Lindsay Casey

Be Honest About Your Abilities

I deal with a lot of different people at my day job. I deal with musicians, audio engineers, small business owners, web designers and music fans. I also deal with a lot of “graphic designers.” I meet a lot of talented folk who can manipulate images beyond my wildest imagination and create amazing eye candy. On the other end of the spectrum, unfortunately, the most common end around my office, I deal with a lot of “graphic designers” who aren’t anything of the sort. Let me get my definition straight; knowing how to add text to a picture on a ripped copy of Photoshop does not make you a graphic designer.

Why am I ranting about this? Because I’m frustrated with people saying they can do something they can’t. I don’t mind working with amateurs; let’s face it, I can be pretty naive about some things myself, but I have had it with people who claim to be professionals yet make the most novice mistakes in the book and get offended when you call them out on it.

This morning, I got an email from one of those “graphic designers” whose artwork I had rejected for print due to low quality. He emailed me saying “what is dpi? I haven’t heard that term before.” You’ll likely think I’m making this up, but I’m not! After I explained how print resolution works, he sent me a file about a tenth of the size he wanted. I tried to explain how to rebuild the file. He got mad and said that HOTMAIL must be re-sizing his Photoshop file. I gave up and redid it for him, which is, guess what… NOT MY JOB.

I work with plenty of people who aren’t skilled in design. That’s ok, I’m happy to provide advice and help out where I can. However, that’s why we have a graphic designer (not me) on staff to help those who need it. But you have to pay for her services. Her paycheque costs us money. Lots of it, because she’s a professional designer, not some hack messing about with a cracked version of Photoshop and blaming Hotmail for her own inefficiencies.

The point of this rant is that it’s important to be honest about your abilities. Don’t hide your shortcomings. Nobody knows everything and it’s ok to admit when you’re stumped. It makes you much easier to work with and it makes people more forgiving of your mistakes.

Lindsay Casey

The Trouble With Ideas (And Why You Should Stop Having So Many)

I have about 5 ideas a day. Now, I’m not talking just ideas, like “oh, I think I’ll go for a coffee” or “maybe I should email so and so”. I’m talking IDEAS. Business ideas, life ideas, ideas for things that are going to make the world a better place to live in. Think about it, at 5 ideas a day, that’s 25 ideas in a business week, 35 ideas if you count the weekend. Multiply that by 52 and that’s a lot of ideas per year.

However, that’s the problem with ideas. They’re ideas. Now, I’m not saying my ideas are bad. Far from it. Some of my ideas are ridiculous, of course, some of them are possibly stupid. Some of them are unattainable and some of them, if I do say so myself, are absolutely freaking brilliant. Again, that’s the problem. They’re ideas.

No matter how brilliant, how stupid, however anything you want to call them, they’re just ideas and until you put them into practice, that’s where they live. In idea land. In your head, where you’re not doing anything about them. So how do you rectify that? Well, as much as I hate to say it, stop having ideas. Or ignore them. Pick one out of the however many you have in a year and pick one to actually do something with, because if you don’t, you’ll have all these ideas, you’ll never do anything with them and you’ll grow old thinking “but I had such brilliant ideas when I was young.”

I know picking one idea above all the others is easier said than done, because obviously, I’m saying it but I haven’t been doing it. I have so many ideas. I have ideas for blogs, for websites, I have ideas for my life, my house and my business, but I’m going to try really hard to take a step back and scale it down. I’m going to work on just a couple of these ideas and put the time into them that they deserve to make them become a reality.

How am I going to do that? Well, again, easier said than done I’ve been thinking about this… I’ve been thinking about this a lot. Once I’ve managed to whittle my idea list down to about 15, here are the questions I’ll be asking myself to get that down to just one. OK, maybe two.

