New Year, New You

Tiffany Cunningham

So, every day I tell myself, “You’re going to make it to the gym, you’re going to make it happen today!” By the time I leave the office, at 5:45 (most nights), it’s already dark in Dallas and it’s winter, so my motivation to make it to the gym has plummeted. I need to fix this and want to, but how do I break this routine? It just takes two steps: throw on tennis shoes and drive to the gym. Right? I thought that, but it also takes focus and dedication and re-engaging yourself to want to feel better – not sit slumped on the couch every night.

I’m putting a stop to this no-working-out business and want to share a few helpful secrets that gave me the motivation to start moving again and stay on track, even if it’s cold out!

Make an investment.

Try a new workout class like The Barre Code or invest in new workout apparel to help bare the freezing temps outside. Fun workout classes make working out so much better and are an easier way to adjust to a workout routine again. You invest in a lot of things in life and most are not focused on your overall health and well-being. Save up, and you’ll find the biggest reward from relieving stress from a workout!

Make the cold winter months work for you.
I’m a huge fan of going on a walk. No matter what the temperature is, I grab my dog, Blakeley, and head for the Katy Trail. After 30 minutes, I feel better and my body temperature increases while I reduce my stress levels and bask in a peaceful environment for an hour or so. (Blakeley does chase after squirrels every now and then, but it’s still a great way to take my mind off work or other things happening without my cell phone.)

Reassess your fitness goals.

What do you want to get out of it? How committed are you? I have to ask these questions quite often. List the reasons you have for prioritizing exercise, and think about everything you’ve achieved in 2014 toward your goals. How are you going to keep it going and take it up a notch in 2015?

Get back to the basics.
Winter is also a great time to get back to square one. Identify what you need to improve on and get stronger. Now is the time to do that for the long term. Think in terms of useful fitness. Don’t do exercises that won’t lead you to your goals.

This is the perfect start to get re-energized and ready for the new year! Bring it on, cold weather!

What’s Next?

Thomas Whitehead

So this is my last blog post for 2014. As you read this, you are probably planning what you want to accomplish in 2015 and are wondering what the year will hold in store for you, your family, your business and your profession.

And you are not alone.

But first, I want to share with you my favorite story from 2014. I may have referenced it earlier this year, but these two related articles that ran in July in the Wall Street Journal were by far my favorite reads:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/07/29/howmanyistoomany-tallying-up-one-days-worth-of-hashtags/

http://online.wsj.com/articles/blinded-by-the-blizzard-of-hashtags-1406676440

I highly encourage you to take the time to read these if you are in marketing and communication. There are several takeaways that are still applicable:

• Twitter and the rest of social media has become very noisy with many companies, large and small, trying to break through to the same audiences on a 24/7 basis. 
• Hashtags were a great initial way to try to measure the impact of campaigns, but now, they might be adding to more clutter. 
• If you want to try a hashtag for a campaign, make sure that it is common sense so that people will actually use it. 
• If your company wants to measure the effectiveness of a hashtag campaign, make sure that you have two categories: overall mentions and organic. I have noticed several local campaigns where upwards of 95 percent of mentions were from either the organization or employees of the organization. You just want to make sure that it is used by your audience. 
• And this is the biggest takeaway for me: Don’t lose track of your overall goal. It’s not to come up with the most creative and viral hashtag but to help indirectly impact your bottom line, whether it is sales, donations or whatever. 

So what does this have to do with 2015 and beyond?

I’m glad you asked. My biggest takeaway with this is that something else will replace the hashtag in terms of marketing tools. Don’t get me wrong – I think the novelty of a hashtag will remain in western linguistics for some time. However, I am not certain that it will sustain its marketing power for too long, as these articles suggest.

So, in 2015, keep your eyes out for what is next. Don’t stay too focused on creating ideas that are based just on what is trendy and popular now. Just like digital media itself, marketing is always evolving.

And with that, cheers to a New Year, and may you all have a wonderful holiday season.