Who Inspires you?

My inspiration comes from a variety of places, but mostly from the people I interact with. I’m a very social person as you’ve noticed if you’re a regular reader. I love to share information & I find it very gratifying if I can empower people with knowledge so they can succeed. I spend a fair amount of time searching for information that will be helpful to our readers.

This morning I was surprised to see my name in Jeremiah Owyang’s blog post yesterday as he thanked two people for being community leaders in his Web Strategy group at Facebook. I was astounded to be recognized by someone that I hold in such high regard.

So who is Jeremiah Owyang? He’s a Web Strategist & prolific blogger (4 posts/day on the avg). His message is about how to use online tools to to maximize your web presence. Are you seeing the connection now? When you go to sign up for our newsletters here, you have two choices: 1) ACDSee information & 2) blogging, online tools, and marketing ideas. As you’ve noticed I have quite a fascination with the second topic & enjoy exploring creative marketing ideas. People have told me to just do one, but I truly believe that it’s important to share my background knowledge with anyone that can utilize the information. And I recognize that not everyone is interested in ACDSee products & some aren’t interested in promotional themes.

Another place where Jeremiah truly shines is that he unselfishly practices & promotes mentorship. I wholeheartedly share that philosophy & I believe that’s what makes the digital scrapbooking community so strong & great. I love translating what the thought leaders are talking about into practical uses for our community. And Jeremiah is truly on the cutting edge. He inspired my newest series on social networking & utilizing applications like Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Kaboodle, etc (and for those of you waiting on that - my work schedule this past week interrupted my blogging, but I will get there!).

Jeremiah also does a fabulous job of building community. We all know the value of that because it’s so important here in digiscrapping land! Participating, sharing, & learning are all part of the community experience & Jeremiah’s blog has opened new doors for me at a level I never would have dreamed of. Remember my articles on Windows Live Writer that so many found useful? Well, when I was at Facebook networking (talking, my sister would say) on one of Jeremiah’s groups, I had a conversation with someone. He befriended me, saw my blog post that included all of your comments about Live Writer & said he was forwarding them to the team who created it! And this person was Sean O’Driscoll, Microsoft’s Community Guy! That is the power of networking and building community. The blogosphere & places like Facebook allow all of us to connect at a whole new level based on our interests & needs. The secret is to get out there & get involved (which is the purpose of my new series that’s coming).

So if you enjoy my articles on marketing, now you know where much of my inspiration comes from. Jeremiah doesn’t consider his blog a marketing blog, but he’s listed in the top 30 of the Top Marketing Blogs which says a lot.

Jeremiah’s post was also a good reminder that if you have people that inspire you or help you many ways (like your Creative Team), remember to thank them. In my work as a manager, this is the one thing that I don’t do enough of. And this should be a post all on it’s own, but I’m so very, VERY thankful for all that my sister does here & the friendship & inspiration that she provides. She shares her technical talents so freely & helps me implement all the ideas that I bring back from my forays on the web. Our partnership is very gratifying!

Who should you be thanking for inspiring you?

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