the day started and to check off all the many things that pile upon my checklists of tasks and deliverables.  In a world that doesn’t stop, those closest to me also are on the go and making things happen so we all make the most of our time together and apart and keep doing what we do best or what we desire most- living life in full with just a few cloudy memories of college days when sleeping in til 1pm on a Saturday as opposed to organically waking up by 9am was a norm.  At the end of the day, studies aside, what matters most is that we enjoy what we are doing – get that right and it no longer matters how long you’re sleeping or not – but that you get to keep the inspiration and passion alive to keep iterating and moving forward.  After all, we’ve only actually got but one life – might as well live it well  and make the best of our time together in this mad and glorious world of old and new – asleep or awake!

To be clear I adore my 10-inch Lenovo PC. Being that it is a heavy duty little machine that is mighty. At 2.4 pounds, it serves as a heavy duty but compact machine albeit it’s still no ultra mobile Asus – it offers better functionality overall and is just perfect for on the road PC work. Better yet the battery life is eaily 6 hours at least.

This Lenovo also has the usual ports, including a VGA, an Ethernet, a mic, and headphone input and a 4-in-1 card reader. Unfortunately it has only 2 USB ports and does have a tracking ball mouse, which does take some getting used to.  While it may not exactly fit in the palm of my hand with such dexterity as in these images, the Lenovo 10-inch is the perfect combination of compact size, memory, speed, functionality and battery life for me.

The only real issue I’ve ever encountered which inevitably almost had my chucking my beloved Lenovo out the window was the internet access issues that come as a default with any Lenovo system.  Are you a Lenovo owner?  

If so…you’re probably also sitting there scratching your head figuring out how to get two competing internet access systems to quit competing and sabotaging each other while all you want is a web connectivity program that works without connecting seamlessly at times and other times not at all or conflictingly and needing a restart. In a word…it is FRUSRATING.

Alas! Fret no longer, the solution is here thanks to a quick chat with an IT guru and a confirmation by @lizasperling (also a Lenovo owner who was advised by Lenovo pals to do the same)! All you have to do is go to your Control Panel, then select uninstall progam under the Programs icon and uninstall the ThinkVantage Access program. That will end all of your web connectivity issues and you will be left with the dreamy compact PC you always yearned for – the one that you can take anywhere and connect to the web seamlessly and work and be connected like the happily mobile person you are. (Still in doubt, I just advised @psauer of @plancast to do the same and I not only didn’t break his computer, it WORKED!!! Woot!

Those of us watching 2009′s Superbowl met Isaiah Mustafa, who would become @oldspice guy, first while he was riding a horse backwards and almost naked during the ad campaigns’ SuperBowl debut of what was sure to be a series of brand outreach commercials.  The only thing we knew for certain at that point was that this man was guaranteed to surface again – as is Super Bowl advertisement tradition for as far back as I, and possibly even you, can remember – a SuperBowl advertising campaign debut could only mean more storylines were almost guaranteed from the brands with pockets deep enough to spend that kind of cash on the coveted few second spots that were available and always intensely lusted and sought over by marketing managers and directors since the investion of SuperBowl TV ads.  Cue the eTrade babies and M&M self depreciating but enjoyable ads and the proof is as undeniable as how intrigued we all were with Folger’s story line advertorials of days past when we were all curious as to what the next sequence would unravel.

Mister Isaiah Mustafa has now been featured in almost every talk show and news/radio show in the US. ESPN, CBSNewsOnline, Ellen Degeneres,XM Sirius Radio and more have interviewed the man [fully clothed] with and without that accent, and he has refreshingly and gracefully demonstrated a level of humility, good humor and down to Earthness rarely seen when it comes to any duration of fame.  Watch his modest and down to Earth interviews and you’ll discover an entirely different guy from the @OldSpice guy persona that toes the line to being subtly obnoxious in a delivery of graceful good humor.  Isaiah, the former pro football player turned actor is funny, good natured and humbly grateful with a sincerity that makes me just want to wish him well in his career as an actor.  Only someone who has a secure sense of self and a level of graceful dignity can deliver such unoffensive performances of what can easily be over obnoxious ego all while walking on a plank and ending up on a horse seamlessly.  Kudos are definitely due.

