How about a smile? Surely, you’ve got that in you.

I was doing some research today and ran across the It’s Time to Smile video of The Compliment Guys. It was shot by my client, Back Alley Films’ director Jesse Selwyn, for Kodak’s Brightside Tour in the fall of 2009. It made me smile.

The back story, Kodak tapped Back Alley’s Jesse Selwyn for this project, an award winning director, musician and composer himself, and a perfect fit for this quirky, feel-good project. It involved following a couple of Perdue University students across the nation as they spread their compliments and goodwill around – by doing nothing more than just being nice, passing out compliments – and making people smile.

Selwyn is a cool guy. If you’ve not seen his work, you should check it out. He also did the amazing Up2 You + Me video with Jim Parsons for Stand Up To Cancer, another of my all time favorite pieces. T2 + Back Alley Films are lucky to have Selwyn on their roster of directors, and work like this keeps me coming back for more.

What about you? Up to that challenge I mentioned earlier? How about seeing how many different times you can compliment random people today. You’d be amazed at how good it’ll make you feel. Double dog dare you. Then, come back and tell me how many times you brightened someone’s day. Or better yet, snap a pic of every person you make smile with a random act of complimentary-ish-ness (yup, another made up word), @ me on Twitter with a TwitPic or post it on my Facebook wall. For many of you, it’s already Friday, so get on it. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. Now get going!

By now, if you’ve not heard of Steven Slater, the Jet Blue flight attendant who got fed up by a rude passenger and snapped, I’m thinking you might well live under a rock. The back story – as the plane was taxiing in, an anxious passenger unbuckled and stood up, reaching for the overhead bin and her luggage. Slater asked her to sit back down until the plane came to a stop, and she refused, continuing to open the overhead bin. As she began wrestling her bag out, it hit Slater in the head and he decided he’d had it. Grabbing the mic, he announced that after 28 years, he was officially done. He’d had enough of a crappy job and rude passengers. Then he did what we all have always wanted to do, he opened the emergency door and activated the slide. But before jumping his cute little fanny to freedom, he reached over on the beverage cart and – well, you guessed it, grabbed two frosty cold beers.

Never mind that he’s been arrested and could face up to seven years in prison, Slater is the latest unlikely suspect to become a bona fide American folk legend. You know you’re famous when someone like Jimmy Fallon sings a song about your badass self on national TV.

There’s a lesson here, folks. We need to quit being a bunch of pantywaists. As a society, it’s my observation that we have collectively become a bunch of scared-y cats (yes, I got that from my 4 year olds). Rare is the person who will make a fuss, take a risk, make waves, call attention to themselves or, God forbid, take a stand. As a result, we routinely settle for the status quo. That might be jobs we hate, relationships we want out of, crappy service, poorly made products or half-assed attention to detail.

Think about the last time you took a risk. Or maybe, think about how badly you’d like to. Or about the job that you feel stuck in or the relationship you’d love to get out of — or into. What about the last time you went to a restaurant and got cold French fries or a steak that wasn’t prepared the way you asked for it. Did you keep your mouth shut and eat it, or did you send it back, and ask for hot, fresh food and/or food the way you ordered it? Or think about the time you saw someone treating someone else poorly, acting the bully or some other such nonsense. Did you stop and speak up, or did you just put your head down, and move on? It’s infinitely easier to keep your mouth shut, but does it ever feel as good, or as right, as it does when you stick up for something or someone you believe in?

I could go on, but you get my point. Steven Slater might not have made the best career decision, but he made the decision that was right for him at that particular moment. He may fade into obscurity after his 15 minutes of fame are up and he’s paid whatever price the authorities decide he owes, but you know what – he took a stand. And that’s something to commend him for. When was the last time you took a stand? Or risked it all by betting on yourself and your abilities? When was the last time you spoke up and said something that would have been easier to just leave unsaid? Whether that was “I want out of this crappy relationship” or “I am madly in love with you.” When was the last time you made a decision, stuck to your guns and did the right thing – even though it cost you to do it?

