We are in Idaho today. A beautiful state, with very little city as far as I can tell. I’m more of a city girl but can deeply appreciate the beauty of nature.

I’ve had a lot of time to think during this drive. When entering Idaho I saw mountains, the same mountains that we’d been driving through in Montana for over an hour. These mountains are one of the primary reasons I requested my father fly out to Minneapolis to help me drive to Washington state. I remember them feeling a lot scarier as a child. I remember driving around mountain tops that either curled around or zig zagged across high peaks to get you to the opposite. Our first twenty minutes into the state where relatively peaceful, despite a few sharp moments of fear when my father drove down a steep curve at a speed I would deem at least 40 miles an hour too fast for my own comfort, but than again if I was driving this portion of the trip I would take all the mountains at a steady 40-50 miles per hour. I would like to give Montana and Idaho a little bit of credit here, the roads not only seem wider but we also seemed to have driven through the mountains verse curling around them, this feat alone must have taken years of construction and millions of tax dollars. I’m still a little afraid of them though.

I thought I was putting on a brave front for the beginning of the Idaho mountains. Mountains that are wrapped with roads, trees, and one too many signs that warn of potential rocks that could just fly out from the heavens. I’d prefer the rocks to stay firmly in place and off of my vehicle. This still didn’t entirely phase me simply because I didn’t have to drive through the mountains and currently am using this time to distract myself with music, my audio book, and blog writing while Sophie shuffles between sleeping on either my lap, neck or shoulders. Tea and cappuccino have helped my stamina for patience and focus. The part of this drive that really got me was  a thick patch of fog during a long down hill. Once I noticed the fog, I’ve made every effort to avoid noticing it again.

It is a mixture of the fog and recognition of the newly improved Idaho/Montana mountain roads that made me begin thinking about an earlier conversation with my dad about the way people think. I’ve been reading a book by Paulo Coehlo, one of my favorite authors, about a young girl named Veronika who decides at a young age would like to commit suicide. She attempts it unsuccessfully which leads her into an insane asylum called Villette. Here Veronika learns hundreds of life lessons about love, peace, understanding, forgiveness and how thinking outside the box maybe crazy but worth living for.

Thinking outside the box.

A story or two from the book, Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho.

A powerful wizard, who wanted to destroy an entire kingdom, placed a magic potion in the well from which all the inhabitants drank. Whoever drank that water would go mad.The following morning, the whole population drank from the well and they all went mad, apart from the king and his family, who had a well set aside for them alone, which the magician had not managed to poison. The king was worried and tried to control the population by issuing a series of edicts governing security and public health. The policeman and the inspectors, however, had also drunk the poisoned water, and they thought the king’s decisions were absurd and resolved to take no notice of them.

When the inhabitants of the kingdom heard these decrees, they became convinced that the king had gone mad and was now giving nonsensical orders. They marched on the castle and called for his abdication. In despair the king prepared to step down from the throne, but the queen stopped him, saying: ‘Let us go and drink from the communal well. Then we will be the same as them.’

And that is what they did and immediately they began talking nonsense. Their subjects repented at once; now that the king was displaying such wisdom, why not allow him to continue ruling the country?

The country continued to live in peace, although its inhabitants behaved very differently from those of its neighbors. And the king was able to govern until the end of his days.

Kind of reminds me of things like when the earth was flat, reading anything but the bible was witchery, and women in pants was absurd. We all think differently and open mindedness can simply seem absurd or become progress. It depends on how crazy you are. Traveling around the world may seem random or a great opportunity just depends on who you are.

Some thing are governed by common sense. Putting buttons on the front of a shirt is a matter of logic, since it would be very difficult to button them up at the side, and impossible if they were at the back. Other things, however, become fixed because more and more people believe that’s the way they should be.

TWO EXAMPLES of how people don’t challenge the status quo

Why are the keys on a keyboard arranged in the current order?

Have you ever wondered why the keys on a typewriter are arranged in that particular order? We call it the QWERTY keyboard, because that’s the order of the letters on the first row of keys. The first keyboard was invented by Christopher Sholes, in 1873, to improve on calligraphy, but there was a problem: If a person typed very fast, the keys got stuck together and stopped the machine from working. Then Sholes designed the QWERTY keyboard, a keyboard that would oblige typists to type more slowly.