What is undeniable is that @OldSpice was armed, ready and did execute what will be remembered as THE 2010 viral media campaign, unless some other company decides it will give Proctor & Gamble a run for its money.  The Wieden+Kennedy agency that orchestrated such a viral social media campaign of a level of response and engagement that was beyond any brand’s outreach – they took advantage of every open avenue that social media lends in brilliant execution beginning with a TV campaign, truly not just engaged but participated with the audience and sparked an entire personality and ad campaign of immense popularity.  (Pretty sure there will be some OldSpice guy costumes when Halloween rolls around.)

Incredible when we think about the amount of people this campaign will eventually reach before it becomes yesterday’s news or some case study to refer back upon, but the fruits of such a well thought campaign executed to a level of traction that many in house and contracted marketers and PR professionals would drool over, has yet to be confirmed to lift sales or provide any real ROI

and when those numbers come rolling in – I’m sure we’d all love to see if that helped to boost a brand that is seen at best as the “aftershave my dad and his dad wore.”  Since no one can accurately report on positive results in public as of yet, all things considered, at the very least this campaign can soundly be attributed to a solid branding effort on behalf of Old Spice who’s history of tongue in cheek attempts at appealing to younger generations has often missed the mark and rarely gained anything beyond a raised eyebrow as far back as this ad here from 2007.  While it’s true that branding means that the direct correlation between impressions and return on investment may questionably not be accountable in the long run – the success in this campaign’s ability to bring a brand that many of us haven’t heard from in quite some time back from its shelf and on the tips of everyone’s tongue in media today is and was a brand visibility success in and of itself that should not go uncelebrated.

Social marketing is still a new field.  The greatest winners of social media campaigns when it comes to money thus far seem to be charities with strong social media campaigns, strong brands and real world problems to solve that have truly used savvy and effective social media tactics to generate a level of visibility that might have previously been hard to obtain without thousands of dollars invested for every message.  The Red Cross had risen $158 million from its social media campaign to help Haiti in January of 2010 from the web and via text messages alone. Charity:Water raised over $250,000 in funds in just one night as the charity sponsor of the Twitter crowdsourced Testival events that were launched last year and continues to raise more money towards an amazing cause to bring clean water to third world countries of which an estimated 5,000 children die everyday of bad water.  Short of being able to truly target and engage with your audience like never before, social media is still a media that lends itself to lots of A/B testing just like every other online marketing vehicle.  One thing remains certain, when it comes to a successful social media campaign @OldSpice found the right spokesman to deliver a branding home run while “on a horse.”  Don’t believe me? The video below has been viewed over 15.5 million times on YouTube alone – and that’s just one of many @OldSpice videos that have since graced YouTube, starring Isaiah to @Alyssa_Milano to @trev4real. So while ROI success of the @OldSpice‘s social media campaign is still to be confirmed, in terms of branding and best use of social media – Old Spice has taken Social Marketing and viral campaigns to a whole new level to consider. Cheers to that!

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS
A friendly Twitter discussion just occurred with my friend @AntiFreeze, over branding in the case of @OldSpice possibly not being the outright successful branding campaign when it comes to sales that it could have been should it have also employed some direct marketing tactics. I am in agreement and do believe that the uplift in sales might have been much more accountable and could have pointed to at least a degree higher of directly attributable sales success should the campaign have also called for some sales to be driven via discount promotional codes or a call to action of some sort. (Since the figures are owned by Proctor & Gamble we may never know what the success was measured on or how the campaign truly performed unless they share the figures with us.)

So to be clear, this blog post is definitely a praise for the execution, creativity and strategies behind the deployment of a successful social marketing campaign when measured in terms of visibility, popularity and reach. Also of note is that there didn’t seem to be a specific product ever mentioned so when measured as a branding campaign akin to traditional media campaigns, the brand itself did get back on the top of our minds, however fleeting that may be. It was a brilliant campaign and we both share a hope that things pick up for Old Spice.

Without question, the best gadget I’ve made a rather decided and absolute switch to from ATT (via a rather wallet wrenching experience as I paid early cancellation fees for an ATT Wifi USB Card that not only had limited functionality but also malfunctioned my laptops to boot while riddling them with incompatibility issues) to an added monthly bill from Sprint for was my Sprint Overdrive.  3G capable out of the box and 4G capable once the 4G revolution catches up in a few months (maybe 2011?), this gadget had me at HELLO.

