I’m a TikTok-er 😂

 I tried TiKTok a while ago. A couple of lame attempts with a boomerang video of Toffee Girl when she was a puppy 🐶and I think one of my horse 🐴 Cute, adorable.  

No one cared, I found myself stuck in a TikTok loop of scrolling for random pointless hours, and no one looked at my videos anyway, so I stopped. There’s quite enough screen time in my life, I don’t have time, and the endless scrolling REALLY has to stop 🛑 

So my TiKTok career ended about a week after it started, and other than the occasional thought, was put to bed. 

But then I went to the GA Ed Tech conference and heard librarians extolling the outreach of TikTok.  I saw presenters sharing a TikTok QR code at the end of the slides, and I started revising the idea. I mean, if they can do it, surely I can🤷🏼‍♀️ 

You can’t give up on an idea. Never say never … and all that. 

After all, hardly anyone used to come into the MLC, but now they do. Teachers didn’t have the MS teach, but now they do.  You CAN make change with little more than excitements and a never-give-up mind-frame. 

Perhaps by seeking wisdom from others and focusing on books and the MLC, I can grow a TikTok account.  After all, teachers only visited the MLC to pick up their laminating. Now they pop in several times a day for coffee and treats ☕️🍩, see what I’m doing with other classes, and ask for support 🙋🏼‍♀️🙋🏻‍♂️Well, this would be the same thing, right?  I just need to decide what the TikTok version of candy and coffee is 🤨

So I formulated a plan. I’m following the plan. And even though I have very unexciting numbers and am not setting the world on fire 🔥, it’s growing.  

Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

• Hashtags.  Gotta do the hashtags. Don’t be creative, choose the popular ones.  Look at the numbers as they auto fill 
• #fyp  it’s a requirement. 
• Connect social media accounts - tweet it, Insta-it, Mastodon it.  The lot. 
• Tell the kids. All the kids. The kids will follow
• Don’t follow the kids. Never follow the kids 😂
• Long ones get 14 views, short ones get 200.  Keep it short. 
• Use the TiKTok tools - it makes you look cool 😎 
• Smash the apps. I use Clips & Green Screen by Do Ink to add features and fun
• Be constant and consistent. More is definitely more!

Check it out: @mediamayhemmlc

No Really, Being a Teacher Librarian is Like Selling Tupperware!

It’s like selling Tupperware!

Seriously. 

I sold Tupperware in Virginia and North Carolina. And if I say it myself, I was good. I mean, national numbers good. I mean free vehicles and Alaskan cruise good. To this day I’ll praise understanding the ‘game’ and having an amazing product. I understood that it wasn’t about selling a ton of plastic product, it was about helping my host to bring as many people to the party as possible.  I realized that teaching people about why Tupperware was created and why it was so superior to other products would interest and engage guests. I saw that generosity and good humor, educating and always utilizing exemplary customer service, brought and kept me, clients, earned me referrals, and created a client base that would almost literally do anything for me. 

💙💙💙

The environment was far beyond the product - although nothing would have worked with a poor item to sell.

When people tell me I’m a good salesperson, I disagree.  A good salesperson can sell people things they don’t want or need. I can’t do that.  What I was good at was determining a need and helping the clients to find a way to get what they wanted. 

It really isn’t that different from what I do now.  

My number one goal is to get kids in the door (bring them to the party). Once they are there, we build relationships, host fun activities, listen to their needs, help them to get the experience they want … and then they come back. 

📚📚📚

Take my non-reader who wanted our missing Pelé book.  It was all he wanted. But it was lost. So I bought a copy on Amazon, sent a message to his teacher, and when he came bursting in, full of excitement, we celebrated together

He’s a frequent flyer now 🎉🎉🎉 

Which reminds me, I must get more books about soccer ⚽️

I have a great product - books.  Books of every variety. So, I find out the needs, make the match, and they come back for more.  

When I sold Tupperware, I had great success with a product called Modular Mates.  Modular storage to custom fit to your cabinet. Keeps all dry good fresh and looks good too!  I offered free customizations, special sets, “BOGO” and anything else to get people started with it.  Because, believe me - once you have your food in Modular Mates, nothing else would do.

Great product, personalized to your needs - how can you not want more?  

Books or Tupperware.  Party or MLC.  The goals, the message, and the eventual wins are all coming from the same desire. To help people have fun and to make their lives better with a great product. 

Selling reading. Selling Tupperware. Selling books. Selling a way to keep food fresh. 

Selling joy

 🤩  🤩  🤩 

2023 Here I Come!

Today has been a day full of reflection - and I was just thinking about how stoked I am for the rest of 2023! It's started well, and we are well on the way to so many wonderful moments.

First of all, there is the personal...

Mum will be finally allowed in the US in soon. Sure, lots of tough paperwork, International tax rules & money exchange, and healthcare horrors ahead, but all that really matters is that she will be here. Her medical has been completed (with the odd scare and additional X-Ray to stop us from feeling too relaxed about anything). Her Embassy interview is done. Lots of prayers were being said, and it was with oodles of relief to hear that the U.S. government sees fit to allow this 90-year-old to be with her daughter!  Heck, she’ll be 91 by the time she can move 🎂. She will be on her way as soon as the stamped passport arrives and flight is booked!  

It will be so much easier to look after her and control things with her here. And poor Aunt Shirley - her 87-year-old sister - is really too old to be trying to cope with this now. 

We have our Goodison trip planned for and paid for in early April 💙. Ben (my 27-year-old son) has his first Everton Football Club home game to see, and we get to do all sorts of amazing things with the team and other North American Toffees - and we can’t wait!  It’s going to be so cool staying in a hotel in my city and just being there for that one focus - not family, just my football family. And a few friends too. Now the team itself is imploding, and it’s one bad news report after another … but hey!  That’s Everton for you.

Then in the summer, AUSTRALIA beckons!  Finally, some time with our daughter - Covid scuppered my last trip, and that means I don’t even want to think about how long it’s been since I saw my kid! I miss my girl every day, and this will be a balm to my heart to be with her again. Having to be reimbursed for those tickets was awful, and for a while there, I thought it would never happen. But here we are, planning our Perth-Rottnest-Margaret River adventures! 🦘🍷

And then there is work...

The MLC 📚has become a love affair, and I can’t wait to be back there in January helping kids find books and joy in our space 🥰. How magical can I make it 🪄?  So many ideas and goals - and ways to listen to and work with kids. 

2023, I’m ready.

Is it any wonder that my #oneword for 2023 is #celebrate ?!

New Year ~ New Set Up