It just so happened that Remington-which made sewing machines a well as guns at the time- used the QWERTY keyboard for its first typewriters. That meant that more people were forced to learn that particular system, and more companies started to make those keyboards, until it became the only available model. To repeat: The keyboard on typewriters and computers was designed so that people would type more slowly, not more quickly. Now, today, if you were to change the letters around you wouldn’t be able to find someone to buy your product.

Why do clocks tick ‘right’ or ‘clockwise?’

In the cathedral of Florence, there’s a beautiful clock designed by Paolo Uccello in 1443. Now, the curious thing about this clock is that, although it keeps time like all other clocks, its hands go in the opposite direction to that of normal clocks. When he made this clock, Paolo Uccello was not trying to be original: The fact is that, at the time, there were clocks like his as well as others with hands that went in the direction we’re familiar with now. For some unknown reason, perhaps because the duke had a clock with hands that went in the direction we now think of as the “right” direction, that became the only direction, and Uccello’s clock then seemed an aberration, a madness.

Each human being is unique, each with their own qualities, instincts, forms of pleasure, and desire for adventure. However, society always imposes on us a collective way of behaving, and people never stop to wonder why they should behave like that. They just accept it, the way typists accepted the fact that the QWERTY keyboard was the best possible one. Have you ever met anyone in your entire life who asked why the hands of a clock go in one particular direction and not the other?

I challenge you to challenge yourself and the status quo? Do you know of anything else that we take for granted? THAT is how inventions are made, advancements are discovered, and the world is changed. What if we never tried finding more efficient forms of lighting our homes? We would still be using candles and Christmas lights wouldn’t exist. We’d save a lot on electricity, have more fires, and no television. T.V.s are just a ton of tiny bulbs. In communication what if we didn’t have phones or GPS? I want to hear from you, in your own blog or in my comments section for this post at DesaraeVeit.com, one thing you’ve always wondered why it had to be that way.

I’ve always wondering about electricity. I’ve even considered going back to get a third degree in science or engineering so I could tinker with the idea of improving it using natural resources. I know you’re going to think I’m just saying this because of our current oil crisis, but that’s just not true. I’ve thought about using more renewable energy sources like solar power, ecology, wind, biofuels, hydropower, turbines, kinetic energy, solar cells, and the way we currently use fossil fuels ever since a couple of 4th, 5th and 6th grade science projects that let us experiment with creating light, solar energy, and photosynthesis. I actually won a few science fair awards and a scholarship taking me all the way to nationals for my studies with intermittent light effects on the growth of brine shrimp, and another on solar energy cells. During our trip dad and I talked about various ways cars could be built to use multiple forms of natural energy to power them including kinetic, solar, wind, vaporization, and nuclear fusion. What about you? What do you always wonder about?

-Desarae A. Veit
President | Agency Couture
@desaraev

Sent from my iPad

To schedule a meeting with me or just compare availability visit tungle.me/desaraev (there is also a link for this on our site at http://agencycouture.com)

I’m applying for a temporary summer position at AOL in their social media department. Below are the questions they asked me along with my answers. I’m sharing this with you for two reasons. First, it fits in with my normal content strategy. Secondly, I want to crowd source ideas to improve my answers. Below are my answers to the question verbatim. I look forward to your feedback.

Please note Each line has a word count limit, not a character count limit. They may mean characters but I’m going to take it literally as in I get 200 words. Also, I’m simply looking for feedback from readers to help me spell check my answers. These answers are still mine in the long run and if I agree with you, I reserve the right to revise my answers a little. Hopefully, if AOL stumbles upon this they will consider it a genius way of using the medium and not cheating.

I fully realize AOL is not another one of my geek clubs and this is a big opportunity to learn from a multi-billion dollar corporation who has been around since the internet started. I’d like to show them my personality, have fun this summer with this opportunity, all while learning from this amazing company and hopefully giving them some tangible results in the process.