And I say my next sentence with not one once of hesitation.  For I am without a doubt completely in geek elation. Regardless of the need for this device to be charged before it functions and it’s sometimes slow powering up time, it is really my favorite purchase of the year.

Freedom is like oxygen in importance to me, since living life fully is best realized without toxic, controlling or unnecessary messy limiting influences with a commitment to treating others well and with respect.  A close second on that graph of what one cannot live without, is internet connectivity and a laptop/iPhone.  And the OverDrive allows for this increasingly crucial combination to be at your fingertips and even allows for sharing this magical combination of freedom and WiFi internet access with up to 5 internet capable devices at a time wherever you may be.  In a park, on the beach, in the car, at a cafe that attempts to charge you not just for your beverage and a bite to eat but also your WiFi in an age where WiFi should at long last be free and available to all – utopic and idealistic, but it SHOULD be a reality in the ever arriving future of people constantly being connected to the internet in some way or another.  Digression aside, since this topic could spur a whole blog post, short of an airplane, or perhaps out in the middle of the ocean someplace and oversees where Sprint cannot bless your new best friend of a device, the Sprint Overdrive by Sierra Wireless, in my now 3 month experience, will and does deliver on its promise of freedom and internet connectivity within the 50 United States without the blotchy signal of ATT to multiple devices.

The Sprint Overdrive, which is delivers 2-5mbps on average when connected with 20%-40% signal (2-3 bars) is great for VPN connectivity and multiple devices.  Compact, and largely still working off 3G coverage, it is smart and will switch to run off 4G coverage if it is at all available and as the US moves to adopt 4G at large, the device will move from being a  3G product to 4G without needing any action from you.

I’ve found the Overdrive’s battery can run for about 2.5-3 hours.  It works divinely when plugged in for hours at a time, though the device and battery does get pretty hot temperature wise – which doesn’t affect it’s performance but I would keep an eye on it from time to time – not sure if it could or would catch on fire or smoke, but it’s always good to be proceed with some caution as far as overheating devices go.  Also, when using the USB plug on the computer, the Overdrive’s battery will still be draining, though at a slower pace since it uses more energy from a USB port.  Yes, the connection isn’t perfectly hyper fast for any other internet junkies out there who like streaming content with zero buffering times and files to send and pages to load with no wait times, but it beats not having any internet on the go.

I truly cannot recommend a better investment than Sprint’s Overdrive Mobile HotSpot if you enjoy the possibilities that await in being able to take the internet with you.  So long as your OverDrive is charged or there’s an outlet nearby, you’ll never have to worry again about accessing a client or potential partner’s web server in order to make it through your presentation where web accessibility would allow you to pull real time examples up to complete the demo of your capabilities.  And yes you could just demo of an iPad these days, but sometimes – when you’re on the road and realize you’ve got emails to catch up on, files to send, blogs to write and publish and so on…trust me – few beat the freedoms the Overdrive will grant when coupled with your laptop.

Jetsetting can be fun, effective and productive – even if it is pretty hectic and disorientingly maddening to find time to sleep and work in between meetings and checkins and airport stress. Work travel is a chaos of a new breed – what with travel times and the ever more frequent delays and cancellations of airlines, traffic etc these days – it is a small wonder that one can is still able to execute on strategies, take calls and have face to face meetings, regardless of whether the work travel entails cross country plane rides or commuting between clients and meetings.

As business travel and remote work arrangements increase, working while in transit forces one to adapt new ways to balance work, life and time.  It also incites companies to fill voids in our ability to function better as road warriors and remote workers.  From co-working spaces and entrepreneur incubation firms to the tools that enable us to exercise our choice of a mobile workplace and life – there is no better time and place for such innovations and such a dynamic lifestyle.

