The Happy Friday Series Archives

The Happy Friday Series: Celebrating One Year!

01/10/2014 By Jayme Soulati

Today, I am a proud blogger parent celebrating one full year of never-missed Fridays for this The Happy Friday Series.

My gushing and hoots and hollers are because of you, this wonderful community without whom a kernel of an idea could never have made it beyond 30 days. I heart you — the 40 guest authors who penned happiness thoughts here, the readers who came near weekly to see who was in the house, and the commenters who recognized the authors.

Did the series lose steam toward the tail end? Of course it did, and the tables turned when I began to recognize writers one by one and then in groups (I’m still not done) for their contributions.

Significance Of A Blogging Series

I’m not sure you realize just how significant a full year of a blogging series is. In this day and era of less engagement everywhere, our blogs are suffering huge. Few people come by and stick around, but they knew that on Friday they’d read something by someone oriented to happiness.

To never have missed a single Friday is also #RockHot. I nearly missed last Friday in the midst of kidlet’s birthday celebration; however, Jenn Whinnem rescued me late in the day. Thanks, Jenn!

If you’ve never considered a blog series that includes a majority of guest authors (some you never met), it’s an endeavor not for the feint of heart (tell me is it faint of heart?). It was like pulling teeth at times, and at other times, it was thrilling to see how many peeps so graciously offered up a post.

A blog series like this one not only builds steady traffic on one of the least-fave blogging days of the week, it provides the community with the opportunity to meet someone new and be supportive. The stories here were always special and oriented to something too personal to share on an individual’s blog. Because of the warmth in this house and the genuine nature of this community to be loving in general, writers volunteered to share a piece of their happy right here.

I’m so honored you honored me. Thank you to all of the above for helping me reach my one-year goal (which was adjusted a tad along the way, but accomplished nonetheless.

What will Fridays now have in store? Not sure…got any ideas?

The Happy Friday Series: A Big Green Loving Pen

10/18/2013 By Jayme Soulati

She’s the mom of two and wife of one, thank goodness (because I’m not sure how any woman could manage TWO husbands ever; don’t you wonder why the woman in various religions isn’t the one to have multiple spouses?), and she’s also a runner. Paula Kiger recently ran for the Michael J. Fox Foundation and in support of Gareth with MCAD (you’ll have to ask her what that is).

Paula is a unique individual from her interesting Twitter handle @BigGreenPen to the Happy Friday Series she wrote here on Feb. 1, 2013.

She shared her happy while in traffic; Creating Optimism While In Traffic On Foursquare, actually. She is a woman after my own heart as a Foursquare checker inner, a 12Most.com author and a peer blogger on the path. But what most intrigues me about Paula is the fact that she dashed over here to write the fourth in the series of Happy Friday posts, and I hadn’t had the wonderment of being introduced to her.

And, Paula gets the award, amongst about 45 guest authors, for the most interesting angle and take on happiness. Who the heck is ever happy while sitting in doggone traffic? Especially at the “Punishment Light?”

You can find Paula’s blog here, called Persipacity, and there she writes about wonderful topics (I assume with a Big Green Pen) like motherhood, teens in the workforce, and humanitarianism. When you read her blog post I provided the link to, you’ll find an effervescence and natural sincerity in Paula’s genuine nature.

I’m so happy she made us all happier getting to know someone who gives of herself unto others with love. It’s so obvious to me without truly have the privilege of knowing Paula IRL, that she’s the real deal.

PAULA?! Thank you for contributing right here and being part of this happy family.

The Happy Friday Series: Be The Biggest Fan of Another

09/13/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Credit: Jayme Soulati

Happy Friday! This is an essay on how to weave business in to social communication.

What if rather than writing a blog entirely focused on you, and sharing links on your Facebook page directing fans to your blog.
What if rather than using Twitter as a platform to pontificate.
What if rather than using Instagram to share pictures of your product.
What if rather than spending the majority of your time on social media trying to figure out the best way to get people to pay attention to your business.
What if you turned everything around?

It is interesting to note that when you spend all your time talking about yourself and how wonderful you are, you are essentially telling people that you are your own biggest fan!

And, that is embarrassing.

No Cares About You

The truth is, no one cares about you or what you have to say about yourself in a business or marketing context.

If this sums up your social efforts to this point: Please stop. Just stop.

Unfortunately you are more likely to become one of those people who “gave social media a shot” but claims “it didn’t work for me” than to see any level of success.

Consider this:

What if you took every last minute you have been using to promote your business socially and instead you became another’s biggest fan? Just think about that for a minute… what would this look like for you?
What if you wrote a blog post that featured a local business professional who had a complimentary product to yours?
What if your Facebook wall, Twitter timeline and Instagram feeds were flooded with endorsements for quality local businesses?
What if at every opportunity you tried to make someone else look good instead of shamelessly promoting yourself?

from Soulati.com takes every Friday to feature a new blogger or contributor in something she calls “The Happy Friday Series.” The whole goal is to offer her platform to another in an attempt to broaden their social reach. What a great idea!