In 200 words or less, tell us how social media is changing the way people and businesses communicate (English only, please).*

Social media is simply a medium for staying connected and getting organized online. It is the way that we use social media as a tool that can innovate daily life, business and communication.

On a flight yesterday I sat next to a nice older gentleman from North Carolina who considers himself an internet neophyte (not in those words). Eventually we started talking about my career and he asked me to explain how people communicate online when tone seems to get lost. This question applies perfectly to how social media changes the way people communicate with businesses. An inarticulate person offline is still incapable of magically growing those skills. Just because you own a computer does not mean you’re a great writer. In fact, many people throw out grammar and spelling all together and replace them with acronyms. The only fortunate improvement with online communication is that you have the opportunity to really think through what you want to say and edit yourself (or hire someone to edit for you). Unfortunately, someone who is not articulate or punctual online is still going to be a poor communicator who shows up late offline.

Social media offers us a two way communication flow that is sped up in real-time but in a less intrusive environment that gives people the opportunity to respond when it’s convenient for them; Chris Brogan calls this “Any-When.”

Since data online is stored forever, it’s easier to track online communication. One example of using social media as a tool for online and offline communication is research. In minutes you can view people’s online resume through LinkedIn, learn about their recent activities on Twitter, see if you have any friends in common on Facebook, and introduce yourself via e-mail through a mutual connection. Once you meet in person, set up a highrise account (37signals.com – affiliate link) and organize your contacts in a social media friendly contact retrieval manager (CRM). Finally, set up recurring reminders to contact people you like or find relevant to your industry using your new CRM. Your CRM could include reminders for meetings, a follow-up hello, sending thank you notes for referrals, birthdays, etc. Social media used as a tool works like an icebreaker that will enhance your off-line communication by increasing productivity, organization, and efficiency. This is just one example of how social media gives us an unprecedented opportunity to communicate with vendors, staff, and prospects.

Social media also has other useful business applications like doing market research for a new product line, tracking customer loyalty and engagement or crowd sourcing blog post feedback to improve content like I did with my answers to these questions.

In 200 words or less, tell us why you are the right candidate for the job (English only, please).*

I’m highly motivated, active online, always learning, blogging, reading and attending events daily. I can definitely get the word out and hit the ground running. In addition, I currently use social media as a career, therefore  hiring me  allows AOL Lifestream to leverage that knowledge and use my experience to enhance its social media endeavors. I am currently on over 3,000 social networks (learn why by visiting sniki.org/about), but let’s be honest, I really only need to use the primary sites; Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, LinkedIn, TubeMogul, and of course, AOL Lifestream.

It’s hard to definitively prove that Twitter has direct results on my sales but I can prove that I’ve made the majority of my Twin Cities friendships and business connections are from social media and Twitter specifically. Twitter has also saved me from a few boring Saturdays with the T.V. and got me into concerts, the wine and food expo, tech events, helped me find tweetups and things to do when I’m traveling. Blogging connected me with book publishers and authors that have sent me as many as 5 complimentary books a week. Those relationships are the direct result of social media.

Over half of my clients found me online via social media. At this point I have over 8,000 followers on Twitter, nearly 2,000 friends on Facebook (not including the ones that follow my company), nearly 200 subscribers on YouTube (with videos that have been viewed over 3,000 times), and a monthly blog following over 1,200 monthly. My leverage online has given me the opportunity to speak at events like the Ohio Growth Summit, work with the National Defense Academy, large agencies and corporations, over 70 small businesses, and at one point I was even offered a book deal from the National Mail Order Association. I have experience working at events with clients like Bacardi, Grey Goose, FFA and AdFed. Thanks to organizations like MIMA, AMA, PRSA, 4H, IAYI, Girl Scout, the Army Reserves and Delta Delta Delta I’ve had the opportunity to work in programs, event planning, leadership roles, high-stress situations and have experience with handling the nuances of these situations in a timely and professional manner.

