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How Chris Brogan Saved My {Blogging} Life

15 February 2010 by Suzannah Otis 26 Comments

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Confession: I had a blogging identity crisis. Right in the middle of Walt Disney World.

Readers of ZannaLand may have noticed the not-so-subtle shift from Disney posts to more me/personal/generic posts. This happened both because I combined the MainStreet.Zannaland.com posts here and I really wanted to venture out into the world of Mom Blogs and hopefully get more involved with other bloggers, product reviews and blogging opportunities. I thought – “I can be a REAL blogging mom!” There was only one problem…I had no idea what to blog about.

I’m just not a gifted blogger like some of my friends. I can’t keep things short and sweet and interesting and share-worthy about me. Even as I wrote out my first “all about me” post I looked at it and thought, “Really?! Who is going to want to read this?” {ok, my mom wanted to} And lets be honest, being a successful blogger is often times about the numbers and no one is out there googling “What kind of childhood did Suzannah DiMarzio have?” The result was it was stressing me out. Big time.

I was emailing my blogging friends, desperately asking for help and advice…all the while writing up my life story while I waited for the “oh, here’s how you do it” replies. I’d hit send on my email and be embarrassed for myself, asking such stupid questions when I pretty much knew the answers. I just didn’t know how to come up with the content to keep people interested. I lay awake at night worrying about what the %#&! I was going to write about the next day. Blogging started to feel like a job. I knew something was wrong and it shouldn’t feel like that. I’m sure many people treat blogging like a job, and probably have the income to prove it, but that is not what I set out to do. I wanted to connect with others and share my experiences in hopes of helping others in some way – and make friends along the way. The crazy part was, I’d already done that. It was those connections that cheered me on when I was applying to the Walt Disney World Moms Panel. It was those connections that helped get my blog noticed and out there to begin with. In my eagerness to get to the next big thing, I forgot the big thing I already had.

Before I left for the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, I actually wanted to give up blogging. The stress was getting to me and I was doing it wrong. I figured I’d give myself till after the conference to decide, and hopefully learn something there that would help set me straight.

And I did. It just wasn’t the answer I thought I was looking for.

I will do recaps of the entire conference experience and the people I met, but this post had to come first. One of the speakers I was most looking forward to hearing was Chris Brogan. I had watched his keynote speech at IZEAFest and of course instantly liked him because he was from Boston. However, I worried that his speech really wouldn’t have anything to do with me. I wasn’t a business, I wasn’t even a successful mom blogger – how could his advice on social media business relationships help ME?

My biggest fear as a blogger was selling out. I didn’t want to become one of those blogs with 200 blinking ads on either side, only talking about the great product I just tried and leaving all my personality and stories on the other side of the screen. When I got up the courage to just introduce myself to Chris at breakfast on Thursday (yes, I said courage, for a shy fat girl with social anxiety, it was a big deal) he asked me, “What do you hope to get out of the speech tomorrow?” We were interrupted by a cast member that needed to whisk Chris away for an interview, but it gave me time to come up with an answer. I later tweeted him that I wanted to know how a new-ish blogger could successfully use social media without “selling out”. I figured he had over 100 other people telling him what they wanted to get out of his presentation as well, and just thought I’d sit back and enjoy his speech.

In absence of a white board, Cinderella Castle works for Chris Brogan

Chris is a smart, witty, engaging speaker. His subtle jokes are the same ones that run through my mind half the day and go over most people’s heads. He opens with the Zulu greeting “Sawubona” which means “I see you.” And he does. There was no person too ‘small’ that Chris didn’t see and connect with. He made sure of it. I will never forget his magic triangle describing Community, Content, and Spnsors, invisibly drawn on the Cinderella Castle backdrop behind him on the stage.

Then he spoke the simple words – “Never alienate your community.” I felt as if that phrase was branded onto my brain. Or rather, as if those words had finally opened my eyes. I had alienated my community, or was at the very least on the path to do so. I had created such a wonderful community of Disney fans and then said, “oh, well, now that you’re here lets talk about my laundry.” Clearly, I had made the wrong choice.

