Miscellaneous

Effective Communication

A conversation with a relative about effective communication got me to thinking….it’s not something I remember being taught when I was a kid or in high school and didn’t have any courses on it until I was in college (though my husband really taught me a lot when I met him).

Do you remember being taught how to communicate without making someone defensive and/or given tools to communicate effectively? If so, when in life were you taught and where? Did it include listening skills? Do you find that you have to constantly work at it? How has your communication improved over the years?

For myself, I grew up in a family where you had to shout and/or interrupt in order to be heard. That behavior is rude and was really tough to change. Now that I’m older, I often fear that I will forget what I wanted to say if I don’t interrupt. Let’s face it, some people are very long-winded and don’t think to give you a chance to speak. If it’s really important, I try to discreetly write down what I want to say. If it’s not that important and/or I don’t have anything to write with, I usually end up resentful that I didn’t get to speak before I forgot what I wanted to say or the conversation changes to a different topic and it’s no longer relevant. What do you do in situations like this? Since I often don’t get to speak when I want/need to, it has made me strive to be a better listener. I will pause and ask the other person a question to engage them in the conversation.

Bottom line – communicating effectively takes lots of practice, patience, and is an ongoing process!

How do you like me now?

I was never really happy with my last design for this website. I was using a template from SquareSpace that I tweaked, but found it very limiting. I had some spare time last evening, so I totally redesigned my site, going back to WordPress as a content management system. I was able to knock out the theme design and develop it in about six hours.

So, what do you think of it?

Send Out Cards

I’ve been really making use of my Send Out Cards (SOC) account this past month. The new PicturePlus 2.0 really makes it easy to design and customize cards to send to family, friends and clients. After designing a card, I create a campaign so that I can send it to a group with a few clicks of a button. You can insert a name field in the card, too, so each card is addressed to the recipient for a more personal touch. I also had my handwriting sample made into a font for an even more personalized touch! Below are some of the cards I have designed over the past month. Some are in a queue waiting to be sent while others have already been delivered. The nice thing about SOC is that I can do cards ahead of time and schedule them for delivery, so I never miss a date again!