  • Is it exciting? When you think about a certain idea, does your head explode? Do you wake up, stop dragging your feet and want to get to work right away?
  • Is it progressive? I use the word progressive here where you might think I should be saying unique. However, your idea doesn’t have to be unique. But if it isn’t, you had better make sure you’re reinventing whatever it is. When you aren’t the first to do something people will automatically copmare you to your predecessor. If your idea is progressive, you can blow the previous competition out of the water.
  • Is it sustainable? Is your idea the kind of thing you can see yourself still doing in a few years time? If you’re planning a business, hell, if you’re even just planning a renovation, you should make sure that the project you’re about to undertake will still be a good idea down the road.
  • Is it expensive? Yeah, yeah, you have to spend money to make money. But you don’t have to fork out a hundred grand on a feeling. If your idea is something you can start off investing time rather than money into, you’ll give yourself the time to prove your idea while building up sweat equity and credibility to investors.
  • Is it profitable? Money isn’t everything and I”m rapidly turning into the kind of person who values my happiness over my quality of life. But if your idea is great enough for you to invest your time and energy into, you should be looking to profit from it.

Once I’ve whittled down my ideas, I’ll shed some light on one or two of the best, hopefully along with some of the steps I’ll take to turn them into reality. In the meantime, I’d love to hear your tips on how to focus and how you plan to get those ideas out of your head and into the world.

 

 

Lindsay Casey

Belfast City Council’s Social Media #FAIL

Have you heard about Lennox? Lennox is, or I should say, was, a 7 year old mixed breed dog living with his family in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Two years ago, Lennox was seized from his family by a dog warden who thought he looked like a pit bull terrier, a banned breed in Northern Ireland and the UK.  Lennox was put to sleep this morning. He had committed no crime. He was simply murdered because of his looks.

Lennox’s owner, Caroline Barnes, had complied with every rule regarding dog ownership in the city. He had his tags, his shots, his registration. He even had a DNA test proving he was an American Bulldog mix and therefore not a banned breed. But the standard for breed identification in so many places unfortunately involves no science, merely judgement by uneducated humans who think any dog with a square jaw is a killer. Because of this, Lennox met his gruesome fate.

How does this relate to social media? Well, over the last two years, there have been many attempts to stop Lennox from being put to sleep. There have been online petitions with hundreds of thousands of signatures, multiple facebook groups and lots of conversations on Twitter. The outpour of public support for Lennox and his family over the last month has been staggering.

Over 200,000 people appealed to Belfast City Council, the leader of the DUP and even the Royal family. Celebrities even stepped up to show their support.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately the public outcry was ignored. Some people, myself included, are inclined to believe Lennox was put to sleep a long time ago, hence the tight lips from Belfast City Council. Why else would they deny the owners one last visit with their beloved pet? Refuse to return the deceased dogs body to the family? Or deny a little girl having her murdered dogs collar as a keepsake?

You may think this is a lot of hoopla for one little dog, but rest assured Lennox was not just one dog. He was a symbol of inequality, discrimination and all that is wrong with our world. I can only hope that the amount of backlash against the City of Belfast raises awareness and starts a discussion about changing breed specific legislation. This does seem to be the case – if you look at the hashtag #wearelennox on Twitter or Instagram, you’ll see many people and pups showing their support, regardless of breed. My own dog, an American Bulldog, is definitely one of them.

Whether you believe in banning certain types of dogs or not, I think we can all agree that Belfast failed in dealing with this public relations catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of people across the world are tweeting with the hashtag #boycottbelfast and calling for an international boycott of tourism. Belfast City Council’s reaction? Shut down their Facebook page, stop answering their phones and not reply to a single mention on Twitter. In fact, their obviously automated Twitter account is showing business as usual, reminding people about bank holidays and garbage pickup times!

The City of Belfast’s actions will not soon be forgotten. In a country that has dealt with more than its fair share of discrimination and racial profiling, governments and authority figures are rarely trusted. There is already great mistrust in this council and the secrecy and silence that responded to such a public inquiry will do nothing but breed more contempt. Especially since the planned boycott of Belfast will likely impact tourism in an already struggling economy. I don’t think the new slogan for Belfast Tourism “Belfast; Spending taxpayers money on animal abuse since 2010!” will be much of a crowd pleaser.