I mulled over that phrase again and again for the remainder of my time at the conference. I tweeted my friend that I was having a blogging identity crisis. I met amazing, wonderful mom bloggers that CAN tell people about their laundry or any other number of topics and get people to listen – and care. I simply am not one of those people. Maybe, in time {and with more time personally}, I could be but right now, it’s just not where I am in the blogging world. Kind of like a rock guitarist that gets a job with an orchestra. You know how to play the music, you know the notes, yet you are never really playing the right song.

Once I had that revelation and made the decision that followed, I was again excited about blogging. I was filled with ideas and new goals to reach. The stress was gone. Even though Chris Brogan stopped short of reenacting James Brown’s scene from The Blues Brothers, shouting “Do you see the light!?” and I stopped short of doing back flips in Grand Republic Ballroom A, I did see the light.

Even if sticking with my niche prevents me from working with certain companies or being open to some opportunities available to a more broad-content blog, that’s okay. If I have my community and my content, the rest will come. And if I make a really cool Xbox Controller Cake and want to share it with you, I will. If my kids do something funny or I have a craft to share, I will. But I will do my best to never alienate you again. {And I’ll just save my childhood stories for my book 😉 } I am a mom blogger. I’m a mom that blogs about Disney. And that’s okay.

So thank you, Chris. Sawubona. And I’m so grateful that I did.

 


*This post is now part of the Disney Blog Carnival, where you can find a great group of Disney articles!*

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Filed Under: Commentary Land, Walt Disney World Tagged With: #DisneySMMoms, Blogging, Chris Brogan, community, content, Disney, Disney Social Media Moms, Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, Family Memories, Holidays, zannaland

Top 10 Tuesday: Ten Things I’m Looking Forward to at the Disney Social Media Moms Celebration!

9 February 2010 by Suzannah Otis 10 Comments

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My fabulous blogging friend and fellow Walt Disney World Moms Panelist OhAmanda does Top 10 Tuesday every week and each week I think “I really need to participate in this!” but I always either have a different topic on tap, or can’t think of a list in time. So this week, I’ve finally found a topic to join in with. Below are ten of the many things I am looking forward to tomorrow, when we arrive at Walt Disney World for the first-ever Social Media Moms Celebration. One thing I am NOT looking forward to is the fact that Amanda will not be there. *sobs* However, she just got back from Blissdom and taking part in amazing workshops there AND seeing Harry Connick Jr. so that is slight consolation I guess. Anyway…

10. Being able to be at Walt Disney World both as a blogger and as a Moms Panelist – WITH my family. Moms Panel training was so amazingly fun, and though I wouldn’t change it for the world, the fact that my husband and children will be with me this time around, is a treat. I really love how Disney put together the registration that way, to include families.

9. Celebrating J.’s birthday (the 10th) at Disney. I suppose I could’ve been quiet about this whole thing and let him think I planned a huge celebration at the new ESPN Wide World of Sports just for his birthday, but the hundreds of strangers crashing the party might’ve given it away…I’m confident it’ll still be a special day for him and hope I can force him to wear a Disney Birthday Button!

8. Diving into the world of Social Media/Blogging conventions feet first by attending my first conference at Walt Disney World! I am hoping this is just the first of many. Watching friends and fellow bloggers attend BlogHer 09, Type A Mom 09 and now Blissdom 10 has definitely wet my appetite for blogging conferences I must attend next year. I’m hoping to get to BlogHer ’10 this year too. Working on sponsors for that now! The fact that it’s my first one and Disney’s first one seems like a perfect fit.

7. Dole Whip! I don’t really need to say more.

6. Getting to hear the speakers Disney has secured for the conference. Guy Kawasaki. Chris Brogan. Maxine Clark. Just to name a few. As a new-ish blogger I’m all ears for any and everything I can learn about the process and how to improve as a writer and communicator. I figure I might as well start off at the top, right?