In 250 characters or less, finish the sentence: “I like AOL Lifestream because…” (English only, please).*

Can I just say “ditto” to this video? http://bit.ly/WhySocialNetworkingRocks

I like AOL Lifestream because it lets me manage all of the primary social networks at the same time. It’s convenient, modern, and a nice aggregation tool with applications for all of my hardware devices, but you already knew that. You can also combine all of your feeds and use them on a desktop or on the go. It’s a handy little tool, but remember tools are only mediums; it’s what you do with them that matters.

Social media is great because it levels the playing field for small businesses and people trying to build up a personal brand. Lifestream gives users an opportunity to manage all of these tools without going to multiple places. When you are building a brand it is important to get user feedback and people trust their friends and others like them more then a marketer they don’t know. So having a tool like AOL Lifestream is essential for a casual user who doesn’t want to waste too much time traveling site to site. For power users AOL Lifestream can still be a great tool when traveling and on-the-go.

My Final Answers:

Questions 1.

Social media is simply a medium for staying connected and getting organized online. It is the way that we use social media as a tool that can innovate business communication.

On a flight, I sat next to a nice older gentleman from North Carolina who considers himself an Internet neophyte. While talking about my career, he asked me to explain how people communicate online when tone seems to get lost, this question applies perfectly to how social media changes the way people communicate with businesses. An inarticulate person offline is still incapable of magically growing those skills just because they own a computer. On the other hand, the Internet stores data perpetually so you have the opportunity to continually enhance content.

One example of using social media as a communication tool is research. In minutes you can view someone’s resume through LinkedIn, get acquainted on Twitter, and discover mutual friends on Facebook. After meeting in person, a social media friendly contact retrieval manager (CRM) can come in handy for  tracking reminders and notes. This is just one example of how social media gives us an unprecedented opportunity to communicate with vendors, staff, and prospects.

Question 2.

I’m the right candidate for the AOL internship because I’m active online, always learning, blogging, reading and attending events. In addition, I currently use social media as part of my career, and have over 4 years experience leveraging that knowledge to enhance social media endeavors for myself and clients.
I am currently on over 3,000 social networks (learn why at sniki.org/about). Let’s be honest, I really only need to use the primary sites; Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Foursquare, LinkedIn, TubeMogul, and of course, AOL Lifestream.

I’ve met the majority of my recent friendships and business connections from social media. Thanks to social media I’ve received opportunities to go to events, received discounts, and freebies. Blogging connected me with book publishers that have sent me as many as five complimentary books a week.

Social media has given me the opportunity to speak at events, work with large organizations like the National Defense Academy,and build a small agency that services over fifty clients. I received experience working in programs, event planning, leadership roles, and high-stress situations thanks to organizations like 4H, Bacardi, Army, and TriDelta. These skills taught me how to handle the nuances of high-pressure situations in a timely and professional manner.

Question 3.

Can I just say “ditto” to this video? http://bit.ly/WhySocialNetworkingRocks

AOL Lifestream lets me manage all of the primary social networks at the same time. It’s convenient, modern, and a nice aggregation tool with applications for all of my hardware devices, but you already knew that. You can also combine all of your feeds and use them on a desktop or on the go. It’s a handy little tool; but remember that tools are only mediums; it’s what you do with them that matters.

Social media is great because it levels the playing field for small businesses and people trying to build up a personal brand. Lifestream gives users an opportunity to manage all of these tools without going to multiple places. When you are building a brand it is important to get user feedback and people trust their friends and others like them more then a marketer they don’t know. So having a tool like AOL Lifestream is essential for a casual user who doesn’t want to waste too much time traveling site to site. For power users AOL Lifestream can still be a great tool when traveling and on-the-go.

It feels weird seeing my friends from elementary school, high school or even college all grown up and having babies. I’m sure now or at one point in your life you have thought the same. You know, the moment you realize life is a different kind of fun, and your all “grown up.”

What is grown up? Responsibilities or is it just the knowledge that you’ve always had responsibilities but now they are all on you? As Teddy Roosevelt once said, “with great power there must come great responsibility.” Regardless of time or power I believe we all have responsibilities. We are responsible for the earth, our own health, and well being as well as generally being responsible for the happiness of the collective society but those thoughts are a little too deep for me to type up at 8am on a Sunday morning.

So I will leave you with this to ponder and look forward to your comments.