One such company that has made life as a mobile road and air warrior advisor at Paladin so much better is Tungle.  In a world where timezones, changing workspaces and mobility is a way of life, having a tool which acts like your own personal assistant when it comes to your schedule and calendar is incredibly valuable.   Tungle allows for scheduling on the fly, just shoot someone your availability through Tungle (here’s mine:http://tungle.me/tinahui) and meeting times can be proposed, scheduled, switched and even cancelled in real time.  Changes made are then automatically updated and available to anyone else who might want to schedule some time with you.  Simple.  The back and forth of navigating appointment and meetings times via a combination of Outlook invites and email become a thing of the past.  In its place we are given a seamless scheduling application which pulls our busy/free activity from various sources already employed.  Outlook and Google Calendar are easily synced to this cloud based scheduling utility and you can schedule meetings on Tungle itself or on the calendar application of your choice and it will sync both ways instead of just one.

In all honesty, I experience my fair share of user error as I first adopted Tungle, as is usually the case with me anyways, I am not at all embarrassed to admit that I go through plenty of trial and error to really get to a point of comfortable usage of a new technology or gadget.  But now that Tungle has become a fully integrated staple of my daily life I am only left with some faint reminders of how painful scheduling used to be – farewell email threads of confirming/updates to multiple proposed times and multiple attendee availability hassles, hello simple task manager a la Tungle!

One tip I’d like to dispense that made Tungle even more useful for me personally for you to consider is to access the settings which enable you to choose between allowing visitors to select one or more times to propose for a meeting.  I’d stick with one proposal time, lest you end up having visitors needing to choose more than one available time to propose for a meeting and end up having to go back and forth and confirming a time.  If only one proposal time is selected as an option, it makes it easier to set a meeting that already has an agreed upon meeting time and date and send notifications to fellow attendees.  It would be more effective for Tungle.me visitors to choose to suggest multiple proposed meetings times if applicable and much more Tungle user friendly to be able to grab the appointment instantly if need be and have the choice to choose more if applicable.

Tungle is definitely helpful for freelancers, mobile workers and even corporate employees when it comes to scheduling, especially so if you are apt to work closely with outside vendors and need the visibility to help schedule meetings.  Try it.  It’s free and you’ll see what a difference it makes to your life – since just as any really capable and great personal assistant would, Tungle takes care of scheduling pains for you and frees up some other time so you can allocate that time and attention elsewhere.  And if you run into any problems, @ErinLariviere and @JonathanLevitt will surely respond and be of immediate assistant as quickly as you can say Tungle on Twitter.

It’s official!!

I am humbled and excited to have accepted a new position as a Partner of the New Media Team at Paladin Advisors Group and look forward to work with and learn from the New Media Team’s Managing Director Louis Gray and the other members of our experienced team. The best part is that Paladin will enable me to continue working in the capacity I have come to enjoy most: delivering resourceful and effective solutions for past, present and future organizations I have had the privilege and opportunity to work with that will now also benefit from additionally being Paladin consulting clients.

Paladin Advisors Group is a strategic advisory firm for startups and enterprise companies who are looking for guidance in their marketing, public relations, sales processes, customer influence, Web and social media.  We’re growing fast and here to help – please feel free to let us know how we can explore opportunities to assist with the growth of your business at thui@paladinag.com and/or at lgray@paladinag.com and stay tuned for more shortly!

A small glance
A brief exchange
A recognition
A chance encounter
An invitation
A playful banter
A sweetness amongst lust
Loneliness found

Some curiosity
A dash of danger
A hint of spontaneous
A sparkling of adventure

Touch sweet and sincere
Warmth and hold, familiar and safe
A happy full hearts
Giggles uncensored
Cities shared and discovered
Ideas unhinged and heard
A world made colourful
Souls understood
Sacred calm
A love untouchable

You and I
A world to conquer and discover
To be lost in and found together
To lift each other up
To dream bigger dreams
To end the quenching silences of shattered fractures
urging for relief and answers to an endless labyrinth of disappointment

That was US.

