Twitter #FollowFriday list

"Too often, we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." -- Leo Buscaglia

I've been doing my best to change my way of life for the past two years and only recently has it gotten easier for me, but alas, I'm still growing. I want to be surrounded by people who make me a better person, virtual or not. I want to continue to pursue and change my attitude so that instead instead of walking "a mile in someone shoes", I'm constantly learning and growing with them. This life is all we have and I want to make the most of it.

"Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Continue to learn. Appreciate your friends. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is." -- Mary Anne Radmacher

I have many followers and I'm proud of this. I feel like I have 10 new people I want others to know and 10 people who I'm constantly mentioning on Twitter for others to follow. This is a list of people who encourage me daily, in one way or another and I appreciate the relationship I have with each one, for different reasons. People I meet along the way on Twitter, I will most likely add to this list.

Here's people who I follow that definitely stick with me and I think of through-out most of my days during the week.

@PRSarahEvans; location - Elgin, Illinois. I'm a huge, huge fan of Sarah's. Never met her in real life, but plan on attempting to make that happen in 2010. She is an entrepreneur and began her own media consulting company, Sevans Strategy, in 2009. She is the founder of #journchat, the top-trending weekly live chat between PR professionals, journalists and bloggers, taking place on Monday evenings. She is also a guest-writer for Mashable, founded by Pete Cashmore (@mashable) which is one of the most popular social media blogs in the world. You can also find her on Facebook, and at any given time, she's bound to be wearing one of these --after all, someday she just might own them! ;)

@Scott_Bryant; location - Portland. Scott loves to make you laugh, is a great photographer and is a lover of life who opens my eyes through his blog. I'm looking forward to meeting him this year, most likely this summer. He's a great friend, has a huge huge heart and makes animated voice-overs that are entertaining in a way that make you smile because you know he's having fun and is testing out new areas. Add him on Facebook, click on his videos, and you'll see what I mean.

His catch phrase seems to be "never put all of your eggs in one basket." He's a smart guy.


@RochelleVeturis; location - Orange County, California. Rochelle brings inspiration to my life, is a great mentor, advocate, peer, lover of life, Tweet Meet Ups and belongs to the #OCTriumvirate (she's the oldest and her sisters are listed next on my list). They also have @ourdogally, who is probably the most popular pup on Twitter. So many amazing things to say about this lady and I'm thankful to have found her on Twitter.


@ChelseyVeturis; location - Orange County, California. Chelsey is funny, inspirational, lover of life and understands not only how to form relationships, but keeps her relationship with those she runs into growing. It's not an easy thing to do as we all know.



@ReporterHaley; location - Orange County, California. Haley has so much going for her! Check out her DNA Blog! This girl has got it going on. I love her attitude and the way she carries herself. She's sweet, fun and I enjoy our conversations!


@PaulTTran; location - Orange County, California. Paul is a comedian in his other life. Funny, inspiring, businessman, knowledgeable, keeps in close contact with you and cares about people. Apparently he's broken a few karaoke machines --according to his bio on Twitter-- and this made me laugh in a very good way. I think he loves singing as much as I do. Someday, we'll sing a duet together. Oh and if you ever get sick of my hashtag humor *nudges Paul*, I blame it aaaaaaaaall on this guy! ;)


@TCTHURHAPPYHOUR; location - Minneapolis. I've met Jeff Nolan in person once; great guy who means well. He's the founder of Twin Cities Thursday Happy Hour. It's a very popular event where you meet other business people for drinks once a month, generally downtown Minneapolis and it's typically the 3rd Thursday of every month. You can check out more here.



@Lotay; location - Los Angeles. Lotay Yang is the CEO of Black Card Circle and when I catch his tweets, I know he means business. That's the main reason I follow him. I like my humor, but business is business. I plan on meeting him this summer as well when I visit SoCal, if it all works out well that is. He's so busy!



@GlobalPatriot; location - San Diego. Mark Lovett is a great friend of mine who I'll also be meeting with this summer. His Web site is very informative about what's going on in the world and I don't get nearly enough chances to talk with him as much as I'd like to. He's a kind-hearted man who seems to always be willing to go out of his way to make the world we live in a better place.


@kshoop; location - Minneapolis. I met Katie in person shortly after we were connected on Twitter. She is the host of #YPCTC on Twitter and there's also a YPCTC Facebook fan page . Great individual whose smart, savvy, lives with intention, challenges herself in different ways when she gets stuck, we can bounce ideas off each other. All sorts of fun things come to mind that I wouldn't have thought of before when we get really 'deep' into our conversations. I really like PR people like her.


@DannyBrown; location - Burlington, ON, Canada. CEO of 12for12K and you can read all about it here. He's making a difference once again by raising more funds for Haiti. I don't think he needs anymore of an introduction. :)


@Admore; location - Detroit, Michigan. David is always in the back of my mind pushing me to thinking 'small', but do big things in relations to something I randomly one day decided to call #RRTweetMeetUp. The first one is apparently taking place next Thursday, Jan. 28 here. David is indefinitely a "sky is the limit" kind of guy, much like @RobertStanke, which is why I enjoy the company of these guys. A hashtag that David has 'made' me become familiar with? #MakeItHappen. I like it. I have a lot of learning yet to do and he's another mentor of mine!


@RobertStanke; location - Minneapolis. Bob is a colleague of mine at Life Time Fitness, Inc., who I'm looking forward to collaborating with in the near future. He has big ideas, always stretches for better ways make "this" or "that" easier or better and more convenient for us to live this life with even more intention. He listens, executes, he pushes himself to try new things and is a very, very busy guy with a lot on his plate right now. But, there is much that I even have yet to learn from him and I think you'd learn a lot from him too if you submerge yourself into his world.


@SimonlLeung; location - EVERYWHERE. Simon Leung is the guy who seems to always wear sunglasses, is traveling and is never in one place for longer than one month or so. He's an online marketer and you can get to know him much better here.



@MissMotorMouth; location - Los Angeles. Michelle loves cars. She loves to blog about cars, too. In fact, I'm a big fan and I'm somewhat of a gear head myself, but I trust few people when it comes to mechanics since I'm very much weary of being ripped off, just because I'm a female. So, why not turn to an expert? Michelle is funny, sweet and has great advice. She might even be able to help you solve your car troubles.


@Switchfoot; location - San Diego (and everywhere else). Switchfoot is Jon Foreman, Tim Foreman, Chad Butler, Jerome Fontamillas and Drew Shirley. My opinion is obviously completely biased, but these guys are about as down to earth as can be, yet their music/lyrics is powerful beyond my own explination. They live very private personal lives, yet reach millions of people and changes lives with their music. I first fell in love with their song Dare You To Move back in 2002 or 2003 when I saw the movie A Walk To Remember. There's no "specific" reason for you to follow them. They're just an amazing band whose music and messages I've fallin in love with.
I met Jon Foreman back in October 2009. I'll just say, he didn't seem to thrilled to take the picture, but I was estatic to have the chance to meet him in Minneapolis after the Music Builds Tour.

I'm going to end this with the following:

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for never and richer experience." -- Eleanor Roosevelt

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. DISCOVER." -- Unknown

To those of you who push me everyday, thank you. I appreciate it more than you'll ever know.