Nicolesy, IFTT & Non-Suckydom

Little things drive me nuts. You know, details. Minutae. Figuring out how to do small stuff that should be SO flippin’ easy… even IS easy at the core of it… but is MADE complicated because someone thinks of some way they say will “make it easy”, but which actually complicates things. I feel that way about a lot of our wonderful (and maddening) technology.

I’m not knocking technology.
I mean hey, you can be wonderful and maddening all at the same time without it causing you to be “less than”.
Just ask my husband! Grin.

Friends Who Make Things Easy

On the other hand, things made simple make me do a happy little jig. I have a friend who can do that almost better than anyone I know. Her name is Nicole S. Young. You may know her work; her brand name is “Nicolesy“.  I’ve adored and admired Nicole ever since I met her. Handily and coincidentally, she’s also married to one of my bff’s, Brian Matiash, so it’s always a twofer when I go visit them up in Portland.  She’s a force of nature, that woman; there’s nobody quite like her.
But here’s why all this came up.

Social media is another one of those things that drives me nuts. It’s necessary, it’s done a ton for me, it’s here to stay, I’m grateful for it. It’s wonderful and maddening (trend alert!). Within the social media space, there’s an app called IFTT (If This, Then That). Here’s the simple Wikipedia description: “IFTT… is a web-based service in which users can create chains of simple conditional statements, called “recipes,” that are triggered based upon changes to other web services such as Gmail, Google Reader, Instagram, Craigslist. IFTT is an abbreviation of “If This Then That” and is pronounced like “gift” without the “g.”

Mind you, I had to look this up on Wikipedia (simple) because IFTT can’t actually explain what it does in words on its own website (should be simple, is made complicated). I love Wikipedia. And I love Nicole for making IFTT simple.

Posting to Twitter From Instagram

I’m on Instagram. @karenleehutton. I post photos (natch!).
Instagram will post directly to Twitter for you, saving you a timesaving step.
Problem: when you do that through Instagram, it only posts text and a link to the photo… which links back to Instagram. Argh.

Enter IFTT, which allows you to create a “recipe” that automatically posts your entire posts – with photo – onto Twitter and other social media sites (simple!).

But IFTT can’t even explain itself on its own website, much less how to do this seemingly simple task. (complicated).

Enter Nicole, who makes things easy:

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I didn’t fully grok the whole IFTT thing until Nicole explained it to me. And that, right there, is her gift. She can explain just about anything and make you feel like it’s totes the easiest thing on the planet! Even if moments before, you felt like the biggest idiot around. That’s her gift. I love people who run with their gifts. And she does, BIG time. Anywhere on her Nicolesy website you’ll find ideas, inspirations, how-to’s, tutorials to keep you going for days. Enjoy the free ones, purchase the others – you’ll learn so much! And she’ll make it so dang easy.

Nicole also writes a lot for Photofocus.com. (Brian does too, for that matter). Right after I had my big Nicole-induced Eureka! moment about IFTT… she so kindly reminded me about updating my copyright info. I’d completely forgotten! I had the flu, lost my mind… you know how the holidays can be.  But there was Nicole, not just telling me TO update, but reminding me WHERE and HOW.

I share this in case you need a reminder. Cause, y’know… better to get one now than a rude awakening later on. 😉

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 It Takes a Dang Village!

I love my friends who are good at things I’m not. Because if we put us all together, we know just about everything worth knowing! And what isn’t known… well, someone always knows where to go find it. That’s the cool thing about a tribe, a village, a community, a shared circle of like-minded peeps.  In contrast, my generation was raised to be a pack of lone rangers. (An oxymoronic concept to say the least!). Go watch Mad Men, you’ll see what I mean.

I’m really enjoying THIS era of community, of shared information, of “everybody do what you do best – we need that”… and the way it allows you outsource the stuff you’re really not good at and get on with the stuff you really ARE good at, and vice versa.

This is why I love Nicole and wanted to share her with you. She gets the stuff I don’t.  Then turns around and makes it easy for me to get it – and get on with it.

Hey, maybe you’re like me and don’t want to live this particular IFTT recipe… If you get bogged down being frustrated by minutiae, Then your real work never gets done.

THAT’s a recipe for suckydom.
Let’s agree NOT to do suckydom in 2015.

Deal?