Ages ago, before the anger and resentment
Before the hurt reached guilt and blame
Before goodbyes and pushes and pulls
Before becoming strangers under a roof we once so desired
Before the trials and tribulations we were once immune to
Before we lived the happy peace we had wanted

Amongst the reluctant dying of our fears in bits
Somewhere between my despair and yours
There lies an us in limbo between
someplace and nowhere

Every contrasting action matched with the best intentions
Conflicting realities, desires and loyalties divide
Even the most brave and courageous
Fate tempts those who dare and protest loudest

In some ways, we were never meant to be.
In other ways, perhaps a cautionary impending doom
Perhaps yet an incredible happily ever after
Dearest detour of my heart
You’ll be the awakening of my soul
The ache that never heals
The cry behind attempts to smile
The joy of knowing love pure and real
The peace of a dream realized for even just a beat
An unfinished puzzle missing it’s beloved piece

Somewhere between here and there
We deserve a chance to flourish freely
Beyond the venom and torture
Guns cocked we’ve checkmated each other
When did we become disconnected
Connect again the eternal flame

Wipe the board
Clear the slate
This love endures
Twists and ills far more trying than most
It’s seen a passion and peace rare
100 years and it’ll still remain
Unchallenged it shall withstand every decade
Discarded, possibilities and happiness will fade
Refurbished utopia in infinite awaits

Are ancient ruins best left undiscovered
Or admired and inspired?

Time they say are friends of ruins
Thou art still more brilliant and beautiful than every yesterday I’ve known you in
Even now dripped in disdain for me, you to me, feels like home
Peace and hope
Wonder and awe
Respect and gratitude
Shelter against raging storms unyielding
Utopia in your arms even across oceans
A grace in acknowledgement
A friendship true

Perhaps you weren’t ever mine to keep
Yet forever is still a dream

At least to me.
It was real and mattered.

Eyes closed

heart open
what lies as hope is fragile

In some other parellel, we are real
Faintly sick made ill by eternal

In this world,
the lights cast shadows against marred walls
Nothing seems as it shall

Opportunists win in this world of shadows
Light dawns, innocence is failed
Naive and trust yields to calculating in seconds unseen

Marred – we wait for a judgement
Someday when this all ends…we shall see.
What mischief is laid for freedom
What good laid for ill seekers

Finds solace, rewards and punishment
This life is but a phantom.

Fog…blinds all that we shall see.

Actually, I’m borrowing someone else’s words from Style And Substance’s blog: http://styleandsubstance.tumblr.com/post/215307921

“YOU MAY NOT BE HER FIRST, HER LAST, OR HER ONLY. SHE LOVED BEFORE SHE MAY LOVE AGAIN. BUT IF SHE LOVES YOU NOW, WHAT ELSE MATTERS? SHE’S NOT PERFECT – YOU AREN’T EITHER, AND THE TWO OF YOU MAY NEVER BE PERFECT TOGETHER BUT IF SHE CAN MAKE YOU LAUGH, CAUSE YOU TO THINK TWICE, AND ADMIT TO BEING HUMAN AND MAKING MISTAKES, HOLD ONTO HER AND GIVE HER THE MOST YOU CAN. SHE MAY NOT BE THINKING ABOUT YOU EVERY SECOND OF THE DAY, BUT SHE WILL GIVE YOU A PART OF HER THAT SHE KNOWS YOU CAN BREAK – HER HEART. SO DON’T HURT HER, DON’T CHANGE HER, DON’T ANALYZE AND DON’T EXPECT MORE THAN SHE CAN GIVE. SMILE WHEN SHE MAKES YOU HAPPY, LET HER KNOW WHEN SHE MAKES YOU MAD, AND MISS HER WHEN SHE’S NOT THERE.” — BOB MARLEY

Simply because it was good. Sometimes wisdom stops you in your tracks and reminds you that you should slow down a bit and connect with the wisdom. I’m saving the following passage to remember to try to honor that wisdom should I stumble upon a situation that proves worthy someday of such an endeavor of trust. Like my friends say, whatever you set out to try – you have to give it a real shot or you’ll never know…that goes for business, friendships, matters of the heart and any life experience really.  If you were curious enough to linger a bit, why not just have a little faith and trust and see what happens? We should all free fall in our daily lives and see where trusting in an experience, a path, a possibility and opportunity will take you – some of my best memories are from the time I just said why not and trusted that a moment will be worthwhile and either something to learn from or be amused by.  Interesting notion – paralyzingly ridiculous at times – but how else will any of us discover the paths in our lives that take us to amazing destinations and detours we might have otherwise never known? As I near 30, I realize that everything is becoming more clear – in a sense, life becomes less about fear and uncertainty and more about embracing and the eventual clarity that follows. It’s quite liberating but also akin to the first few stumbling steps we all took to learn how to walk or ride the bicycle – without training wheels…the crazy free fall and dance of getting to know, connect with, embrace and finally own our actions and who we are in full.

