West Michigan Jobs Group gives a damn!

Here is a letter that my cohort, Elizabeth Council, wrote to the Chronicle about our non-profit organization, West Michigan Jobs Group.  Read Letter. We wanted everyone to know that our group does give a damn and what steps we have been taking to make Muskegon a better place to live.  Also, we want to motivate others to do the same thing we have done.  It was completely grassroots, we didn't really know what we were doing when we got started, and it all just came together and took off.  Anyone can do it!

Letter: Pulling together, Muskegon: West Michigan Jobs Group gives a damn

Two Years as a Stay At Home Mom... or Whatever It Is I am Doing

It has almost been two years exactly since I was downsized from SuperMedia.  In those years, I have enjoyed precious time with my kids, started my own company, and most recently become somewhat of a community activist.  Overall, I would say I am happier than ever.

What I have not mastered yet is the art of cooking or the desire/motivation to clean on a regular basis.  I cooked from scratch about a week ago and was incredibly proud of myself and then realized how sad it was that it made me proud to cook from scratch probably only one time in the last 2 years.  But I guess it's better than not at all!  Turns out that cleaning is so much harder when you don't work full time!  Who would have thought?  The house is a disaster almost immediately after cleaning.  When I was working, no one was in the house to mess it up.  I never took into consideration how much messier a house gets when it's occupied all the time.

So what am I?  Am I a stay at home mom?  Am I a mom who works from home part-time?  I feel the need to have a job title.  Some moms try be cutesy and say they are a "Domestic Diva" or the family's "CEO/COO", but I don't feel that either of those jobs define me either.  Domestic Diva to me sounds like June Cleaver with Prada shoes... which I am anything but.  Being a "CEO" (Chief Executive Officer) would imply that I am the top dog in charge of the total management of an organization (family).  A "COO" (Chief Operating Officer) implies that why I would be in charge of the operations of the family, but I would still be second in command to the CEO (which I would assume would be my husband in this scenario).  While sometimes this may be the case that I may be more aware of the operations, to-do lists, schedules, events of the household, I am neither "top dog" or "second in command."  My husband and I have an equal partnership.  We make all major, and even many minor, decisions together.  And even though I am with the kids for more time during the day, the quality of time he spends with the kids is just as great. 

Even without an official title or becoming more domesticated, I have accomplished some things that I am proud of.  Six months after I was let go I gave birth to my handsome son, Oliver.  He has brought so much light in our lives.  He truly is the opposite from his sister, Hope, and that keeps us on our toes.  Oliver is so happy, easy going, curious, and energetic.  I am happy that I have been able to spend the time with him to really enjoy his personality and watch him grow each step of the way.  Hope recently turned 4 years old, started preschool, and comes up with new questions everyday to stump me with.  She spoke the other day of Vacation Bible School and I asked her what she was hoping to learn about this year in VBS.  Her response: "Electricity."  She told me she wants to know how daddy's computer can run.  Not sure she'll learn that in VBS, but it impressed me she had even thought about the concept of electricity or even knew the word.

My business with Net Owl Media has been steadily growing.  We are getting more and more business through referrals and family and friends.  I am hoping it continues to grow this year and hopefully double the business we did in 2011.

Through the non-profit organization West Michigan Jobs Group that I am Vice President of, I was able to organize two, going on three, Cash Mobs in the Muskegon County area.  The cash mobs have been helping local businesses through both sales and publicity and has gained recognition through the Muskegon Chronicle, Mlive, and even had an article featured on msnNOW: 'Cash Mobs' flood local businesses with shoppers Makes me happy that it has really taken off the way that it has.  The community has really embraced it and it truly has been helping locally owned shops.

With the fall of the Muskegon Summer Celebration, a new music festival has emerged and I was asked to be on the board of that acting in an advisory position to the management company that will be overseeing the festival.  This has been very exciting to me to see a festival come to fruition nearly from the beginning and building on the strengths of what "Summer Cel" had to offer and improving on some opportunities that the festival had going.

I wouldn't have been able to accomplish all of this if I hadn't been a "stay at home mom."  My friend, Hannah, told me when I first got the news that I had been downsized: "You won't be working, but I know you will always be working." Okay, I may have paraphrased, but that's the gist of what she said.  She couldn't have been more right.

