If you know any of these names, the most notable is Maria Shriver. We know her as the former First Lady of California and the person who lead the Governor’s Conference for Women in Long Beach, Calif. Despite having covered that conference for 4 years, been at events where Shriver was present and even been on a phone interview with her, I have never met her and I am sure she has never heard my name.
Wendi Knox is another prominent name –particularly in Los Angeles. She’s a writer, artist and former (exceptional) advertising executive. She has a blog and a book entitled Oh My Goddess: unzipping your inner joy.
Then there’s me, Stevie Wilson. I am no where near as famous or well-known as Shriver or Knox–though in certain circles online I am well known for my blog and my participation/creation in online sites; events that tie brick & mortar stores with websites; print and online magazines; and my blog.
So if you asked someone online who are these three women, definitely Shriver would win out, Knox would probably come up second because of her work in advertising and I come up third (or maybe tie with Wendi Knox).
I know Wendi through her blog via First Tuesday- an LA & Chicago-based women’s network that encourages women to share their contacts, knowledge and network with others. It is a group I am part of as well as Wendi Knox. I know Maria Shriver doesn’t belong –she has plenty of connections. Not that she wouldn’t be welcome but I have to say that First Tuesday’s members might know Shriver but the group as a whole isn’t part of Shriver’s circle of “go-to” contacts.
Where does the intersect occur for this post? That’s the reason for this post.
I don’t exactly know.
If you look at Shriver’s blog post on Feb 1, 2012, it’s credited to Wendi Knox–and it’s linked directly to Knox and you can clearly see her website and follow her on Twitter.
Why am I talking about these two ladies? What’s the point of this post?
Someone online sent me an email asking me about Maria Shriver’s blog post about
Oh My Goddess: unzipping your inner joy and the artwork that accompanies it.
Here’s the email:
Message:
who painted the piece for “Unzip Your Inner Happiness” article in Maria Shriver’s blog?.
thank you.
I picked up this message on my cell phone because it has an auto-responder for anyone emailing my blog that it’s primarily a contest entry email and I provide another email address. However this person didn’t reach out to me at that email address.
I did reply to this person in typical quick twitter-like fashion:
Why are u asking ME about maria shriver’s blog? I dont work for/with shriver & most likely she has no clue who I am. If you emailed me it would gave been clear that the post was abt wendi knox book. Why not contact wendi?.. And she does her own artwork. How did u connect me to this?
(the weird sentence should have read ” if you read the blog post instead of emailing me, it would have been clear that the post was about wendi knox’s book.” What happened to my reply is still in my missing link other than I know that the phone has been very difficult of late. It hasn’t been functioning well based on what I am seeing in my text messages and tweets.)
While my answer in part makes little sense other than to go back to Shriver’s blog and ask the author –which is Wendi Knox and clearly marked. I was trying to figure out how she connected me to this other than I wrote a post when I discovered Wendi Knox via a First Tuesday email/newsletter and I clicked on a link. I wrote two posts about her (June, 2011 & November, 2011). I have met Wendi in person at a First Tuesday event and we have exchanged a few emails about her book and I need to circle back and complete the idea that she and I had (an interview) about her life and her view of life now that she has totally changed hers.
However when I looked at the blog post, I found nothing in it remotely connecting me to the entire question, book, blog post, artwork. So the most important comments in my reply (despite it’s disjointed and mishandling of one sentence completely). I wanted to know how this person got me involved in providing her the information about the book, the post, the artwork when it was all there for her to see — including Wendi Knox answering comments on that blog post after Maria Shriver had read the book and asked Wendi’s permission to use her post about it.
How do I know that? Because I read about the post in the First Tuesday email newsletter. I also visited Maria Shriver’s blog and went through 3 pages to Feb 1 post featuring Wendi Knox’s commentary and artwork.
This all occurred before the Independent Spirit Awards (which I was covering) and the Oscars and if you have seen my blog it’s full of stuff on Grammys, swag suites, red carpet fashion. In other words, I am working on a weekend, I am busy, I am resizing photos, putting together a lot of stuff.
I spent 30 minutes sifting through Shriver’s blog and checking all the links and making sure that the site had provided all the information that anyone would need to know about the author of the post, how to reach her and the book. I also had to hunt down things in my blog and found I didn’t feature her book or that image. I haven’t talked about it.
I did get a reply from the person who queried me:
I don’t know but why be an as* about it? there was no place on the article to contact her.
Clearly the person hasn’t read the entire Shriver post or realized that there is a ton of information. Calling me an “as*” (you know what she means, right?), and not even answering the essential question of “why are you coming to me?” about this. I would think that asking Shriver’s people who manage her blog would have been the ideal source since it’s clear you can email Shriver’s blog.
How did I become the source/resource of information on all things about Maria Shriver and her blog?
If this person googled me and found the blog posts about Wendi Knox I had written, there are ample links to Wendi Knox but it doesn’t mention her book or feature that art work.
Again– I am asking, when it comes to Maria Shriver’s blog and Wendi Knox’s post on that blog on 2/1/2012, how did I become the person with all the answers?
I will reply with an answer to this person. But I would REALLY like to know why she emailed me about this. I would think Shriver’s people would have been a better source OR even Wendi Knox–since she was clearly replying to people in the comment section–if the person bothered to look. I bet it’s the cover of the book.
But at this point, while I have lots of answers — some of them tongue in cheek– I am not the universal source to answer questions. I am not an encyclopedia and the person wasted more than 30 minutes of my time while I tried to figure out what it was that she was seeking and why she couldn’t find it on the blog when the information is clearly there. I know it is. I spent 30 minutes checking it again.
I guess that makes me an “as*” doesn’t it– or just stupid to bother doing this person’s homework. And I have yet to get the answer–why me.
I did reply to her– an extensive reply that again asked “why did you pick me?”. I reviewed Maria Shrivers blog in depth and there are lots of contact spots and also the post itself features a bio of Wendi Knox at the end that includes that she is an artist, author and more along with her contact information. It’s in the first page and second page of the post. I even found the image in question hyper-linked. I checked my blog and found that I had talked about Wendi Knox twice- once in spring and once in late fall. Yet I didn’t mention her book or feature the image in question. And I included all this information in the email.
I did express some regret that I had been a bit curt but that the person had caught me on the third busiest weekend for me in the year and that typically I would never have replied or quickly.
Anyway– I got an answer and here it is exactly:
” MG are u that important? Ornery comes to mind. but, anyway, thank you for the information”
That’s it. a slam along with a begrudging thank you.
So person who emailed me, thanks for the comment. I sent you a proper reply and yeah.. I should probably have not sent that reply to you from my cell phone.. but I was trying to get an answer to the question–why me? Maria Shriver doesn’t pay me and nor does Wendi Knox. I can show you how to find the information that you seek, but I would charge you for it. I get paid for my time and now that I have at least made some profit for helping you out and being called an “as*” .
I am not the “answer girl”.
Also I did make sure that Wendi Knox got the scoop that you had a question about her image/artwork. I didn’t tell her your name and I didn’t tell her about the rather interesting conversation between us. Perhaps one day you will figure out that you went to the wrong person and didn’t even say please when asking for help and when you were asked a question you repeatedly ignored answering it. (like how did you put me into the equation when Wendi Knox’s blog comes up before mine when one puts her name into Google).
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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