But back to the dogs: this issue is not specific to Northern Ireland, and I have spoken about it before here. This ineffective and discriminatory legislation is in effect in many countries. It’s very prevalent in North America and Ontario has some of the worst legislation in North America.  Every year, many family pets are taken and murdered just because they look like what someone thinks a “pit bull” is. Not only that, breed specific legislation is a waste of taxpayer money.

Pit bulls are not the most dangerous animals on earth – humans have held that title for centuries. Rest in peace, Lenox. I hope your untimely death can bring positive change to this world.

Lindsay Casey

What you need to know about cyber security

Cyber security refers to protecting systems connected to the internet from threats in cyberspace. It applies to the systems in your home, your office or your car. Also, it refers to cyber threats to a company’s systems, including having personal information about a company hacked. This is often a cause for concern for employers.

10 Statistics that Summarize the State of Cybersecurity in Financial Services

The risk of cyber security is higher in the workplace where most companies store important data for financial and other reasons. Data protection refers to protecting data that you have in the form of medical, personal, professional, banking, financial, professional development and security information. It applies to the systems in your home or car, including the USB keys you use. Also, it refers to what happens to those data after you lose or lose control of it.

Some common myths about cyber security include:

You can’t protect yourself against a cyber attack.

You can, but it’s not always enough to turn off your computer.

You may also need to access your network resources using a firewall to avoid sensitive websites, applications, or files. For example, the same application that offers a discounted rate when you get the credit card, may still try to gather information that can be used for identity theft. The same service may share personal information with third parties, and could expose you to identity theft.

So do some basic exercises and practice following these steps:

Create an account at no cost on a reputable cloud service or hosting company that can easily allow you to access the remote desktop functions, access your email, and download files.

Review how to encrypt your files to make sure they cannot be read by anyone else, and know how to back up your files before they’re accessed. Get help from companies like Fortinet of necessary.

Know how to patch and protect your antivirus software, as the most frequently-updated product that can help protect you from a cyber attack.

Don’t rely on using only the best products for protection. When you sign up for a free trial with an antivirus product, you’re trusting that they will scan your computer for any potential malicious activity, and not simply offer you a “free trial.” Make sure you know what your current antivirus service offers, and that you review what it can do before purchasing it.

I’m too busy to get help from a company.

You’re not. You don’t have to go online every day to get help. But when you do, the best ones are generally known as “cyber experts” who have experience in the field, who will be able to answer your questions and teach you the specifics. There are many self-help sites and resources on the internet that provide information on cyber security, such as:

The Department of Homeland Security, Cybersecurity for Everyone: Find Information, Support, Tools, Tips & Training for all of your Cyber Security needs.

LovinglySecurity: Be Prepared by joining our free Live Support on the Lovingly Security site.

Stellar Security Experts: Make your website and social media websites secure and have a professional Web engineer consult your website and social media pages.

Make sure that you have access to a trusted and knowledgeable IT professional in your company who has experience with cyber security.

Lindsay Casey

Brats on the Bus

Have you seen this video yet?

I’m not much of a crybaby, but this video had my blood boiling and the tears flowing. All I could think was how angry I would be if someone talked to my mother that way. My mother passed away in 2008 so perhaps I am overly sensitive, but I don’t think so.

This video shows exactly what is wrong with society. Yes, I am aware how old that makes me sound. However, when I was a kid, there would be no getting away with crap like that.

I understand these are children we are talking about, but 13 years old is more than old enough to know when your words will hurt someone. Do they have no rules at home? No respect for others? Or themselves? I’ve read than some of the kids involved are receiving death threats, which is ridiculous and obviously completely inappropriate, however, I do believe in harsh punishment for this, especially because they probably did this every day. Just because there is only one video doesn’t mean the bullying only happened once. If you think a slap on the wrist is punishment fit for this crime, picture your own mother sitting on that bus for a minute and then tell me how you feel.