5. The special events Disney has planned for us. Sooo, I may have mentioned this is DISNEY, yes? And my love for all things Disney? And my recent super fabulous Disney Moms Panel training trip (which I will continue writing about soon, promise!) where I experienced quite a bit of pixie dust? This is DISNEY. Can you imagine the special surprises they have planned for us? There have already been reports leaked about the performers who will be at Thursday night’s Epcot celebration (entertainment subject to change). I can only imagine what else they have in store for us.

4. Meeting new friends from twitter. In the course of expanding my blogging topics and connecting with others who are attending this conference, I’ve made a ton of new friends whom I cannot wait to meet in person at Disney. I feel like I should probably wear my twitter handle on a t-shirt or print out a poster size version of my twitter picture so I can ensure people know who I am because I don’t want to miss anyone!

3. Meeting old friends from twitter. Another benefit to this celebration being held at Walt Disney World is many of my Disney fan friends from twitter were eager to attend as well. Because of that, quite a few of them will be at the conference and I will get to meet them too. People that have been with me from my start on twitter and followed my journey onto the Moms Panel. It will be great to finally put faces to the names, in person.

2. Staying at the Polynesian. I mentioned in my previous post about the Social Media Moms Celebration that the Polynesian was one of the few resorts I had not stayed in. It has always been one of our family’s favorite spots for dining and visiting, so the fact that we will get to sleep there too, experiencing all the resort has to offer guests, is a real treat.

2 of our fearless Moms Panel leaders: Laura Spencer & Jo Anne Wallace, who make everything more fun! (Oh, and those royal-looking people would be the gorgeous Princess Tiana and the debonair Prince Naveen!)
1. Meeting up with my Moms Panel friends/Disney cast members. I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to reconnect with a handful of the wonderful moms I just met during Moms Panel training. I feel like our time together ended too soon and am so excited to be able to hug, laugh and just hang out again. I kinda just want to run around the Polynesian at night in our pj’s and pink jackets like a big slumber party…but I’ll restrain myself. In addition, I’ll be able to see the wonderful cast members that make the Walt Disney World Moms Panel and the Disney Parks social media team so successful. Hopefully I’ll be able to meet up with a very special Canadian cast member and enjoy #7 with her.

In other words – I’M EXCITED!!! If you are attending, what are you most looking forward to? Please, please look for me because I am terrible with associating twitter names with real names and I don’t want to miss anyone. See you tomorrow!

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Filed Under: Disney News, Walt Disney World, WDW Moms Panel Tagged With: #DisneySMMoms, celebrations, Disney Moms Panel, Disney parks, Disney Resorts, Disney Social Media Moms Celebration, Top 10 Tuesday

What Kind of Parent Did Your Childhood Make You?

4 February 2010 by Suzannah Otis 26 Comments

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I’ve mentioned before that I was spoiled as a child. I remember once, a two of my friends told me I was spoiled and I had to ask my mom what it meant. She said it meant I was really loved. Now obviously that could be misinterpreted to lead my friends to think they weren’t loved, but we all seemed to turn out okay. Really, as a child I don’t recall being obnoxiously spoiled. I mean – I never had an Easy Bake Oven OR a Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine, so seriously, how bad could it have been? I actually think the conversation with my friends came from my announcing our first trip to Walt Disney World. I suppose, in the world of a small bedroom community in New England, announcing a 2-week trip to Walt Disney World where we would stay in the Lake Buena Vista Vacation Villas was something to be envied.

Anyway, that is not the point of this post. I wanted to talk a bit about my parents, and how I was raised. Of course, my reflections and memories of my childhood are just that, MY memories, and my mom may have a completely different account as to how things happened. These are the things that stuck with me and formed me into the kind of parent I am today – some as a direct result of what I rebelled against as a child, others because I appreciated the lessons I learned from my parents.

