It’s on TV

Cheering each other on

Wednesday, September 16th, 2009

Yep, still grinning along with The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo. And you don’t have to watch it to appreciate one character on the show who deserves a serious shout-out: Rachel’s husband Rodger.

A cozy couple (Image: 12th Annual Webby Awards)

Get yourself one of these! (Image: 12th Annual Webby Awards)

One thing I talk about in Meeting Your Half-Orange—and what I always encourage singles to think about—is how they want to feel in the relationship of their dreams. Do you want to feel…loved? Adored? Funny? Appreciated? Supported? Sometimes it helps to look at real people who represent the heart or character of someone you want in your life, to imagine yourself on the other side of how they’d make you feel. And if you’re a woman looking for a guy, you’d do well to learn from Rodger.

(more…)

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WWJS: What Would Joan Say?

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

I promise, you don’t have to watch Mad Men to appreciate the clothes, the characters and the wisdom it doles out between the dull parts. This week, my favorite nugget came from Peggy’s attempt at writing her own “Roommate Wanted” ad.

Peggy needed a branding lesson (Image: Carin Baer, AMC.com)

Peggy, a mostly straight-laced, hardworking advertising copywriter was trying to paint a plainly honest portrait of herself in an ad requesting a roommate in Manhattan. But it took Joan Holloway, the smartest secretary in the office, to point out, really, who gets excited about a plainly honest anything? (more…)

Tags: branding, fun-loving girl, Joan Holloway, Mad Men, Peggy Olsen
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Steal This Love Trick from Rachel Zoe!

Tuesday, September 1st, 2009

Oh, how I love The Rachel Zoe Project on Bravo. (Duh.) But my love for the show about this ultimate fashion stylist is about so much more than watching her, Brad and Taylor dress stars for an awards show. The fact is, Rachel Zoe has a quality that would benefit each and every one of us in both life and love: The girl’s got passion!

She's dying. Die-ing. (from BravoTV.com)

I admit that when I first watched the show last season, I thought her passion for fashion went a bit too far—clothes being something that, when measured against the grand scheme of life and death and health, didn’t seem worthy of such gasping to me.

But I’ve since changed my tune about Rachel and her Project. Why? Because (more…)

Tags: fairytale, fakerdoodle, passion, Rachel Zoe
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“Mad Men”: More Than Eye Candy

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

The Drapers tackle tough conversations (Photo by Frank Ockenfels from AMC.com)

Never mind that I could watch a full hour of Mad Men on AMC just to see Betty Draper in as many clothes as they can pull from her closet. (And, yes guys, I know you prefer Joan, the busty red-headed secretary.)

This week, Don said something that went much deeper than the sets and scenes (and historic smoking) we love so much. He said something that can actually change our lives.

In context, Don Draper was trying to land the Madison Square Garden account by helping the company defend their plans in the early 60s to demolish the current Penn Station (and by the way, can you believe they did it?!). The MSG client was tired of the public outcry and wanted to quiet it down. Don, taking a page from the publicist handbook, told his client this:

“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”

Yes, sometimes we have to face tough conversations head on. But you know when this can really work? In the conversations we have with ourselves. If you don’t like what you’re telling yourself, change it. You are responsible for the words spinning around in your brain, so if you catch yourself being too negative (“It’ll never happen”) or beating yourself up (“It’s your fault this is happening”) or spiraling into frustration (“I’m so tired of all this”) then put some spin on your own story and change what’s being said.

It’s like another quote I read about the news: If you don’t like the news, go out and make some of your own. Change the conversation and make your own news. You’re bound to go up from there.

Big love,

Tags: Don Draper, Mad Men, PR
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A Dating Lesson from “Top Chef”

Friday, August 21st, 2009

As I was watching yet another episode of Top Chef (fear not, I don’t do spoilers for all you fellow DiVo users!) I got to thinking about why I loved the show so much. And I realized I was appreciating more than just watching them whip up spicy watermelon salads and sunchoke purées.

key_art_top_chef

What’s special about the show—and what other shows like Chopped! on the Food Network have caught onto—is watching wickedly talented people thrown into pressure-filled situations and asked to do somewhat ridiculous things they’ve never ever tried before. But you know what this all sounds like to me? The impossibly crazy world of dating. Think about it…

The top chefs . . . walk into a GE brand kitchen and gasp at Padma’s impossible challenge as she tells them to, say, make a gourmet meal out of junk food from the vending machine (though you can always win by braising some meat in soda.)
We . . .walk out to the big world and gasp at the impossible challenge of finding the love of one’s life from a crowd of strangers.

The top chefs . . . are ruled by the pressure of a red digital clock counting down the minutes they have left.
We . . . add our own pressures to dating, time limits we’ve all put upon ourselves because we don’t want to be single any more, counting down the years we have left.

The top chefs . . . frantically look for items in the pantry, crossing cleverly in front of the Glad family of products.
We . . . frantically look for dates online, trying to seem glad about twelve coffee meetings in four days.

And then everyone sits down to a nail biting meal as we wait to find out…is this it? Is this somebody’s happy ending?

Now here’s the important part: The person who wins often says they won because they decided to just be themselves and cook what they cook best.

So that’s my message for the weekend. It will sometimes feel impossible. It will sometimes feel frantic. And you will sometimes need to pack up food in plastic wrap from the Glad family of products. But if you relax and remember to be yourself and do what you do best, you’ll be smiling at the end, too.

Big love and beautiful weekend,