Thanks to the Timeline on Facebook I was able to go look back again at what my status was on March 18, 2010, the day I lost my job:

"I was looking forward to this day because it was the day I was going to hear our new baby's heartbeat for the first time and get to announce to the FB world that I'm pregnant! So I heard the heartbeat, everything's good, and then I get to work and I got let go. Three of us lost our jobs due to "reduction in force." So my great day turned crappy pretty fast. So surprise everyone! I'm pregnant and now unemployed!"

That status brought 48 comments, the last being from my best friend, Andrea:

"I can't wait to meet baby #2 and good luck with your new life :) There is no limit to what you can do. You have always been an inspiration to me. I can't wait to see what wondrous new things will come of all this! Let me know if you need anything. Love you girl!"

Reading that and the other positive comments brought tears to my eyes now when looking back because I realize that these people knew I would do great things in the next couple years that I didn't even know I would do.  I am thankful for the time that I now have to devote to my family, friends, and community to make all of our lives better.  So my "downsize" turned into a huge "upgrade" in the quality of my life.  I couldn't have done any of these things without my enormous support system.  You all make it better.

Muskegon Cash Mob appears on msnNOW

This morning I was going through my usual routine of getting in the shower, dressing, brushing teeth, makeup, hair... all the while checking my smartphone every few minutes because the green light (indicating I have either new email or text messages) kept blinking.  Most of the new emails I was receiving was notifications from Facebook indicating that new people have "liked" our Muskegon County Cash Mobs page.  We had been averaging one new like or two a day since the last cash mob a few weeks ago, so to have about 5 just in about an hour span was odd.  Then I got a notification that someone had posted a link on the cash mob's wall.  The link went to this msnNOW article:  'Cash Mobs' flood local businesses with shoppers.  The article gives a link straight to the Muskegon County Cash Mobs page!  How cool is that?!  Through that article, our facebook page began to grow immediately and also received a number of comments on our wall as well.  It is the  most activity the page has seen.

I am not sure why msnNOW chose the Muskegon cash mob to focus on as we are not the originators of this concept, but it was great that they did! The other odd thing is that the woman who posted the link to the page deleted it almost as fast as she had posted it.  So it was sort of a phantom posting just to let me know that this article was out there, perhaps?  The whole thing is a bit strange to me, but I am definitely not complaining.  The cash mobs concept is gaining great moment.  cashmobs.wordpress.com indicates that there have been mobs reported in more than 100 cities now! 

Please feel free to contact me or go to one of the sites above if you would like more information on how to throw a cash mob event in your area!  And as always, your comments are welcome below as well.  Thank you!

Why Cash Mobs?

Muskegon's next Cash Mob is scheduled for Friday, February 3rd, 5:30pm at the Century Club Center downtown.  I was asked by Andrew Samtoy, the creator of the "Cash Mob" concept, to write a blog post about Cash Mobs for his site.  I decided to write one on Why Cash Mobs?  What is it about Cash Mobs that makes it a good idea?  This is the post I gave to him to put on the Cash Mobs site...

Why Cash Mobs?

by Amanda Shunta
Vice President – West Michigan Jobs Group, LLC
Muskegon, MI

When I heard the story on NPR about the Cleveland Cash Mob, the wheels in my head immediately began turning.  I thought, “this would be great for Muskegon and it wouldn’t be too hard to pull off!”  Through my non-profit organization, West Michigan Jobs Group, we have seen how powerful social media can be.  We were successfully able to lure a 100-MW wind farm to the Waste Water Treatment facility in Muskegon through gaining support, educating, and organizing through the use of social media.  I figured a Cash Mob would be a piece of cake compared to the amount of work that took!

There are several reasons I was drawn to the Cash Mob idea.  After dealing with the polarizing topic of wind energy in the area, it was nice to find something non-political that would benefit the city.  It’s not a Republican or Democrat thing, it’s not a religious debate, it’s purely a cause that anyone in the community can support.  It’s unifying.

