Daily Archives: November 12, 2017

Loss for Words by @DeniseMColby

I’m at a loss for words. 

Me.  Someone who can talk incessantly. Who never seems to max out my words each day.

Why is it when I don’t have time to write, ideas and words flow in my mind? When I’m driving, in the shower, at a kids event.  It seems that I have no issue coming up with blog post ideas and story ideas to explore or messages to write.  I’m just not in a position to actually write them.

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But today?  Nothing.  I even left my house to work specifically on my NaNo work and write my blog post and guess what?  My brain is mush.  I want to curl up and take a nap.

Actually I think it’s because I’m exhausted.  My bandwidth is maxed.  And there’s good reason.

My husband and I are coaching my younger son’s robotics team.  We have our FIRST Lego League tournament this weekend and we’ve been pulling more than double shifts.

We have six 7^th graders on our team.  Our robotics table is a large table with Lego missions all over it and our robot is made out of Lego’s.  We program it to accomplish as many missions as possible in 2 1/2 minutes.  Pretty cool.

But wait, there’s more.

We have a five minute project presentation as well.  Each year is a different theme and we have to find a real world problem within the theme and innovate a new solution.  This years theme is Hydro Dynamics.  Anything to do with human use of water.

As the kids did their initial research, they stumbled onto how much water is used to make shirts.  The information we found out is fascinating.  Textile mills all over the world use a process called Wet Processing to shape, color and finish clothing.  Not only do they use A LOT of water, the runoff is full of chemicals, so the water is not reused and pollutes the environment.

There are a number of solutions out there but there are over 15,000 mills in China alone.  So getting each and every one to change takes time and money.  And honestly their isn’t enough incentive to change.

Some brands such as Nike, Adidas, Levi and Patagonia are doing something about it and we reached out to several of them.  Eileen Fisher gave us the most detailed information.  We talked with their R&D chemist and learned more than we could ever put into our presentation.  But she gave us the idea we needed for our solution.

See most of us don’t know water is used to make shirts.  So awareness is key.  If you can change people’s buying habits, it just might be the catalyst for real change.  If we ask our favorite brands if they track and measure their water use, they in turn will ask their suppliers.

So the kids created a website to build awareness and tell people what they can do to help.  We tie-dyed our own shirts and learned first-hand how much water is needed to rinse off the dye.  We made word searches and coloring pages, as well as a glossary page of all the terms they learned over the past ten weeks. They showed to it to their friends, teachers and families and asked them to take a survey.  Out of 38 respondents, 61% didn’t know that water was used to make shirts and 68% said they would change how they shop.  We took all this information and put it into a presentation. And the kids created a fun skit to go with it.

They decided to call themselves Fiber Friends (think justice league – Fiber Friends Unite).  Water waster owns a textile plant and wastes water.  Batman, Flash, Blue Lantern, Aquaman and Wonder Woman (we have one girl and 5 boys on the team), capture Water Waster and upgrade the plant to save water.  They do a great job and have lots of fun at the same time.

What I love about it is it’s just another form of storytelling and I’ve been able to help guide them in creating it.  They learn so much with this entire program – research, problem solving, presentation skills, working together as a team.

I’ll have to update you on how we do, but in the meantime if you want to take a look at their website, here’s the link: https://ffunite.wixsite.com/fiberfriendsunite

Hugs & Blessings,

Denise

Although new to the writing fiction world, Denise Colby has over 20+ years experience in marketing, creating different forms of content and copy for promotional materials. Taking the lessons learned from creating her own author brand Denise M. Colby, Denise enjoys sharing her combined knowledge with other authors.

If you are interested in a marketing evaluation and would like help in developing a strategy for your author brand you can find out more here http://denisemcolby.com/marketing-for-authors/