No need to answer, just think about it. And the next time you have an opportunity to take a risk, try something new, say the thing that is hardest to say, stick your neck out, or take a stand, why don’t you think about trying it? I’m far from perfect, but I do routinely stick my big, fat neck out and say what I think, take stands where I think they’re called for and expose myself to all kinds of criticism as a result. And it’s not really so bad. And you know what – it’s infinitely better than being an ostrich. Any day of the week.

And as for Jet Blue, they’re enjoying their own notoriety, not only on national TV, but in the social media realm as well, as evidenced by Conan O’Brien’s recent tweet: “On JetBlue and the flight attendant just offered us “all the f***ing Terra Blue chips you a**holes can eat.” Love this airline!”

Photo credit: AP Photo

This is what my friend Erika Napoletano, the infamous Chief Redhead at Redhead Writing, would call a Bitch Slap. Damn, but I wish I’d thought of that.

I’ll ask again … do you have a job? If so, it’s probably because the business you work for has customers. And when was the last time you gave a damn about those customers? Those pesky people who bug you incessantly with their neediness. Those annoying gnats that allow you to keep that job. The J.O.B. The thing that provides a living. That feeds your kids. That pays your rent.

Pull your heads out people!

Let me give you an example. Yesterday, I was at the neighborhood grocery store. I needed deli meat and I prefer the brand that this store carries. It’s also about five blocks from my house, so I shop there often. I got to the counter and there were 6 deli workers, all engaged in the business of doing something other than being even remotely interested in waiting on me. The only customer. I’m polite. So I waited. And waited. Then I waited some more. Then I realized they were playing the “I’m going to ignore her and let someone else wait on her – I’ve got stuff to do here” game. I’d recognize that game anywhere – it happens all too often.

So, panties most definitely in a wad and in a quiet rage, I huffed off to the front of the store and the customer service center. As if I have time for this crap. The young girl manning the counter asked if she could help. I replied that I wanted to speak with a manager. She said “sure thing” and poked her head into the office and spoke to ‘the guy’ and said “There’s a customer out here who wants to speak with you.” I suppose he grunted in response, but I’m not really sure.

And I waited. And waited. Then I waited some more. Have I mentioned that I’m not particularly good at waiting? The young lady realized that steam was about to come out of my ears, but she figured that cowering in a corner was safer than bothering her boss again and reminding him that I was waiting to be serviced. Oh, that sounds kind of nasty, doesn’t it. Not that kind of serviced.

Finally, I gave up. I have a business to run. Clients to keep happy, kids to feed, deli meat to buy. I went to the checkout counter to begin the process of paying for the groceries in my cart. When my friends, the checkers and baggers, asked about my shopping experience (as they are no doubt trained to do), I said that it was crap. That I’d gotten absolutely no service at the deli counter and when I went to the office to talk to the manager about it, I’d gotten no service there either. They shook their heads and said “That’s too bad. You’re in here a lot. You send a lot of money here.” No duh. And, for the record, not one of them beat feet over to the customer service office and dragged a manager out to rectify the problem. Another fail.

Speaking of money, let’s do some quick math. Some of you are smiling, I know. You know how I feel about math. But this is important. I cook. A lot. And feed a family of four. I spend, on average, $200 a week at this store. That equates to about $860 per month that I spend on groceries and other necessities. Round that off and say that my annual value to that particular store is about $10,000. Do you think that when those idiots at the deli case are ignoring me that they see a big, flashing sign with $10,000 on it – or do they just see some bothersome gal in sweats busting up their party and having the audacity to expect them to slice up a little turkey?

And that manager. What a moron. He doesn’t deserve his job, that’s for sure. Funny thing, I doubt he even knows it.