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Filed Under: All blogs, Family Memories Tagged With: childhood, Family Adventures, Family Memories, kids, parenting, parenting choices, parenting discipline

Once Upon a Time…

2 February 2010 by Suzannah Otis 1 Comment

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This is part 1 in the All About Me series for NaBloWriMo that I’m taking part in for February.


So I figured what better place to start than the beginning right? My parents met in Boston, when my dad was working in the same restaurant as my mom’s ex-husband – my siblings dad. Her ex-husband was working there on the side, his actual career was that of a high school English teacher. My dad had moved up from waiter to Maitre D’ of this particular place, The Cafe Budapest. This was a 5-star Hungarian restaurant run by a feisty woman named Edith Ban, a Holocaust survivor with her concentration camp number tattooed on her arm, a flair for business and wearing beautiful white dresses. The restaurant was famous for its cuisine as well as its color-themed rooms and was featured briefly in the movie The Housesitter.

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Filed Under: Family Memories Tagged With: 1980s, Boston, Cafe Budapest, Capitol Hill Club, childhood, Clifton Park, Fairfax, Family Memories, NaBloPoMo

National Blog Posting Month-A Month of ME!

1 February 2010 by Suzannah Otis 3 Comments

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Those of you who have been online for a while have probably heard of NaNoWriMo before – National Novel Writing Month. The goal there is to write a 50,000 word novel in a month. I tried it once about 4 or 5 years ago, and didn’t get much past a first chapter. Blogging is a little less daunting, so with a reminder from a friend’s blog, I thought I’d sign up and give NaBloPoMo a try.

Since I can’t ever make things easy, I thought I’d go a step further and make all posts related to this month about me. Yes. Me. Of course I’ve blabbed about myself before, usually in relation to Disney and my memories there, but I thought I’d use this slightly shortened month to talk about myself, either in-depth or just some fluff pieces. A lot of times you stumble across a blog or a person online and you think you know them based on their likes, their recent entries or their tweets. Sometimes what’s visible is only the tip of the iceberg that is the person behind a blog. The way I relate best to people is based on common background or interests. I know I instantly feel a kinship with someone if they say “I love David Bowie!” or “That was my favorite toy as a child!”. Why not expand on that and see just how much we all have in common?

So welcome aboard and stay tuned for some fun (and hopefully interesting) posts all about me. There will probably be additional non-me-related posts this month as well, but I’ll try to do 28 NaBloPoMo posts on their own.  That said – any questions or topic ideas about me you’d like me to touch on? I’m all ears (or eyes really). 😉

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Filed Under: Family Memories Tagged With: about me, NaBloPoMo, zannaland

11 Years Ago I had the Best SuperBowl Party Ever

28 January 2010 by Suzannah Otis 2 Comments

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11 years ago, I wasn’t exactly partying like it was 1999. I had high blood pressure, swollen ankles and was pretty much done with being pregnant. It had been a rocky start due to severe morning sickness that left me unable to even keep water down. Typical first-time mom-to-be worries kept me on edge most of the pregnancy and after being told it was a girl for almost 5 months only to discover in the ultrasound it was a boy, I was always expecting the unexpected. So perhaps I should’ve known in the morning when I went in for my 37 week check up on that last Friday in January, that I’d be admitted to the hospital by that night.

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Filed Under: Family Memories Tagged With: birthdays, Family Adventures, memories, milestones, Pictures

Back to School – It’s Never Too Late!

25 January 2010 by Suzannah Otis 8 Comments

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I’m in the process right now of filling out my FAFSA form for 2010 and beginning the process of going back to school to complete my degree. Those who’ve known me for the past 10 years or so know this has always been a big goal for me.

