Feeling Thankful…
This end-of-the-year thing has me feeling reflective—and grateful. I’ve collected a few good things from 2024 that put a smile on my face, along with a stolen Word Wars and my ultimate book reco for the year.
Is It Gratitude or Attitude?
OK, how well do you do on this timed quiz from Merriam-Webster? You have to rapid-fire identify if each vocab word should be categorized as gratitude (positive connotation) or attitude (total dis). I would love to brag that I got them all correct, but alas, that would be a lie. I scored 13/15—can you best my efforts?
Never not reading…preferably with my friends.
Feeling Thankful
Look, I have plenty to gripe about in all my worlds—personal, professional and yes, political. But in reality, there’s far more that brings me joy than strife. So at the risk of portraying myself in an overly-Polyanna way, I want to highlight some stuff that has me feeling pretty darn thankful as 2024 wraps up.
The Rise of Content
I can’t go a day at work without someone bringing up the need for more content. No one says, “Just have AI write it,” because the risk of getting it wrong is too great, and it also has to be from the Huntington perspective, featuring Huntington experts. In fact, we have multiple full-time on-staff writers planning, interviewing our experts, hitting the keys, editing—and it still isn’t enough. These stories are not just fodder for the hungry SEO beast, but are also a central support for a more customer-centric, experiential focus where content is becoming a measurable currency.
In part, this trend toward high-quality content is a recognition of how shoppers decide what to buy and when: primarily, online research which includes social media (i.e. influencers). That means that companies and brands need to provide helpful information well before their potential customers are ready to hit “buy now.”
It’s gratifying to see this moment arrive after many years of content being devalued, and it makes me hopeful for what could come next—even as AI creeps ever closer to human-seeming capabilities. But although AI can generate volumes in moments, it can’t match the strategic creativity of the human writerly brain. It’s a matter of landing on what only we, as animated beings, can create. It must be something uniquely you—a perspective you bring, a new idea, a fresh spin. You must run your words through the prism of yourself (or your brand).
AI Play
I’m not going to say I don’t find aspects of AI a bit scary, but when I stay in a playful and open headspace I see it’s a useful, effective partner and tool. It can quickly cross off tasks I don’t want to or like to do, like take notes during a deep conversation. Or create a graphic that quickly, visually illustrates my point. Also if you get some kind of crazy idea, you can take it from start to finish in a flash to see if it works or not instead of laboring on a draft that ultimately will be trashed anyways.
I’ve been inspired to discover how some of my super smart peers are using AI, which in turn challenges me to adopt or try things I normally wouldn’t.
Fab Collab
Speaking of super smart peers who challenge, support and lift me up—this has been an incredible year of new and deepening relationships that influence my work, what I read, how I think and it seems to me, perhaps are altering the trajectory of my future. I’m feeling so thankful for these collaborators, think-out-loud partners and co-problem-solvers.
Honestly, I always thought I hated “networking,” but turns out I wasn’t doing it “my way.” You don’t have to go to awkward happy hours and talk to strangers. Instead, you can make your own one-on-one meet-ups, virtually or over lunch, coffee or tea and amplify your own brain wattage through the incredible power of human connection.
Stretching My Range
In January of this year I started a new job with Huntington National Bank as a marketing strategist. Prior to that, I’d mostly been on the creative side of things with a heavy emphasis on content planning, writing and editing across all imaginable channels. In the rearview mirror, it’s easy to see I’d been “doing strategy” all along—building new communications vehicles with solid ROI and data-backed programming, creating content plans that support overall marketing and brand goals, and designing targeted content tailored to distinct audiences.
I’ve had a steep learning curve diving into the complex world of banking alongside learning a completely new organizational design, but I’m so glad I stretched into this new role. I love the pure strategy space, and one of the best parts about it to me is how much collaboration is baked into it. Sitting on this side of the fence also automatically increases receptivity. When I was “just a creative director” with tons of innovative ideas I was often blocked by closed doors that had to be unlocked even to get a stakeholder to listen. Don’t get me wrong, there are still closed doors, but many times they’re at least ajar—because the expectations are different. My colleagues look to me to bring the next new idea, which is a subtle mindset shift but turns airtight into inches of daylight.