The city of Muskegon has one of the highest unemployment rates in Michigan.  More people are moving out than moving in to the city, and along with that the morale of the citizens has plummeted.  Participating in a Cash Mob makes people feel good – and it should!  It’s helping out a local store not just by each person spending $20, but also the publicity that comes with a cash mob benefits the store for weeks afterwards.  It is something that the stores themselves are not organizing; it is the community doing it, and so it gives the mob a “pay it forward” or a “random act of kindness” altruistic feel that makes people feel good.  That is something Muskegon, MI desperately needed.  Also, it’s keeping money in the local community which benefits our schools, roads, charities, and so much more.  Something else to feel good about!

Another reason to organize a Cash Mob is to give people a specific date and time commitment to shop at a particular place.  The store that we organized our first Cash Mob at, Continuity, has been around for 3 (ish?) years, and you hear people say “Oh I’ve been meaning to check that place out.”  Well, this holds people to it, and when someone has a specific date, time, and purpose, they’re more likely to follow through.  For others, it was an opportunity to check out a part of town they didn’t know existed.  The president of my organization, Eric Justian, wasn’t even aware of Continuity or the surrounding shops.  He blogged about how not only did he have a great experience at Continuity but also found a treasure in the neighboring Asian Market that he had been unaware of until the Cash Mob.

Lastly, the reason to Cash Mob is because it is fun!  I didn’t spend a penny while organizing and marketing the cash mob.  It was all done through social media (mostly Facebook, Twitter, and a little LinkedIn) and word of mouth.  I got to meet people whom I had never met before, I grew my networking base through the new connections I had made, and just being in a store filled with positive energy was a rush!  I plan to keep organizing Cash Mobs until we either run out of stores in the area or run out of interest from participants.  I hope it is a long time before either happens!

Hope Floats Again

My daughter, Hope, went swimming with my in-laws today at a community center in a nearby town.  She was worried at first because she said she had forgotten how to swim.  From what my in-laws tell me, she was afraid to get in the water at first, but once she did she had a great time.  This got me thinking about her ISR (Infant Swim Resource) swim lessons that she took during the summer.  It has been 6 months now and it's time she has a refresher which hopefully she will start soon.  In the meantime though I decided to take a look at her YouTube videos again that I had posted in July.

I was astounded to see that the one with her in her winter clothes has had 3,050 views on YouTube!  The other videos span in views anywhere from 30-300 each, but none as many as this particular video with over 3,000 hits!  I know in the YouTube world this isn't all that many hits, but in my world I feel like Hope's video is a box office hit!  lol  So here it is again just because it's fun to revisit.  I'll post the one of my son, Oliver, too just to be fair.  :)  Looking forward to more videos as they take their refresher courses.  Again for more information on  ISR please visit www.infantswim.com or if you are in the West Michigan area you can go to www.ISRGrandRapids.com.  Click this link for more details on our personal experience in the ISR program.

 

Where's a good Women's Empowerment Magazine when you need one?

So this evening I did a search on Women's Magazines.  One thing that showed up was this list on Wikipedia of all women's magazines that are geared towards a woman audience.  The reason behind the search was I was trying to think of what magazines would have stories about career women, women empowerment, etc.  Just felt like being inspired by other women, or something.  Honestly, not even really sure of what my original intent was.

I scanned the list looking for names I was familiar with: Allure, Cosmopolitan, Elle, Family Circle, Good Housekeeping, Martha Stewart Living, Redbook, Self, Shape, to name a few.  I went to several of the websites for these magazines looking for articles on careers, businesswomen, entrepreneurs... anything inspiring.  I was astounded at how little I could find. 

The majority of magazines geared towards women are ones featuring celebrities, style/fashion, relationships, or how to be a good mom/homemaker.  So I began to wonder... are women really primarily only interested in these topics or is it that is just what publishers THINK we want to read about?  Why is it that the only advice we can get from magazines is on relationships, parenting, or how to style our hair?  We seriously have a magazine, and a popular one at that, called "Good Housekeeping."  Is it one of those things that you have seen your whole life so you just don't think about its meaning anymore?  GOOD HOUSEKEEPING.  Maybe I am more offended by the name than I should be, but haven't women come far enough along that it would warrant changing the name of the magazine? 

