A Pink Letter Day

I had an amazing day on Thursday, February 26th. Most people would have called it a red letter day, one for the books. Since pink is my signature color and the theme of my holistic life, I am calling it a pink letter day.

Special thing number one: Early in the morning I received an email from a local media relations company, asking if I.knew someone who was going to live blog the keynote speech at the Built Green Conference the following week. I was not attending, primarily due to the cost of admission - $185. I don't have the budget for these extras at the moment. In fact on February 16th I took over the front office administration of my real estate brokerage. Times are tough, and to cut costs the company had to layoff its office manager. I am the only agent in the company who has background that would enable me to step in to the office managers position. In fact, I had even been sending out resumes for the exact same job at other real estate companies because I needed to increase my income. I began looking for work in September, and as of February still had not landed a full time position. I had some good interviews, but the competition now is incredible, with so many well qualified professionals looking for work. So when the time to let the office manager go (planned for a couple of months), I stepped in to keep the office running. The pay is a token, and I am only contracted to work 25 hours a week, but I have my a-board out on the sidewalk and could pick up new clients just by being in the office. I won't go into details about the difficulties I had  wrestling with new technology (such as learning to administer the company website) but this brings you up to date with my situation.

Shortly after the initial email exchange that I would see if I could find someone who was going and was a blogger I thought: well, if someone bought my ticket I would go and do it myself. The media rep said sure, she would give me a Press pass and put my name on the list. Wow! That was so cool. II was very exciting. One, media is beginning to recognize blogging as reporting. And two, I was getting a press pass!

And then I immediately - and finally - made a technology investment in my business and bought a netbook (Asus EEE PC) so I wouldn't have to thumb type all day. (It's a write off after all.)

Read my live blogging sessions from the Built Green Conference on March 6, 2009:
At the BGC (Built Green Conference)
BGC09 Keynote Speaker: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Creating Community as part of Green Building
The Market Value of Green-Certified Residential Projects
Early Adopters: Taking Ourselves and Our Networks to the Next Level

Special thing that happened number two: I heard from my broker who heard from one of our fellow GreenWorks agents that an article published in Seattle Homes and Lifestyles Magazine in which Ben Kaufman and myself had been interviewed for had reached subscriber mall boxes and it reflected very well on our company. More press! The author of the article called  me off of my profile on the GreenWorks Realty site and was interested in talking to me because I lived in a townhome in a Built Green community. So we talked for awhile and then when she started asking me the really hard questions I said she should be talking to Ben and made that connection for them. (Read: Onward and Upward)

And special thing number three, the cherry on top: In the afternoon I received an email from CityDog Magazine, of which I am a subscriber and big fan of (and the editor also lives in West Seattle) inquiring into Sophia's availability for a photo  hoot for the Spring cover of CityDog Magazine. Sophia has received some of her own press before. She has ben photographed for a book about rescued dogs which has not been published yet, and she was the reason I was a part of the book Dog Park Wisdom. The author of that book came to an Italian greyhound picnic at my home and we were photographed and had a story in a special spread the Seattle Tomes/PI did a couple of years ago. The article was about IGGY Ambassadors-Emerald City, the meetup.com group I founded in 2006 to create a social playgroup for Italian greyhounds in Washington state. The group will have its third anniversary in April and it remains the largest IG playgroup in the world with over 200 members in the Seattle group and additional chapters in Spokane (IGGY Ambassadors-Inland Empire) and Portland (IGGY Ambassadors-Rose City). One of the groups member recently relocated to Maryland and may start a chapter there. There also is a member who moved to Florida who has inquired into organizing a chapter there (Coral Gables area I think).

So those are some amazing things that happened to me recently -- all on one day! It really was a Pink Letter Day!