Great Books, Always
Last week when I was waiting for my chiropractor to crack me up, I pulled a legit hard-backed book out of my not insubstantial bag and stole time to read a few pages. When the doc came in, a look of genuine surprise crossed his face. “Reading an actual book? You don’t see that much anymore,” he commented. Yes, I’m that girl. I’ve always loved books, and if anything that passion has only intensified through this past year.
If I had to divvy up my usual reading menu by genre, in most years it’s 95% fiction with 5% non-fiction. In 2024, the split has been much closer to 60/40 thanks to recos from some friends. Some of them have verged on life-changing for me, including Range by David Epstein, which was both revelatory and affirming of my innermost career cravings (squiggle, not arrow).
Reading Friends
Over the years, I’ve been in and out of book clubs—currently out. But that hardly stops me from seeking out kindred spirits who want to hear about and discuss what I’m reading (or maybe they don’t always, but they humor me? Hahaa). My best friend, Jenny Henson, is my longest and truest book friend. I guess we’ve been reading together for close to 30 years now. Honestly, she’s become my gold standard. If she reads something and likes it, I am absolutely positive I will, too. What a gift. I think our novel mindmeld is symbolic of what makes our enduring friendship so special—while we’re certainly not the same as when we met at age 12 or so, we’ve grown and changed on parallel paths. I’ll always read whatever she tells me to!
Me (in sequins) and Jenny (Reed) Henson toward the beginning of our storied friendship.
Making Something of My Own
It’s hard to imagine how many innumerable words I’ve written over my lifetime so far, for freelance assignments, the papers stacked up through six years of higher education, the black type marching through 15 years of Kroger magazines, emails and booklets.
But until a few months ago, I’d never been my own publisher. I’d never written anything purely for myself (not counting sporadic journals, of course). I’m feeling so thankful that I took the plunge to start Pink Pineapple Post. It’s challenging me in incredible new ways to carefully consider and document my perspectives on this content space where I’ve lived in many different rooms throughout my professional life. I’m feeling big-time gratitude to all the readers who have subscribed and hopefully are by turns amused, enlightened or inspired by some little tidbit somewhere along the way.
8 Reasons to Read Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver
Hands-down, this is my top book pick of the last year. It’s incredible for so many reasons, and these are just a few.
1. You were struck to the core by Dopesick. Did you see this miniseries with Michael Keaton playing a kind-hearted Appalachian doctor turned addict? Kingsolver’s masterpiece pulses with the same humanity, rings with the same truth—how powerful forces in the larger world converge upon a poor, rural place and swallow innocence whole. If you liked Dopesick, you’ll fall for Demon Copperhead.
2. You like to earn your happy endings. I’m not giving anything away to tell you that the protagonist does find his way to some semblance of hope for a non-f*cked-up life. The end.
3. You have at some point questioned the ultimate value of capitalism. Honestly, Kingsolver kind of tucks this one in there but it’s really stuck with me. Going way, way back to the time of the founding of our country, areas like Lee County, Virginia, where Demon Copperhead unfolds, operated in a very communal fashion. They cared for each other’s children, traded for whiskey and bartered with their neighbors for crops, food and goods. When the federal government levied a tax on homemade whiskey, this community fabric started to unravel. The spirit is still willing among the native folk, but the system has torn unmendable holes in the fabric.
4. You love it when love prevails. There’s a very un-sappy romance threaded through this novel, and it might not be one you expect.
5. You want to deeply understand the systems and circumstances that have created our opioid crisis. Listen to narrator Damon Copperhead for just a few pages, with his wry gallows humor and his pure, wounded heart and try to maintain a belief that it’s an addict’s own fault for getting addicted. If this kid doesn’t break your heart, it might be made of stone.
6. You crave a good cry. Readers, this one had me in tears in multiple tough spots. You’ll get a front-row seat to watch Damon become an orphan, fall into foster care horror, find a family and a fast track to athletic stardom, only to see it all quickly crumble and become a hopeless mess.
7. You’re already a huge Barbara Kingsolver fan. And why wouldn’t you be? This lady is a masterful writer, sweeping you into her world with a swift current beyond resistance.
8. You totally believe Virginia is for lovers. The setting for this novel is heartbreakingly breathtaking. I drove through Virginia shortly after reading Demon Copperhead, and I was gobsmacked by its wildly gorgeous landscape, with its rolling green mountains, craggy ancient rock formations and expressive skies. That such devastation could take place against such a beautiful landscape is a painful juxtaposition.