I don't consider myself an ultra feminist, but I do consider myself a career woman that enjoys a good read on other career woman.  I want to hear stories on how they made it to the top of a corporation, started their own successful business, how they handle a career and a family, and other positive stories of women who make a difference.

Aside from pigeon holding women as only wanting to read about how to keep your children happy and how to please your man in the bedroom, so much of the focus is placed on negative content.  I know this may sound strange coming from a reality TV addict and a "Real Housewives" junkie, but women spend way too much time and energy cutting each other down.  You can't look through a style section of a magazine without a "what were they thinking" / "worst dressed"  type of feature.  Or the celebrity sections focusing on who's gaining weight, trainwrecked celebs, or who is fighting/suing who.  I would like a magazine for young women that does not have to focus on negativity.  A magazine that can still cover the topics they currently already do: celebrities, style, relationships, parenting but also FEATURE stories on career women, inspiring women, etc, and not just have it sprinkled in or a blurb here and there.  But at the same time keeping the ENTIRE magazine positive.  Think anyone would read it?  Any magazine recommendations out there?

The Bachelor Season 16 Premiere

Tonight I was feeling inspired to write a blog posting.  However, the topic that I am particularly inspired by is how a local computer repair company has let me down by having my computer for nearly 2 months now and it's still not fixed and in the meantime I was called an "over anxious customer" by the manager to the owner at said repair shop.  Since they are still in possession of my computer though, I have decided to not focus a rant around that until I have it back and fixed.  :)

The next logical topic I am inspired to write about would then be the season 16 premiere of ABC's The Bachelor.  This show, for reasons I cannot explain, it probably my biggest guilty pleasure.  I KNOW the premise for the show is so incredibly lame.  I KNOW much of it is scripted or set up and the producers will stop at nothing to create chaos, friction, and excitement.  I am also aware that every season it's the exact same dreadful stuff with just different characters.  And yet I can't quit it.  Just so you know how deep this obsession is, I follow many of past cast members on Twitter.  How sick is that?

Tonight's episode did not disappoint in the strange and crazy categories.  I love how in the very beginning when they do the interviews of the girls while they're packing, everyone seems fairly normal.  You can tell a little bit which of the ladies will be the aggressive types or who might be a little too clingy/needy, but overall their "crazy" is kept under wraps....

... that is until the limos pull up and one by one they ladies come out trying to leave a lasting impression on Bachelor Ben Flajnik.  Now Ben, he's not the worst Bachelor ever (that award goes to "Prince" Lorenzo) but he does absolutely nothing for me.  He's okay looking, but he has the personality of a gnat.  Very dull and monotone.  But I digress.  Back to the ladies... so they each come out of the limo saying and doing the most ridiculous things. One woman skipped the limo all together and came in on a horse.  Then, of all things, he ended up giving her the "first impression rose."  The sacred first rose given out to save a woman from elimination on the first night.  Another woman brought her grandmother out with her... I didn't understand that at all.  Another woman wore a huge Kentucky Derby type hat, another rapped, and some gave horrible one-liner pickup lines that even Ben admitted were corny.  I had to laugh at the lady from Detroit, MI who came out of the limo, just smiled at him, and kept walking.  He stated that was a ballsy move and apparently he's not about to chase any woman because she was later eliminated.

All of this silliness ended up being overshadowed later in the show by contestant, Jenna, crying her eyes out all night long because.... wait for it.... some girls aren't there for the right reasons.  SHOCKER!!!  She was especially put off by Monica who seemed more interested in striking up relationships with women in a non-platonic kind of way.  The best part?  The train wreck known as Jenna is a relationship blogger!  Her blog The Over-Analyst is about her analyzing love, relationships, fashion, lifestyle topics.  She has definitely been dubbed the nutcase of this season.  Judging from clips of upcoming episodes it looks as though it we have not seen the end of her insane episodes.  But this is what makes good TV.

An early favorite of mine is Jamie who at a young age adopted her younger siblings because she "didn't have a dad and her mom had dependency issues."  She is a registered nurse in labor and delivery in a hospital and seems like a good person who has had a tough life.  I just like to see good things happen to seemingly good people.  Assuming that Ben would be a "good thing."

So that is my recap of the Bachelor premiere!  Maybe I'll make this a weekly habit.