One’s past, one’s present – in a very in the moment wow…see how beautiful the sky looks at just this moment way, one’s hopes, dreams and desires, even our very demanding inner voice, one’s limits and boundaries, our friends and enemies, loves and hates, home, work, family…everything becomes as if you’re seeing it for the first time again…the future gleams with possibility and you can almost feel the opportunities and adventures ahead in a way that wasn’t truly the case before. Why not try windsurfing, take that class, jump out of the sky with just a parachute, travel and explore someplace foreign, finish being certified to hang glide, get that skuba diving and surfing curiosity satisfied…try the things we want now that we have a better sense of who we are and how we interact best with the world and others? Why not really just free fall and try things without over complicating everything into a plethora of buts and ifs and whens that have no real right taking up space in our journeys anyway?

What if you could just truly…let all that fear go and give things the chance and due diligence they deserve…that new job, that raise, that potential friend who is but a stranger who can become a best friend for always…if you’re staying true to your values and who you are – that’s the ticket and you can go farther than you ever imagined. Here I am 29.5 – ready now to fly. It’s such a cliche but it’s so true – 30 is going to be amazing, yes – saying goodbye to my 20′s has been bittersweet, but something about a new decade, a real sense of self and knowing what you are and aren’t capable of and what you will and won’t and what you want and detest and knowing how finite the world is becoming…it frees you to be who you are and have the world fall in place and adjust to that rather than to mold and perfect yourself to what you aren’t. We only live once, why waste a second? I’ve spent 29.5 years looking too young, not being old enough, being too short, being too small, etc etc….who cares? We are all here, ultimately wanting the same very basic things and so long as we don’t hurt anyone – why not live the life we want…as my senior yearbook reflects…I will most definitely embrace the extraordinary gift of experiences and memories that come with travelling the paths less chosen, discard those that aren’t worth it or the things that hurt and move forward and live by my own gumption in search of grace and good – of memories to build a reserve of sunshine and happiness to light the path even in the darkest hours. And hopefully, you will too.

Afterall, what do we have to prove?  As Dad once said, in the end you only have yourself to answer to, make wise choices, be resourceful and optimistic – accept life’s challenges as food for the soul, meet the opposition fairly and fiercely.  Will that you be happy and proud that you really cared or stood for and tried the things you wanted or would it wonder where your gall was?  Me?  I’d like mine to give a toast, laugh and dance a jig in celebration with me.  The freedom of life is a grand opportunity – give it your all and best.

This brings me to another quote:

“The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.”-Abraham Lincoln.

borrowed from http://btmgentleman.blogspot.com/.

Currents dance in a whirl.
Lost and found. Unfound but bound.
Grounded- ready set for the unknown.
Swirl dance and delay, praise and take advantage

Underestimation allows for excellence and pleasant surprise.
Misunderstanding leads to misrepresentation.
Assumptions wrong. Impulses find shallow footing.
Guards down and vulnerable to the fears of infection-
Insecurity finds weakness and security finds emptiness
To care one is to care. To trust one is to trust.
Simple and yet unattainable to allow.

Solvent? Dilute the madness and purify.
Clarity as counterpart to the counterclockwise -
Layers of unnecessary confusion in already complex simple situations.
Why be stuck in a maze of gridlock when clear seas await in waves….

Simplify, embrace, leap in faith and trust – simpler stated than felt.
Sweet solace where does one find a retreat?
Duality – segway, weren’t you the one…

Crazy settles in…sense and sensibility drained…sails set straight
Dearest paths lead the way – whichever whatever way.

I triple dare everyone to try to find the courage and gumption (with perhaps the right partner in crime if that makes sense) to live by these words someday.  The question is how we  face our fears and evaluate all the possible opportunities first and jump to action in living the life and passionately blazing the trails of enterprise that you choose.