So, here’s the thing. I quit you, Cosentino’s Brookside Market. And now, I schlep an extra three miles over to the Hen House in Prairie Village and give them my $10,000. There, they welcome my business. They greet me enthusiastically, with a smile, and can’t wait to slice some turkey for me. And anything else I need they serve up graciously. That’s how you treat a customer, folks. As an aside, I’m not the only customer who feels that way about the Hen House – check out this Yelp review and you’ll see what I mean. I wonder if the folks at Cosentino’s have ever heard of Yelp. Hmmmm.

Don’t make the mistake of taking your customers for granted. Greet them every chance you get with a smile and an appreciation for the fact that they choose to spend their hard earned money with you – instead of with someone else. Small businesses who are looking for a way to differentiate themselves from the competition would be well-served to remember these simple words of advice. Treat your customers like royalty – they will reward you by coming back.

Today’s children are our future. These wacky toddlers–the ones playing dress up and tee ball today–are the legacy that we collectively leave. We’re not responsible to our bosses, our clients or our neighbors–we’re really responsible, or we should be, to these children. And it just takes a few small changes, done at your own pace, to make big differences in these kids’ lives.

My business partner, Michelle Lamar, is an ambassador for Healthy Child, Healthy World, which is a non-profit on a mission to inspire parents to protect young children from harmful chemicals.

But it’s really about more than just chemicals. And about being eco-friendly. It’s about getting back to a time when the things that surrounded children, they things they ate, slept on and played with, were real.

A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.

I loved the video. And love the message even more. All it takes is a start – and a group of people who want to make a difference. Together we can inspire. Together we can ignite. Together we can advocate. And together we can affect change.

I’m in. How about you?

P.S. If you’d like some resources on how to get started, Janelle Sorenson, Senior Editor and Research Director at Healthy Child created this Cheat Sheet of NonToxic Tips and Eco-Wisdom, which I would not have known about were it not for Heather and Whitney at Rookie Moms. It’s a great resource to get you on your way.

Yesterday’s airwaves were filled with the angst of eager Apple iPhone 4 enthusiasts over the massive cluster-you-know-what that the preorder day turned out to be.

Both AT&T’s and Apple’s servers collapsed, there were reports of multiple incorrect orders, stores closing because they couldn’t handle the strain and — horror of all horrors — staffers in some areas who were forced to resort to pen and paper (gasp) to take orders old-style.

According to today’s Gizmodo, it’s even more of a disaster than originally suspected. Reports have surfaced of credit card information mistakenly applied to the wrong customers, and what is perhaps a serious breach of customers’ private information.

It’s no wonder that Apple is reporting the iPhone 4 as already sold out when some customers are reporting receiving emails confirming duplicate – sometimes even triplicate – orders. As reported by PC World, it was the largest number of preorders ever taken in a single day and, clearly, both Apple and its retail partners were unprepared and overwhelmed.

Concerning the privacy issues, AT&T issued a statement today acknowledging the glitches but claims they were unable to replicate them, but Gizmodo had no shortage of readers willing to share their horror stories. Add to that the recent uproar about last week’s iPad security breach and the public exposure of over 100,000 email addresses, and AT&T has no shortage of unhappy customers.

AT&T suspended additional preorders today, citing record demand, and Apple apologized for the problems customers and prospective customers experienced amidst the turmoil yesterday. And that’s not all – according to Gizmodo, many of the users who ordered yesterday have received emails advising they will not receive their phones on June 24th as originally promised, with some even being pushed back as far as July 14th. And there’s always the unlucky others who have inexplicably had their orders cancelled, and are forced to order again, when permitted.

Can it really be the case that Apple didn’t expect this kind of interest in its newest device? Seems crazy to me. But then, I’m the kind who likes to under promise and over deliver.

Bottom line, if you think you’ve preordered an iPhone 4, don’t count on it until you get it.

Got any horror stories of your own to share? Would love to hear them.

Okay, so Loren Feldman of 1938 Media has a wicked sense of humor. No doubt about it.

And, while I didn’t stand on line (yes, I’m from New York, we say “on line” – deal with it) like Scoble and scores of others for 22 hours to get mine, I still fall into that early adopter geeky gadgetphile category.

