Blog - Justice Fergie Lifestyle Media

Life Is the Party Weekly: Stories from Mom 2.0 Summit

May 15, 2013 By Justice Fergie Leave a Comment

I seriously don’t know whether I’m coming or going these days! For the past 2 months, I’ve been traveling like a maniac. And constant travel is like a suburban girl living in the city for a summer – at first it’s exciting and new, but after 2 months of eating takeout, it gets old fast. And by the way, this perfectly describes the summer of 2001 when I spent my summer in Manhattan. I think I was the only tenant who ever lived in that apartment that actually cranked up the stove.

But that’s another story for another day.

This second to last trip took me clear across the country to gorgeous – and I mean gorgeous - Laguna Nigel, California for the Mom 2.0 Summit. The weekend was just perfect and, even though the trip was long and I missed out on some awesome house guests back home, it was a lovely time and well-worth the trip.

Here are some of my highlights from the Summit:

I really think that blogging conferences have raised the bar when it comes to ‘conference food.’ Gone are the days of rubbery chicken and tasteless sauces – events like Mom 2.0 and, ahem, Blogalicious, make the dining aspect just as much part of the conference experience as the sessions. It also helps when food and beverage brands participate as sponsors. From Carvel (ice cream cupcakes!) to SeaPak to Jamba Juice to Starbucks Refreshers (their delightful suite, pictured above), we were treated to treats all weekend. I was partial to the ice cream cupcakes. But also noteworthy were the Smoked Swordfish Tacos from on-site restaurant, Raya. Maybe it was the insane views of the ocean, or maybe it was the crispy wonton taco shells (or maybe it was the cocktails I was sipping with Barbara), but those babies were mighty tasty, and definitely memorable.

Of all the events I’ve been traveling to these past weeks, I think that Mom 2.0 Summit was the easiest to pack for. The atmosphere is super laid back, beach-chic, if you will, and so the pressure is basically off. Flips flops are a-ok, and so are wedges. It’s all good. I threw in a maxi dress for Thursday, a flowy top, jeans and wedges for Friday and a sundress for Saturday. Done!

While I did hear mixed reviews about the content of the sessions, I felt like the content was right on time. Maybe I just picked all the right ones to attend! I learned so much that was specifically applicable to where I am right now. Some highlights for me were the Creative Collaborations: Building a Dream Team and Balancing Your Strengths session and the Raising Performance Levels: The Control Enthusiast’s Guide to Delegating…How to Clone Yourself and Other Good Advice session.

Some takeaways I plan on implementing from the Creative Collaborations session:

Your corporate culture extends to your vendors, key stakeholders and community – make sure yours is tangible. Identify your core values and mission and share with your team.
Identify what you can do exquisitely, and what you can (and should) delegate.
Worry less about ‘hiring’ and focus more on identifying strategic partners who can help you achieve your goals.

And more from the Raising Performance Levels session:

Consider writing a ‘person description; rather than a ‘job description.’ Finding the right person for your business will go much farther.
When managing a virtual team, focus on a ROWE = a results-only work environment.
Ask your team daily: “What can I do today to make your job, life, project better?”

And I have pages more!

What was also big fun was the session I co-presented with Ciaran, Wendi, and Julie called: 1000 Opportunities, 1000 Hats – The Power, Pitfalls and Perks of Being Multipassionate. We created a workshop designed to help those with many passions and interests identify their strongest passions, identify where they were spending the bulk of their time, consider what their motivating factors were for each, and grouping them in such a way that they were able to come away with an umbrella statement that would serve as their ‘elevator pitch’. And we did it all with popsicle sticks, gumdrops and cocktail umbrellas.

It was pretty awesome.

Oh there was much to love about the conference. The setting, obvs. My roomies, Elena and Amy, totally. Being amongst some of my best blogger friends, definitely. I also really enjoyed Dove’s ‘unstoppable girls’ message that permeated the event, as well as hearing heartfelt stories from Dennis Ogbe, Amber Doty, and Rebecca Wolfe.

Because, for me, while all the travel is cool and the perks lovely, the stories are what really stick.

