Ask Steph

Recently I did a round of visits to some clients North East of Melbourne's CBD.  While waiting in reception at the third company that I visited , I took out my iPhone, and proceeded to share up to the business Facebook page a photograph that I had taken earlier that morning at the first client I had visited.  Now, most of my clients are printers, and they almost all invariably have an old Heidelberg, or some other older antique piece of print history somewhere onsite.  The picture I had taken was of a really old original printers tray displayed in the reception area. It's not something you see very often. It was (at least to me anyway) a beautiful piece of history.  While I was  typing in the text and comments to go with the picture, waiting in reception at client number 3, they came out to meet me and saw me on the phone.  My client started laughing and said something about not playing on phones, and being present in the real world. To which I replied with...

This is a gratitude post ... Fair warning , there is no soppy , sappy , feelings here today ( although I do have those, and I do post about them when I'm feeling soppy and sappy... And there nothing wrong with feeling soppy and sappy ..,I'm just not in that head space today...ok?)  Right - moving right along  Today - I am grateful for this beauty :  That which you see there is the saver of my sanity. No mere washer or dryer, or washer dryer combo ... That is a washer dryer combo WITH time delay.  I cannot even begin to tell you how awesome it is , that as a super busy working woman, with side projects , network meetings, lots of countrywide travel, I can come home to tumble dried laundry , which is just finishing up as I walk in the door.  Sure - I have to load the thing in the morning, sure I a still need to take the laundry and fold and pack it away when I get home - but hells bells - it is so much easier to have clean clothes when you ...

When you're asked to propose a toast, and there's no person that you're toasting. Well, first you panic. Then you write furiously, and then edit furiously. And then you scrap your first 2 ideas. And somewhere around the 2nd or 3rd draft of the final idea : this is what you end up with. At least on paper anyway. A couple of sentences got left out here and there to save time. But this is pretty much the toast I gave this week at my Toastmasters meeting.  I  recently met a woman online in a business women support group, who's business involves selling custom shoes online. She relayed to me the story of a Venture Capitalist who declined to invest in her company, because " women will never pay more than $500 for a pair of shoes" . She tells me that he did call her back the next day to take up the missed opportunity, after his wife educated him somewhat on the world of woman's shoes and shopping habits. It was too late however, as she had already taken investmen...

 Dear Virgin Australia... Last month I flew up to Brisbane for the day, to visit Visual Impact . It was a multi purpose trip, consisting of visiting the show, networking, spreading the word about International Print Day , meeting with clients, and making new connections.  6 am flight out,  and 5 pm flight back. No sorry, 4:55 pm flight back. That's important, that 5 minutes; and you'll see why later.  Now, there is really nothing dramatic that I can complain about, and truly the flights were mostly uneventful;  but, some small things have let you down. So much so, that I doubt that I will choose to fly VA again when given other options.  Let's start with the check in process.

So I found this one while frantically trying to think up really good Table Topics for a Toastmasters meeting this week. It was frantic, not because of the last minute - but because I am a new member, haven't even given my first speech yet. And these guys, are such a cool bunch of advanced speakers. I really didn't want to appear lazy in thinking. So whilst trying to tie in my Table Topics to the theme of the night , 'Find your Voice' , I stumbled across this word looking for a synonym for smoky or husky. Huh ? Smoky and Husky ? Voice ? Yes - Nina Simone. She of ' My Baby just cares for me' fame. And I found fuliginous. Meaning smoky, dusky or sooty. But not in the voice and sound sense. And there you have it. My fireplace would be fuliginous, if I had one, because I'm a pyromaniac. ;-) Word.

Yes, we all know in a perfect world, when you're checking Facebook, you would be able to savour every movement, and reply with great thought and care. You'd have the time to go to each I ntresting article or link and take your time reading and digesting. That doesn't happen though, particularly if you are super busy growing your entrepreneurial empire.  Facebook has a save feature , as in save and digest later. Kinda like wrapping up that muffin from morning tea to have at your desk later.  Here's how it works in the iPad app :  First up,  tap the little arrow on the right of the post you're interested in, and then tap the Save option on the menu that pops up .  This is the same menu you  would use to block or report a post , or hide a post  To find your saved posts and content later, tap the More menu on the bottom menu bar and swipe down until you see Saved :  Tap on the Saved to view and select what ...

I was accused of  'hiding behind my ivory tower' by a client in South Africa recently. I imagine my ivory tower would look like this, although in my head it looks better. Clearly Graphic Design isn't for me That's a first. Also, if I did have an Ivory Tower, it certainly wouldn't be big enough for me to hide behind, given my modest lifestyle. I am by no means wealthy, only barely reaching the edges of middle class really. (And yes, I know how that sounds given the extreme poverty in my country of birth and other places around the world.) Here's what I think of this Ivory Tower I am hiding behind. I work 7 days a week;  full days that start around 5 am and end anywhere between 7 and 9 pm. There is some flexbility around that, usually I average 12 hours a day at our busy times, and 9 or so if it's dead quiet.