Like Loren, I mean Ballmer, there are many things I don’t love about the iPad – and that damn keyboard shift thing for a number is at the top of my list – there are other things that I am loving experimenting with. Mostly, though, it occupies my husband in the evenings while I sit with my computer in my lap, Tweeting my ass off. And that, dear friends, is priceless.

Thanks, Loren, for the laughs. Oh, and by the way, I enjoyed your thoughts in The Beginning of The End. People should read it. And, while I don’t think that checking out is the answer, at least for me, I can see why it would be something worth considering from time to time.

Today at SOBCon one of the event sponsors, the great folks at Intuit, had the brilliant idea for an exercise for the group. The challenge: Come up with a list of things you want to bill the Internet for. It was a perfect example of the great things that happen at SOBCon – the audience is actually expected to roll up their collective sleeves, work with their tablemates, and come up with thoughts, solutions, brilliant ideas, you get my drift. Naturally, given the nature of this eclectic group of smart, yet massively nerdy folks, great ideas do happen, but they are oft combined with a fair amount of ridicularity. . It’s no wonder this is such an amazing conference. And a sold out one.

Everyone contributed and the ideas were fantastic. And, since somebody’s gotta do it, I put myself in charge of generating the invoice. Of course, that means that I should get to retain the lion’s share of the proceeds. Right? Shhhh, keep that on the DL, willya?

And so, without further ado, here is my invoice (Disclosure: Some of these are original to me and my table, and some stolen from others in the room – after all, it’s social media – stealing is a given).

INVOICE

1. Effin’ music that blares when you load a website and scares the CRAP out of you – never mind blows your cover when you’re goofing off at work.

2. Stupid, slow-loading, Flash intros that force us to wait for the stuff we are looking for – this is soooo annoying and soooo 2009.

3. Squirrels. A term coined by the nothing if not dynamic Sheila Scarborough that encompasses things that suck you in like Peanut Butter Jelly Time, anything on the TED site and everything published by The Oatmeal.

4. The Rabbit Hole. All the time we’ve lost doing crap we weren’t supposed to be doing because we got sucked down the rabbit hole. Searching for a new pet goldfish, finding the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish site, getting hungry, thinking ahead to tonight’s dinner, looking up the takeout menu for the local Thai restaurant, realizing I want to learn to speak Vietnamese, planning a trip to …. well, you get the drift.

5. The Carpal Tunnel Syndrome that we ALL now have, to some degree or another.

6. My Divorce Attorney. Since I didn’t pay enough attention to my significant other because of my addiction to YOU.

7. My Children’s Education. See above, since I’m now single and it sucks. And others, too numerous to mention here. All categorized as “relationship issues.”

8. Pop-up Ads. You know who you are.

9. 40% messages. Loading, loading, loading, loading. No, NOT loading.

10. Spam. #spamsucks

11. Contact Us pages that lead us to default email programs that we can’t STAND and which cause us to immediately leave your site.

12. Our Eyesight.

13. Our Bodies. The slouch, the pallor, the neck permanently out of alignment, not to mention our growing midsections and spreading backsides. We hold you responsible for our collective inability to get the laptop out of our laps long enough to work out anymore. Damn you.

14. Google. For making search so addictive. And for all the times we can’t find what we are searching for. And for not making Gmail better.

15. Microsoft. For all the crashes and all the bull.

16. Facebook. For all the time wasted looking up old boyfriends.

17. ATT. For crappy service. Always.

18. Sites like “Tampon Craft Ideas” – they just don’t need to be there, do they?

19. Captchas. Enough already with the effin’ Captchas. Please.

And the line item voted MOST popular with the ENTIRE crowd:

20. Ego Destruction: All those pretty girls who pop up in the right hand side of Facebook who promise they want to go out with me, but who really don’t. That sucks.

AMOUNT DUE: $$$$ Priceless

That’s our invoice. Got anything to add? Come on, let’s hear it!