Like the one about Roo photobombing me.

Filed Under: weekly edition Tagged With: #mom2summit, Blog Conference, Mom 2.0 Summit, travel

The 3rd Annual ‘Mama’s Day Our Way’ Campaign: a sponsored story

May 2, 2013 By Justice Fergie 2 Comments

I spent 10 minutes in the greeting card aisle on Monday, searching for a card to congratulate one of my besties on her newly announced pregnancy. I ended up leaving the store without a card in hand because I could not find something appropriate for the occasion – so frustrating! My only options were cards that congratulated the parents-to-be on their first baby (it will be my friend’s second) or on their ‘baby boy’ or ‘baby girl.’ Well, given that she’s early on in her pregnancy, the baby’s gender isn’t yet known (and what if she and her husband decide to be surprised?). I was really disappointed in the card selections and decided to use a blank card and write my own message.

As a content creator, that experience really annoyed me because I was being limited in my choices; it was like the ‘powerful, all-knowing greeting card wizards’ had decided exactly what situations warranted a particular New Baby card, and my friend’s wasn’t one of them.

The good news is, I did have another choice. I could head home and create my own card, reflective of the joy and excitement of a new, second baby whose gender was yet-to-be-determined. It’s this same concept of taking control of the mainstream image of Mother’s Day that’s resonating with me with this year’s Strong Families ‘Mamas Day Our Way‘ project.

According to the 2010 census, nearly 80% of households in this country do not reflect the traditional nuclear family form – with 2 heterosexual parents and their 2 biological kids.

That’s an amazing percentage! And one that is certainly not apparent from a walk down the greeting card aisle at your local store, right? Which doesn’t make any sense – think about the single-parent or adoptive or same-sex parent households that you know, for example. That’s why I think it’s so cool that, today, Strong Families, a national initiative of Forward Together, announced their 3rd annual ‘Mama’s Day Our Way‘ e-card series and campaign. Their goal is to “highlight the real experiences of mamas in our lives, and providing a more meaningful celebration beyond flowers and traditional greeting cards.”

They’ve partnered with a diverse group of artists who have designed a fun, thoughtful and non-traditional set of Mother’s Day e-cards. You can share them, for free, with a mama in your life across Facebook, Twitter, taking action in support of policy reform that supports families, and engaging in dialogue about families during their #MamasDay tweet chat on Thursday, May 9 at 11am PT/2pm ET.

If the mainstream isn’t providing us with content that reflects our lives and ideals, we should create our own. Now that’s a bandwagon that this content creator can jump on.

Filed Under: family, Sponsored, Uncategorized Tagged With: #mamasday, Mother's Day, Sponsored, Strong Families

Do As I Say, Not As I Do: On Blogging Consistently

April 30, 2013 By Justice Fergie 2 Comments

This is typically my disclaimer when I’m giving presentations on best practices for social media: “Do as I say, not as I do!” But after my recent talk at The Takeaway this past Friday, I’m wondering why I don’t just take my own advice?

Clearly my plate has changed since I started blogging 7 years ago. These days, I’m managing multiple businesses along with with navigating being the parent of a 3rd grader (Lord help me), a 1st grader and a pre-schooler. So why is it that I expect that I can post to my personal blog multiple times a week? I’ve been struggling with this – as you know.

Whenever a new blogger asks me ‘how often should I blog?’ I always give the same answer: whatever it is that you decide, be consistent. That is the single most important piece of advice I can think of when it comes to blogging frequency. Starting out thinking you can blog 7x/week, is unrealistic. But maybe you have the bandwidth to do so more than 1x. Come up with a reasonable schedule and then, stick to it. Blogging consistently is the secret to many a blogger’s success.

But, um, don’t look at my blog as an example.

I go through fits and starts of blogging regularly, and then falling off the map. I think it’s high time that I implemented my own guidance. It makes me sick that I can’t post as often as I’d like, but it is what it is.

I’m thinking, as crazy as life is right now, committing to posting on Wednesdays works for me.

In fact, I have an idea.

See you on Wednesday.