To make a very long story short not as long, when I was actually IN college back in the 1990’s, I’m not really sure what happened. I loved high school so much and I did well. I was in all honors and AP classes and graduated with honors. However, I soon discovered that being in a small, close-knit Catholic high school was quite different from heading off to an enormous college in downtown Boston. I loved my classes, but being a commuter, I sort of floundered socially. It was much easier to find an excuse why I couldn’t make it in to classes than to suck it up and head in town. I thought maybe the school was the issue, and transferred to…an even bigger school in another part of Boston. I’m not sure why I thought that’d solve my problem. Again, loved my classes…that’s where I majored in Creative Writing for Children and later Public Relations…but again, I just felt lost.

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Filed Under: Family Memories Tagged With: goals, me, school

Revenge of Harold’s Purple Crayon

18 January 2010 by Suzannah Otis 3 Comments

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Surely we all remember that beloved children’s book Harold and the Purple Crayon, right? That Harold was every child’s hero with his ability to create a wonderful world of purple from a single crayon. He was also every parent’s nightmare. Purple crayon?! Just where is he drawing this world? As a parent you have to ask – what was that author thinking?! Of course, I’m just kidding, the book is a wonderful reminder of just how vast a child’s imagination is and the wonders it can create. But I recently had my own experience with a purple crayon that made me look at it in a completely different light.

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Filed Under: Family Memories Tagged With: funny stuff, kids stories, laundry

New Year, New Me – Thanks to You.

11 January 2010 by Suzannah Otis 18 Comments

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I can’t tell you the number of old diaries I have from my adolescent years, teens, and twenties which were once brand new Christmas presents. Oh, I had such good intentions. I would record my innermost thoughts, wishes and goals and motivate myself to achieve what I knew I could. If you look through those old diaries, you’ll most likely lists of resolutions on the first few pages. The first one was the same each year: Lose Weight. I’d be so excited by the prospect of the new year and all it would bring, I usually went through the year writing down the number of pounds I thought I could lose by each date and marking my ‘goal weight’ date with stars and exclamation points. It seemed so tangible then, that in just a few weeks or months, I could be where I wanted to be.

Then, the real world kicked in. My diary stayed hidden in a drawer or under my bed and I had no reminder of the goals I hoped to reach. Temptation was all too easy to succumb to. The days turned into weeks and months and those goals faded into history. Every year it was the same. Add that to my list of ‘must do’s’ that don’t get done. It came to a point where I stopped getting those diaries to write in, because it was known I didn’t bother keeping up. It also came to a point where I just stopped making resolutions because I knew I’d forget about them so quickly. Why bother with the game? Continue Reading New Year, New Me

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Filed Under: Family Memories Tagged With: #skinnyzanna, Disney Moms Panel, goals, me, working out

WDW Moms Panel 2010 Training – Part 1 of Many!

18 December 2009 by Suzannah Otis 14 Comments

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Alright, I’ve waited long enough for this update! The truth is, in addition to heading back to Disney World 2 days after returning from training, and then getting sick and having a sick baby to take care of, the thought of trying to put back into words all the the amazing sites, experiences and emotions I felt during the 5 days of training was just a tad overwhelming! But I’m finally here and figure if I break it down into days, I can tackle it. It’s just too good not to share, right?

On the day I was supposed to drive up, I got cold feet. I know, most people would have killed to be in my shoes, both being close enough to drive to Walt Disney World and being picked to be on this amazing panel…but I still got nervous. You see, there’s a reason why I write a blog and don’t host a pod cast or web cast or anything else involving face-to-face interaction. I am in fact, pretty shy. There, I said it. I wasn’t always this way, my 1st grade report card lists me as a “Social Butterfly” and as a result I was separated from my best friend for 2nd grade. It isn’t even because of all the moves my family made over the years, deeming me the eternal ‘new kid’ – I actually had no problem making friends and keep in touch with many of them from all the way back to grade school. This really started in college but is also a combination of being nervous about speaking in front of people. Let me digress a bit…

continue reading about WDW Moms Panel Training…

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Filed Under: All blogs, Walt Disney World, WDW Moms Panel Tagged With: Disney, Disney Moms Panel, Pictures, Walt Disney World

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