Annie Mame » Navigating Change

Connecticut, I’m Just Tweeting To Tell You I Blogged :)

Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:28:53 +0000

My thanks to New Haven, Connecticut’s Jaymes Grace for putting this together, he is one smart social media dude!

What Does A Smart, Contemporary New News Show Look Like?

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 03:58:41 +0000

On January 14th, 1952, NBC went on the air with a new show called “TODAY” hoping it might work. It’s now June of 2010, it’s still on the air. The initial show with host Dave Garroway was open and honest about taking viewers on a journey as new broadcasting tools began to emerge.

How Do You Succeed? Watch This Video.

Sat, 03 Apr 2010 03:34:57 +0000

Take three minutes and absorb this video as was presented at a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Conference out in California. Ted is: Ideas Worth Spreading. Those of you who have been laid off, or are afraid you’re going to be, or are having to reinvent yourself this is for you. Doesn’t that make up most of the population these days?

If you don’t know about TED, get to know it. The videos are worth watching, and in a lot of cases tell you what you already know, but maybe you’ll act upon some of those passions and make a go of it. Why not, what could it hurt?

Empowering CT One Small Business At A Time

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 20:26:42 +0000

If you listen closely, there is an undercurrent going on in Connecticut by those who are coming together to brainstorm about their current or newly-formed businesses that in many cases are springing out of one’s passion.

Who do you know that hasn’t been laid off, worried they’re going to be, or are being forced to reinvent themselves.

In these photos, you’re looking at one of thousands of new entrepreneurs who are making it their mission to grow their businesses and their hobbies, whatever it is into what’s new to make Connecticut come alive once again.

Connecting is powerful, it’s coming out of necessity, and it’s a good thing. It’s daunting but there is safety in numbers and when you surround yourself by forward thinkers your own endeavors start to become doable.

The ride can be a lot of fun when you’re in the company of those who truly care about you and the state and doing good for others. Isn’t that what we should have been doing all along? How did we get the train so far off the tracks?

The greed of the country has gotten us into a big mess and now it’s everyday people baning together making a powerful base to dig America out.

This need to move forward responsibly is going on everywhere at coffee klatches and luncheons, in diners, Sunday dinners. This is what the country did after World War II and it worked then and it will work again. It is a huge undertaking, but there is a brave army of folks pushing their way up from the bottom to get things going again. I count myself in that infantry.

One such “front line” gathering took place recently at the Bee and Thistle Inn in Old Lyme, Connecticut. Everybody brought a dish and talked and shared ideas. There was some kind of power in this room and it was exhilarating to be a part of it.

Surrounded by great food and flowers and the beauty of an historic New England Inn, this group and others like it around the Nutmeg state are getting organized in their thoughts about how to move forward in a very tough economy.

There is talk of sharing and bartering and helping and believing anything is possible. These are the new movers and shakers in the country and this group of people at the very grassroots level will be powerful, momentum is building.

I for one can’t get enough of such groups. For some reason a generation or two forgot how to do this.

The world wide web has us all sitting at our desks connecting, but you’ve got to get out of that room after establishing contacts through Facebook or Twitter or however it is that you are doing that and get eye-to-eye contact going, that is where the real solutions lie. Friendships and partnerships and goodwill and caring about one another, that’s the ticket out of this siutation.

This “right brain” group gets it and so will you if you take my advice.

Get a group going of like minds together who are willing to shun the “it’s all about me” mentality, and you will see quickly the power you can put in one room. It’s empowering and enlightening and you will begin to figure out what’s next for this generation and for those which follow.

It is up to all of us to start leading the way to prosperity to leave a bright future for our children and grandchildren, it is my assumption that we don’t have a choice.

Get going!

P.S. I’d like to thank Hartford Woman Online for the repost of this blog post on April 1, 2010, most kind of you.

Jane Pauley is Back On The Today Show.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:20:34 +0000

The former darling of NBC’s long running Today Show is back and I for one am thrilled. Jane Pauley is is a tad bit senior to me, though not by much, the difference in age allowed me to watch her as I came up right behind her into what would be my career in TV News. I watched her as she blazed trails for me and all women in television.

Pauley had, has, “it.” That fresh-faced, girl next-door image that anybody getting up in the morning and turning on their TV sets could, and can, relate to. I would argue that, that would still work today, though you don’t see a lot of that, the TV industry has certainly gone in a different direction. Pauley was that steady eddy gal hosting thru all things the world gave us and she was just herself.

When Pauley graduated from Indiana University and went to work for WISH-TV in Indianapolis, that was the beginning of her rise into people’s hearts. Jane was Jane and that’s why it worked. The famed news WISH-TV News Director, the late Lee Giles, hired her, he knew what he was doing.

Here is why I have felt a kind of sisterhood with Pauley. She is from Indiana and so am I. She went to I.U., I went to a school a piece up the road, and rival, Purdue University.

Jane’s first TV job was at WISH-TV, which is owned by the company for which I currently work, LIN TV out of Providence, Rhode Island. The woman who replaced Pauley in 1980, was Debby Knox whom I started my career with in Elkhart, Indiana. Debby remains in that seat today. Another woman for whom I have immense respect. Yes, Giles picked her too, and I remember when she got the call from Indianapolis, we were thrilled for her.

Jane has three children including a set of twins, so do I. Pauley has a home in Connecticut, so do I. Her daughter went to Yale, my husband is a Professor of Medicine there. I saw her on the Today show the other day, unbeknownst to me we have a similar haircut.

I have never met Pauley, but was out with some friends the other evening and a gentleman who was with them told me Jane Pauley is his son’s Godmother. Pauley’s Godson is serving our country in Iraq.

Is there a 6 degrees of separation thing going on here? I asked this gentleman if he would mind getting in touch with Pauley to see if she would be interested in doing an interview with me. He did, and she told him she was in the throws of working on something new, well it was just launched and we know what it is.

So when can you see the woman for which I have such high regard? She will be a monthly contributor on The today show as an Ambassador for AARP.Her segment on The Today Show is called “Your Life Calling. She will be profiling people over the age of 50 who are reinventing the way they work and/or live to pursue their life’s calling. One of the people Pauley highlights is Betsy Lee McCarthy, a woman who gave up a 6 figure job to teaching knitting. Knitting is a zen. I know, because that’s what I do in my spare time. Jane I’d be glad to teach you. Maybe it’s time for me to contact my contact again to see if she is interested in a chat.

I have admired Pauley from afar as someone who set high standards. Again another parallel here, her new job with telling stories about people reinventing themselves in mid life , is what I am attempting to do with a Think Tank called Navigating Change. It is comprised of more than 40 people with very diverse career backgrounds who have committed to help each other and others at large. Navigating Change is nearly a year old. We hope to be a force to reckon with on a state level and beyond. We would love to be a beacon of light for people looking to find a way out of this economic crisis, and be able to capitalize on their passions as they search for a new career.

Navigating Change’s motto: “Bright Minds Connecting Passion to Opportunity.”

The 59 year old Pauley has been brutally honest about her life, which has been greatly appreciated. Think of the people she has helped with her book in 2004, “Skywriting: A Life Out of the Blue.” which told the world that she is bipolar.

Go get em Jane, you continue to be a brilliant trail blazer and I’m right behind you.