Image credit: peerlessgolf.ca

Filed Under: life, success Tagged With: blogging best practices

Late to the Party :: On Discovering C. Wonder

April 24, 2013 By Justice Fergie 1 Comment

Ok wow. This was going to be a simple ‘That’s My Style’ post about the cute tote bag that I bought last month while on vacation. But, after spending the last 10 minutes on their website, it’s turning into a full-on entrepreneurial crush.

They call themselves “a shopping destination that transports women into a world of luxury and surprises.”

I’d have to agree.

While in the Fashion Valley Mall in San Diego over Spring Break, I popped into a colorful store that looked right up my alley: clothing, accessories and home decor. Thirty minutes (and 1 very antsy husband) later, I emerged from C. Wonder with a striped tote, a gold letter chain, and a lime green cuff with my initial in gold. Not to be overlooked was the great customer service by the staff, the fly spiked shoes that the male clerk was wearing, and fabulous shopping bag it all came in. I mean, my heart was broken that I couldn’t find a way to travel back to Maryland with that bag.

I realize that I might sound like a lunatic – ranting about a store in a freakin’ mall. But it was truly delightful. Everything was bright and fun and preppy and pretty much everything could be monogrammed if it wasn’t already. As if that weren’t enough, you don’t actually buy the items on the floor, like in any other store in the mall. They take the item from you and bring you out an untouched one from the back, making you feel special and like you’re at a high-end store.These people were in my head. I asked the clerk if there were any of the stores on the East Coast and – ding, ding, ding! – it turns out that there’s one about 25 minutes away from my house.

So I made a note to write a quick post when I got back home. And then I read the brand story (like I always do) and found the creator’s video of his upbringing and his mission for the store. Love.

Apparently there is some hateration floating around about the store because the founder is Tory Burch’s ex-husband and some say he’s imitating her style for at a more affordable price point (which is maybe why I was drawn to the store in the first place, since I love me some TB). Still, I’m a fan. And I’ll be back.

It just screams Life Is the Party.

*for the record: this is SO not a sponsored post!

Filed Under: Style, success, thats my style Tagged With: Branding, C. Wonder, retail, shopping

What’s for Dinner? Cube Steak, Mexican Casserole & Shrimp Salad Sammies

April 22, 2013 By Justice Fergie Leave a Comment

Filed Under: food

#GoMighty Life List Check-In: On Navigating An Entire ASL Conversation

April 22, 2013 By Justice Fergie Leave a Comment

I’m about 4 classes into my ASL course, sponsored by Olay and Go Mighty, and while I am still stumbling along in the communication department, I’m proud to say that during the last class, I managed to follow a 2-hour conversation entirely in ASL!

Or ‘mostly’ follow anyway.

One of the great things about ASL is that it’s based on concepts rather than specific words, so you can get by picking up the gist of an idea rather than having to understand every single word in a sentence, like in English, for example. Last class we started off by reviewing Unit 13: More Ways to Express Yourself, and our instructor started telling us about her life story to demonstrate some of the signs. Before we knew it, it was 90 minutes later and she had shared her challenges growing up in a small town in a school where she was the only deaf student, and where her teachers and principal didn’t know “what to do with her,” to her desire to become a math teacher but getting discouraged in college when she couldn’t follow along with the lesson in class, to her ascent up the management chain at various government agencies, to her finally fulfilling her passion to teach, as an ASL instructor years later (yay!).

And she shared this entire, moving, riveting story in ASL.

Read the rest on my Go Mighty page…

Filed Under: family, life, Sponsored, success Tagged With: Go Mighty, Olay

{sponsored} Why Your Should #TalkEarly w. Your Kids About Serious Issues, Before You Have No Choice

April 16, 2013 By Justice Fergie Leave a Comment

Yesterday was hard day. It started out like any other – the kids at school, Hubby and I both working from home. Then I went to do my kid pick-ups and got settled again, back in my home office to get some more work done before dinner. I had the television on, volume low, and looked up to see the news about the Boston Marathon tragedy. Of course, like everyone else, I was glued to the TV, trying to understand what was going on while going from moments of disbelief to sadness to disgust.