 ”All glory comes from daring to begin.” – Eugene F. Ware

“Let’s commit the perfect crime, I’ll steal your heart and you’ll steal mine.” -Unknown

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” – LOST [TV Series]

“Action is the foundational key to all success.” -Pablo Picasso

– Borrowed from a friend’s Facebook listing of his Favorite Quotations. Thanks Brian M!

In any one life, there are infinite possibilities.
One can be rich or poor. Social or not.
Well mannered or ill.  Happy or negative..the list goes on and on.
Perhaps we have multiple destinies just as we have multiple journeys and experiences.

The possibilities and also the impossibilities are endless and infinite.
Every choice unfolds a chain reaction with access to dead ends or opportunity…

Which do we choose and what morality and emotions emerge that dictate us staying a course of leaving it for one wayward reason or another.  Shall we always do what is right and earnest or are detours allowed? Isn’t this our one chance at this world and life we live in?

Perhaps destinies are chosen as we go along – what do you reach for the path of least resistance, to stay at home and take care of family over choosing a grand love or adventure – what do we value more the chances to feel truly alive or the ones that make life predictably stable and good?  What do we all value more?  Is it better to live life safely and good or with a zeal that may be unbearably incredible?  What paths have you chosen, where has it taken you? Aren’t we but glad to be alive and have these choices?

A good question asked by the Harvard Business Review encourages the choosing of more inspired & fulfilling values.

How will you measure your life?

Live the fullest life you can with zeal beginning with today.

Day and night collide
A twist occurs in the gut
Slight of hand, a gesture easily missed
Dismissive and carelessly placed

Chance bounces happy
Choices made of luck
With smiles in transit

Leave a soul empty
Fill a cup with promise
Empty promises echo but eternally
As the sands of time run out

What journeys and lives are to still taste
In that bottomless hat of possibilities
Which turns and forks lead us to brighter or darker paths
What signs should we have and still to heed
How the tapestries of life come together will always be a wonder

Each story unique within its design.

Sharing this poem that was published in a vast poetry collection in a book someplace Feb 26, 2003 after having stumbled upon it in an old blog of mine.

Melancholy’s Fancy

Within the eve of night
stands a mirrored image of myself
naked in the solitude of the moon
trapped between here and infinity
held captive in the hands of time

Destiny awaits frozen in silence
as I stare at the promising twinkle of the future
too far to be touched and yet so close

A single teardrop is released
within the hollowed depths of my soul
the shadow of a past waits impatiently for time to stir

I stand alone in a sea of lost souls
each of us a dream in the wrinkle of time
mere whispers of what may have been
in a fantasy where the impossible was a possibility

Tina Tan Mei Hui

Copyright ©2003 Tina Tan Mei Hui

This is a wish for kindness, of the decency to care for one another.  Of integrity and respect, of those virtues pure and values solid that were of a time past when people truly meant what they said and said what they meant.  When people used to help one another, just for the sake of being kind and good to their fellow human – not because someone was watching or benefiting but because that’s simply the right thing to do if one is able.

At times, as this world ages, I watch the cruelty and objectification – the crude games and childish tally keeping, the hurtful and the cruelly selfish, the intentional snubbing and competitive fear that drives otherwise brilliant people to become trolls of souls.  The constant criticism for being idealistic all but cripples all the hopes that make life a wonder to be living.  Yes, it may be idealistically unrealistic but when did that become a mistep?

I wish for idealism and appreciation to infect and spread like a wildfire or even a plague.  Stop and embrace everything around you.  This life is precious and happens but once as we know it.
Love the people in it – the strangers and the strange along with the beautiful and great.

This is a wish for idealistic optimists to rise above so that we may all be free to live as loudly as possibilities allow without ill will.  Arise and unite.  Hide not within the peer pressure to conform for the sake of creating factions of exclusivity and cliques that exclude and ridicule out of fear, envy and whatever convention of ego that demands power from superiority.
We all share the same planet, we need to share openly and often.  After all, we were born equal out of wombs, grasping for survival and air.  Wake to change the world together by beginning with the change in you and in the person next to you.

This is a wish where not having any motivation or intention other than to make things better, isn’t seen as crime.  A wish for the ideal to persevere within each of us and to burn eternally.