P.S. Invoice Due Upon Receipt

As much as it pains me to admit it, every single time I reach for a bag of potato chips (which I love), or a piece of chocolate, or a ding dong cookie, an image of that annoying Joyce Cherrier and her perfect abs pops into my head. That doesn’t mean I don’t buy the chips, eat the chocolate and hide the cookies from my kids. Au contraire. It does, however, mean that my friendship with Joyce and her admirably devoted to fitness and nutrition self makes me stop and think about the consequences of eating yet another piece of crap. And, as much as it pains me to say, never mind write, it probably does make me eat less. And, loathe as I am to admit it, I even subscribe to and actually read her doggone healthy blog, which makes me at least FEEL more buff, even if I’m not.

Joyce makes me better.

And when I’m writing a blog post, whenever I feel like mailing it in, I stop and think of my friend, Erika Napoletano, the infamous Head Redhead at Redheadwriting. She’s a magician with words and crafts them in a way that always inspires me. Whatever there is to say, whomever it is saying it, Erika can and does do it so very eloquently. And I’m not just talking about her say anything persona. It’s about so much more than that. She’s an incredible writer, knows more about writing for maximum SEO than I can ever hope to, is an amazingly adept researcher and has a way of wrangling the written word that’s better than just about anything I’ve seen. I’m in awe. She also taught me to pay myself first. And it’s a mantra that I repeat to myself, and anyone else who will listen, on a daily basis. That means regularly remembering to do things for yourself – like write a blog post, or optimize your site for search, or anything else that impacts your business or your life – every single day. Before you take care of everyone else. Because if you don’t’ take care of yourself, who else is going to do it?

Erika makes me better.

And when I’m thinking about who I want to be when I grow up, if I ever grow up, I think of Liz Strauss. She’s so dead on smart that it almost takes my breath away. She forces me to ask tough questions and never just be satisfied with the quick and easy answer. Liz dives deep into the middle of just about everything and doesn’t ever settle until she’s found the answer she’s looking for. The one that makes sense. And when I’m with her or talking on the phone with her or just thinking about her, I find myself wanting to be sure and think things all the way through. The way that Liz would. I love the way she pulls people together and supports them, whether it’s through her blog, SOBCon, her SOB awards and directory and a myriad of other things. And she pushes them (even when they don’t think they want to be pushed) and pulls more out of them than they thought they had to give. She manages to magically create a feeling of community out of even the most mundane experiences, before anyone even realizes what’s happening. She’s a teacher, a mentor, a strategist, a connector, a facilitator, a brilliant thought leader and all of those terrific qualities are wrapped up in just about the nicest person ever. With whipped cream and a cherry on top.

Liz makes me better.

That’s me. There are more. But this is my start. What about you? Who makes you better? Won’t you tell me who they are and why? I’d love to know who inspires you. Then I’ll stalk them my own self!

Okay, so I discovered this video this morning while hanging out with my friends Alli Worthington and Sarah Caminker in our posh room at the Fiesta de la Quinta in Austin. We’re at SXSW, the veritable mecca of the tech world (or at least one of them) and so, it was especially timely to stumble upon this video. As I watched, I found myself smiling and nodding – you’ll know just what I mean when you watch it yourself. When I heard the words “Science is the new art,” I realized that truer words were never spoken. Science IS the new art and it’s a pretty amazing one. Surrounded these last few days in Austin by people with massively big brains and equally massive hearts makes me want to pinch myself to make sure I’m not living a dream. I’m a geeky girl and have been since my earliest days. I love words, thoughts, learning and information. And so, when I get to spend my career being surrounded by and collaborating with others who are equally as jazzed by the things that I love is really the stuff of dreams. Or maybe just the stuff of a pretty flipping incredible life.

Watch the video, whether you’re a dork or not, and I think you’ll enjoy it. And, if you are a dork, nerd or geek (or maybe a combination of all three, like me), I think you’ll see why I enjoyed it so much.