Wrapping up Q1
Posted on March 24, 2010
Filed Under The Latest | 2 Comments
Well, I can honestly say enough time has passed since my last post that an update is apropos. Life has been a whirlwind of mommying, writing, socializing, shopping, concert-going, and looking for the next adventure.
My speaking engagement with ATW was a success, and very well-received by my crowd of female technology leaders. Their approval was extremely important to me.
Things have been clipping along at SoulTrain.com and I’ve settled into a rhythm with my contributors, but I’m still keeping my eyes peeled for new perspectives and ideas for the site. I just got off the phone with a 90s-era Soul Train dancer named Stephen McMillian who is going to start writing for the site. He has some of the best stories and I’m looking forward to the flavor he will bring to our editorial content. Adam Bernard also joined the roster, whipping up insightful music reviews. I love his style of writing and I’m going to have him do more work pitching lesser-known artists for profiles. His recent Q&A with Maiysha was great, and in hindsight, I will probably give him a bigger word-count to work with. I’m still doing my viewpoints stories here and there, but I’m beginning to do more style/fashion writing for the site. It’s my niche, what can I say? And since Soul Train was all about music, dance, and fashion anyway, it all makes sense.
I’ve regained steam on Examiner.com when happenstance reunited me with my favorite shoe salesman at Barneys New York. He brought me all varieties of fabulous and absurdly expensive shoes to try on. I snapped some candids with my phone for Facebook, and then wrote about the experience, namely my love affair with a pair of gold Christian Louboutins, and posted it on Examiner.com. I shared it with him via email and tweeted it. It was picked up by the PR department at Barneys corporate and they ended up tweeting the story and sharing it on their Facebook account. I got record traffic to my Examiner blog that day, and that got the ball rolling. Now, every Tuesday I visit the shoe salon and have a play date with the new arrivals and angle my article around the trend in the shoes I visited. I’ve done the same with Stuart Weitzman and Nordstrom. Weitzman tweeted my article as well. I registered on the Tracy Reese radar when I tweeted that I was wearing one of her dresses to an event last week. I was asked to Twitpic photos and post them to Facebook (and of course I did).
Speaking of dresses, you’ll likely see me in a lot of designers’ fan photos on Facebook thanks to Rent the Runway. Soon after the new year, my social calendar exploded and I could have easily spent myself poor trying to buy dresses for each function (knowing in the back of my mind I’d only wear them once this year). I joined RTR in November, only weeks after the site launched, but my first rental wasn’t until NBA All-Star weekend (which involved a grueling social schedule of events to cover for the Observer, as well as volunteering for two days at the All Star Jam Session). I rented three dresses (Badgley Miscka, Robert Rodriguez Collection, and Alice + Olivia). I spent $150 total on wardrobe that would have easily cost $1,500 at retail. Shortly thereafter, I had a string of fashion shows to attend so I rented two more and then decided I needed to chronicle my adventures in couture so I published The Dress Diaries in my public Picasa feed. I established a relationship with some of the stylists at RTR so I shared the gallery with them. They loved it, and featured me for the first installment of their own Dress Diaries on the RTR blog.
I’m going to admit to a degree of apprehension about sharing my wardrobe secret, but I figured there’s a good angle to it. I’ve been self-employed for almost a year now, and by using RTR the quality of my social life didn’t have to change. Actually, I feel like it improved. So now, I’ve gotten into the practice of adding my dress pics to designers’ fan photos. It’s partially to show my support, but I want to stay on their radar too. There’s nothing wrong with them re-tweeting me when I mention them, you know! I still purchase dresses from time to time to keep in the permanent collection, but RTR saved my social life in ways that can’t be explained.
In the throes of my abstract marriage of social media and fashion, I figured I’d submit a speaker proposal for the #140conf in Washington, D.C. this summer. I gave the topic a lot of thought, and ran it by my focus group of smart people before submitting it. I’ll announce the news if I’m chosen as one of the “characters” for the conference. I’ve done several speaking engagements in the past, but the one for ATW really got my blood pumping to do more of them. Some fellow “internet athletes” and I are in the planning phases of a panel to speak at SXSW Interactive next year.
In other news, been more active in doing my part to support young, aspiring writers. Already, two journalism students from my alma mater have reached out to interview me for stories they’re writing for class. I’m always flattered when they want to profile me or use me as a source! Since I’ve chosen to re-allocate my monetary donations from SMU to the UNCF, I still want to find ways to give back to the student community. SMU has a billion, yes, billion with a B, -dollar endowment. They don’t need my little money, but I’ll support the foundation that gives scholarships to black babies who want to go to college. I’ve got two kids of my own, call me biased, lol.
On the media forefront, I’ve submitted press requests for the Dallas Film Society International Film Festival and the Essence Music Festival. There are also concrete plans to attend Fashion Week in NYC in September. I have no clue where my travel budget will come from, but that has never stopped me before. Over the past few months I’ve learned that if things are supposed to happen, they will so don’t sweat it.
Things couldn’t be going better had I wrote a script.
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Girl. You’ve come quite a ways since we first met.
) And you weren’t doing so bad then either! It’s great to see you flip every opp that even grazes your direction. I’m trying to work on that! Seeing a way to turn something random into a means of expressing creativity. I’m happy for you! *hugs*
Thanks, Nadine!!