I Moved!

You can find the new and improved me at www.alyssafeuerer.com

At what point do you stop asking for permission?

I have always been brought up to say my "please" and "thank you's". Another big life lesson my parents bestowed on me was to always ask for what I want vs. assuming I'm going to get it. Case in point:
Me at 16 - "Mom I'm going to take the car to Rachel's house."
Mom - "You mean, CAN I please take the car to Rachel's house?"

Asking for permission has become a common practice of mine. I don't consider it a bad thing, but the fact I still carry that habit around for years has almost succumbed me to using it when not necessary. Is it because I consider it common courtesy...or because it's just habitual?

Someone got me thinking about this the other day. I was talking about a vacation I am planning on taking and I was trying to figure out what days I wanted to ask off. When I approached my boss asking if I could take a vacation day on X day, he smirked and said, "You don't need to ask for permission, you can do what you want with those days!" After thinking about it, it was quite silly, they are my vacation days, that I earned. I shouldn't feel a need to ask to use them. But, I still feel that need to just ask. To me it always felt like I was being respectful, but now after looking at who I am now and all I have accomplished in my life, I feel like I don't always need to be doing that. Does the fact that I ask for permission on most things make me look weak, or even worse...unsure of myself?

I experimented with this yesterday by telling one of my consulting clients that I am going to go into some of her sites and do some work - no permission asked. I was straight forward and told her I was going to do it. The response, "Great - thanks! Do what you need to do!" This was a great feeling. I felt trusted, worthy and still respected. It made me value the relationship I have with my client even more.

I still don't know if there will ever be a point for me where I'm comfortable just doing what I want without someone giving me a thumbs up or an approval. I guess I'll just take the opportunities when I can.

At what point do you stop asking for permission? Does a point exist even if you are wealthy, powerful, understood and respected?

PatientsLikeMe.com allows you to take control

While perusing the World's Most Innovative Companies list this morning, I came across a name that caught my eye - Patients Like Me. Working in health care marketing has quickly trained me to become prone to stopping and looking into things that contain the words "patient", so I clicked through and dove in. I was immediately impressed by the home page. It has a community/social feel yet isn't intimidating, confusing or over-done. The best part is that you can browse through the site without having to be a member. You do need to be a member however to post your info.

It was pretty timely and coincidental that I came across this site, because I am concerning a health issue right now in my life. So I quickly did a search for the condition and instantly found 220 others with the same condition who have logged their symptoms, severities and treatments. From there you can dig deeper into more specific information about a certain treatment, such as side effects, why people are taking it and why people have stopped taking it. You could also do a search for specific symptoms as well as look into real research studies and results. I now have some support information to take with me to my upcoming appointment to ask specific questions based on real experiences.

The smartest thing about this site is that it gives people the ability to make their own informed decisions, versus only relying on the doctor, pharmacist or published drug information. You are in control of your own health and can work together with your doctor to find a solution you are comfortable with from the get-go.

Love seeing new social communities like this that really benefit and empower people.

Random Post: What would your "at-bat" song be?

In the spirit of Brewers Opening Day anticipation, I got to thinking of all the things about baseball that make me happy. One of them being the at-bat songs. What would your at-bat song be?

I couldn't pick just one. I would pull a stunt like Mike Cameron and have 13 different at-bat songs in one season, depending on my mood. At the very least, here's what my top 3 would be...

Daft Punk - "Touch It - Technologic"



Kansas - "Point of no return"



LL Cool J - "Momma Said Knock You Out"

Subaru finds its inner Toonces

While most advertisers focus their every move on Superbowl positioning and advertising, others look to the other infamous bowl game that happens to occur on the same day - Animal Planet's Puppy Bowl. It was leaked that Subaru is running spots during the Puppy Bowl, showing dogs driving their cars. Sounds like the message is going to be something around the lines of "Dog tested. Dog approved." A few thoughts come to mind here...


1) Toonces. Now I know Toonces was a cat, but anytime I see an animal behind the wheel of a moving vehicle, that's what comes to mind (and I know I'm not alone).
2) Do people really like driving with dogs in their cars? I know when I have our dog in the car, he jumps around everywhere and tries to sit on my lap or under my legs. Annoying.
3) When are people going to stop using the "X Tested. X Approved." line! It was overused when Kix started using it years ago, and then Bud recently pulled that into their latest Tailgate spots. Is this really the best message Subaru could come up with?
4) If the dogs in the ads are remotely as cute as some of the pups in the Puppy Bowl (Here's my favorite, Jake), then this ad may perform well.

(photo courtesy of AdAge).

Find of the Day: CarPong

Came across an amazing idea (via Thrillist) this morning and can't wait to start using it! In a nutshell, CarPong is a site that lets you send messages to other cars/drivers by entering their plate# and whatever you want to tell them. Whether they are driving like an a$% or if the guy driving is a sexy beast, or if they felt it necessary to park their H2 Hummer in the Compact Car spot leaving you to spend 20 minutes finding some place to park your Prius. Now you can get your message out with CarPong! If the recipient is registered on the site, they will get an email alert with the message. Hopefully they get some billboards up and running soon, because this could be big.

My Most Hated Holiday Ads - 2009

Now that I shared some of my favorites, here are a couple I absolutely dreaded. It almost pains me to bring these back to my memory.

Old Navy - "Supermodelquins" Holiday Ad. First off, mannequins are just as scary as clowns. And, it's just not funny. I don't even know if they are trying to be funny or not. I just find it utterly annoying and creepy.

Jewelry commercials are bad enough. These two however, should be banned from TV forever. Here is the worst commercial I've seen in a long time.

Kay Jewelers - "I'm right here...and always will be". What grown woman is that scared of a thunderstorm? And how creepy is this guy? I don't even want to go there anymore...

The last commercial I was looking for ceases to exist online...for good reasons I'm assuming. If anyone is familiar with the Jared Galleria of Jewelry ads, its the one with the kids in the other room saying "they're so cute at this age." #1 No kids ever, ever talk about their parents like that. #2 Kids don't spy on their parents anymore. #3 Kids that age could probably care less about nice jewelry, and I highly doubt they could tell the difference between some diamond earrings from Jared or Wal-Mart. This is another frustrating ad, but it does bring me some ease when I found all the great posts and quality spoof ads for Jared. Here is a post I thoroughly enjoyed: He Went to Jared: I'm Going to Vomit.