A Story From Personal Experience

I “joined the conversation” in 2010 and began my social media experience by listening to conversations on Twitter for months before engaging.

In that time, I identified 2 things:

The people I liked following the most were those who added value to my timeline. They engaged with other local people, they shared information and were generally just all around approachable people.
The people I really didn’t like were the people who spammed my timeline with self-promoting garbage.

My initial engagement strategy was to follow my city’s hashtag and engage with at least two new people each day.

Then it came, the tweet that would get me hooked on social media for business:

“Hey, I am new to #YQR, can anyone please recommend a place where I can buy Italian Syrups for my coffees #HELP!

As a man who is passionate about his coffee, I knew just the place.

“Absolutely, you have to go to Ambassador Coffee, the owner is a great guy, they will take good care of you”

I then sent along a Google map, followed her on twitter, she followed me and that was that. Two days later, she hits me with:

“Thanks so much for your help, I went to Ambassador, they were great, really appreciate it”

I replied with a “no problem” and out.

Now why is that exciting?

Well, as a mortgage broker, the DM I received 2 weeks later was social proof that being a nice guy actually makes for good business strategy.

“Hey, my husband and I aren’t ready to buy a house now, but when we are, can you help us arrange our mortgage”?

How do you like that? Never once did I mention mortgages or business or anything else sales-y. She obviously read my twitter bio or clicked through to my website from my profile.

Six months later, I closed their [substantial] mortgage simply because I answered a tweet and recommended a local business.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that there is no value in content marketing. Actually I believe wholeheartedly that content marketing is the future of business communication.

Further to that… if good business communication is all about “people should do business with people they know, like and trust”. Ask yourself:

How are people getting to know, like and trust me?

Before you start throwing your own content out there, what if you developed an audience that actually wanted to hear what you had to say?

What if your social business strategy was to become a trusted source of information on every local business EXCEPT your own?

About The Author

is the principal broker for in Saskatchewan, Canada and the executive editor of the Jackson has a passion for marketing and carries weight in the Canadian mortgage and real estate industry. Jackson is a serial entrepreneur who is always looking for better ways to do things. His twitter bio reads: @kiltedbroker – I am wearing a kilt right now. I have consumed coffee today. Family Man. Innovator.

Thoughts About Love In Business

08/28/2013 By Jayme Soulati

If your parents are stilted and unable to hug you with a genuine squeeze and vibration of love, then your journey to love, share love, open your heart to love, say “I love you” with meaning and be secure with that amazing emotion will be unsettled.

Happiness

All around us, there are studies on happiness. Have you read my series here each Friday that began Jan. 11, 2013, called The Happy Friday Series? It consists of your stories about happiness; there are no rules, just an interpretation, recollection, and often therapeutic sharing of life’s journey. Please read a few; here is the list from the first half of the year.

Please also consider writing for the series, as my goal is to get through year end without needing to fill a gap in guest writers.

Happiness research hit academia a few years ago; I still have the Harvard Business Review with happiness on the cover. Another Fortune company is going to find ways to make employees happier as it leads to greater productivity and morale.

Love on the other hand? It’s a sensitive emotion. Does it belong in the workplace? Should you use it to describe your services and products? Will anyone believe you if you do?

Kaarina Dillabough addressed respect as a topic for her post this week. She raises solid points about the lack of respect just about everywhere and mostly the lack of respect in the home. The children shooting adults out of boredom? No respect for life or happiness. I assume also there’s no love in the home or the foundation of the big three – happiness, love and respect.

That’s what the gangs are doing; encompassing and embracing errant children off the street and providing some semblance of security. At the same time the gangsta masters are delivering a foundation of structure and negative reinforcement; however, the flipside at home could be much worse.

Every Creature Thrives On Love

Every single living creature thrives on love. Perhaps it’s attention and love follows. Well, maybe snails don’t thrive on love; I’m not sure! Infants born with drug dependency react to cuddling and a warm embrace. When left alone, they suffer and cry uncontrollably. Heck, infants without chemical dependency thrive with warm and genuine hugs.

Think about someone ill or someone alone in a retirement center? What’s the best way to make them feel loved and secure and together? Hold their hand and squeeze. Feel the love from your heart travel to your hand and theirs. Watch it vibrate with healing energy to their heart and eyes.

Mark Schaefer wrote a post this week on a similar topic. He shared how his rigorous attention to analytics nearly drove his blog to disaster. His new approach is to be more relaxed with his writings and let his heart guide his content. What’s happened? His community found him back with more engagement than before.