And the kids were all home.

My husband had the news on upstairs too and suddenly my 8 1/2 year-old was full of questions: “What happened? Who’s hurt? Who’s fault is it? Was it an accident?” And my 4 1/2 year-old had his own questions: “Why are all the police there? Why is this on TV, again? Who is the bad guy?”

Fortunately (unfortunately?), we’d had the conversation with our kids before about tragedies unfolding on the news – most recently with the Newtown tragedy. We let them know that they were safe, that there were more ‘good’ people than ‘bad,’ and that there are always people around whose jobs it is to help everyone and keep them safe. Having already had that kind of conversation made yesterday’s terrible development a little easier to swallow when it came to explaining the events to our kids.

The same line of thinking applies to hard conversations with our kids about other serious issues, like underage drinking. I’ve wrestled with this topic a lot because in my mind my kids are just babies and why the heck would I be talking to them about alcohol at this stage. But reality sets in and I see just how fast they are all growing up. Chatterbox is in third grade and the subject matter that gets discussed during recess is shocking – I can see that conversations amongst her peers about alcohol are, sadly, not that far off.

And so, we’re being proactive and making it a point to #TalkEarly with our children about it. Explaining why it’s ok for Mom and Dad to order a cocktail at dinner or have a beer at a BBQ. Talking to them about the law and why they need to be 21 before they can drink. I think the most important conversation for me will be where we discuss the potential harmful effects of alcohol and why they absolutely must stay away from it until they are old enough to make proper judgment calls. We’ve had this discussion about smoking and they all seem to have internalized that smoking = death. It’s a bit harder with alcohol, though because my husband and I, and our friends and adult family members to drink socially, so there isn’t the same kind of taboo associated with alcohol in our kids’ minds.

I’m also expecting the depth and focus of the conversations to evolve as the kids age. But we’ve already started the discussions and want to maintain an open line of communication. Talking with them early will allow us the time to answer specific questions and prepare them for dealing with situations on their own, rather than waiting until a situation arises where we have no choice but to dive into the issue.

Something we managed to avoid yesterday.

Wondering how to #TalkEarly with your kids about underage drinking? Talk with me & experts tomorrow, 4/17 at 1:00pm ET on Twitter for tips & info. Follow the hashtag: #TalkEarly and @AskListenLearn @TheMotherhood @JusticeFergie

{Disclosure: This post is a part of a sponsored project that I am working on with The Motherhood and The Century Council. All opinions are mine.}

Filed Under: family, Sponsored

Mother’s Day Must-Have: The Genet Scarf by ONE and fashionABLE

April 11, 2013 By Justice Fergie 1 Comment

My last Rock Your Party newsletter focused on the magic of successful collaborations. Besides JT and Jay-Z collaborating on “Suit and Tie“, there’s another recent collab that I’m in love with: The Genet Scarf – the beautiful and brilliant product created by my beloved ONE Moms (I’m a community partner), fashionABLE and ALT Summit.

Here’s the story:

Congratulations to Janette, ONE Moms, the ALT ladies, fashionABLE and, most of all, Genet, for taking a grim situation and using your talents and strength to turn it around and create something so positive and so beautiful. A very Happy Mother’s Day to all of you!

Filed Under: family, Style, thats my style

My First Live-Streamed Google Hangout! ‘From Blogger to Business’ w. @BrothaTech and @LamarTyler

April 9, 2013 By Justice Fergie Leave a Comment

Last week, Terrance Gaines (aka Brotha Tech) invited Lamar Tyler and I to participate in an honest, no-holds-barred conversation via Google Hangout about transitioning from blogging ‘on the side’ to making it your full-time profession. I knew it was going to be fun – because those two are hysterical AND brilliant – but I had no idea it was going to be THAT much fun…and empowering. The tweets, posts and comments we received from speaking our minds and hearts was amazing. If you missed it, here it is.

And if you want even more, join us on Friday, April 26 in Atlanta, GA for ‘The Takeaway: No Fluff’ – a 1-day workshop where social media meets business.