So, I ask you…why are you doing what you’re doing today? If you’re unhappy with the results or you feel compelled to stay the course for the wrong reasons, then your heart is hurting. You do not love what you do in business. Love cannot pay the bills, I get it; however, love, passion and compassion are the very foundation of how you show up to others.

Is there a place for love in business?

Can you show it more so people can feel that you’re genuine?

Love comes in many sizes! Because we’re interacting more with perfect social strangers, we can show the love in a variety of simple ways:

Your gesture to someone on Twitter in the morning can be as simple as “Hey, how’s it going? I miss you @3HatsComm!”
You can honor love by thanking someone for a retweet or pingback.
You can pay attention by reading and sharing content.
Comments — always comments (and people have less ability to visit as often as we did). So, coming by to comment or take a survey shows care for your peers.

I’ve often spoken of genuine authority. What that means is subject to your interpretation. It’s not the purchase of Twitter followers; it’s not the grandiose presentation of your wins and successes at the expense of others; nor is it your false massaging of self to build up who you’re really not.

What if, as Betsy Cross always writes, you bared your soul on a scale beyond your comprehension? What if you were able to share one thing so painful right here on this blog and then you began to heal by revealing your inner pain?

The love and support you’d receive would be therapeutic, and you can be assured that I love you until you disrespect me back.

And, so, I ask again…is there a place for love in business?

Indeed.

Only if you truly love yourself first.

The Happy Friday Series: Things That Make Me Happy

08/16/2013 By Jayme Soulati

When Jayme started her Happiness series, I started to think about all the really important things in life that make me happy. And I realized they aren’t things: they’re thoughts, family, friends, relationships, paying-it-forward and simply being the best I can be, to best benefit those around me.

But then I did begin to think of the “things” that add to my core happiness. They don’t create my happiness, but they certainly add to it. They enhance, enrich and enlighten me. They bring a smile to my face and lightness to my step.

Things That Make Me Happy

First and foremost…me ?
I’m responsible for my own happiness. It’s not someone else’s responsibility to make me happy. But the following are some things that send my happy-meter soaring.

The smell of freshly cut grass
Warm Spring rain and jumping in puddles
Combing for seashells on the beach
Browsing through bookstores, especially second-hand bookstores. Pulling out titles of interest. Glancing through the pages. Observing the font and paper stock. Finding that gem that begs to be bought.
Songs like “Dizzy”, “Build me up Buttercup”, “Four Strong Winds”, “Unchained Melody” and of course anything and everything Beatles, Roy Orbison, Burton Cummings and Eva Cassidy. They take me back in time and elicit strong memories.
Writing longhand
Taking photos
Champagne with frozen strawberries
Blankets, especially cozy ones. I own too many.
Giving gifts. I’m a constant collector of great greeting cards and little “special something” gifts that I tuck away, either with someone specific in mind, or for that occasion when it will be “just perfect” for someone I know.
By Jayme Soulati, Santa Monica
Rocks. I collect them. Ones that speak to me, and many do. They’re all around my house, inside and out. On my desk. In my gardens.
Vintage postcards, chosen for the stamp that’s on them and the beautiful handwriting that is now almost a lost art.
Doodling
Red wine and aged cheddar
My red wellies (to jump in puddles with ?)
Antique hunting and auctions
Movies like “The Jane Austen Book Club”, “Sliding Doors”, “Rear Window”, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, “Con Air” (does that last one seem out of sync with the rest?)
Moon and stars on a crisp, cold night
Single malt scotch
Writing journals with beautiful covers and pens that feel like they were made for your hand
Being barefoot
Asparagus
Being fully present with whomever I’m with in the moment. Being fully present in each task at hand. Being in the moment.

Yes, these things add to my core happiness. I often say I’m happy even when I’m not.

In workshops, I draw two pictures.

One is of someone with a smile in their heart and on their face.

Another is of someone with a smile in their heart and a frown on their face.

My stance is that, as long as you’re happy in the heart – to your core – you’re always truly happy, even on crappy, crummy days when there might even be a frown on your face. Core happiness is an inside-out job…but “things” can certainly enhance, enrich and enlighten what’s already there. Cheers!

About The Author

Kaarina is a business/life coach living in Ontario, Canada. For over 25 years her high-voltage energy has inspired those she has worked with to reach beyond their grasp, to attain great things in business and in life. A former Olympic sports colour commentator and coach, Kaarina parlayed her coaching skills from the gym floor to the boardroom, working with business owners to improve their profitability and prosperity. Kaarina is known as an inspiring motivational speaker in areas such as branding, marketing, business growth strategies, and personal growth and prosperity. She loves nothing more than helping people achieve their goals in business and in life. She blogs here, and you can find her on Facebook here and Twitter @KDillabough.