Living Young & Free Show 011: Taxes, Relief Work and Lessons Learned

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome to episode 11. Joshua from Texas finds out how young people are preparing for tax season, Chris from Alabama looks at how you can get involved in relief work and Myles from Alberta shares the five lessons he’s learned in his time as spokester.
 
If you missed Chris’ list of ways that you can text to donate, here it is again:

• Text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 to Red Cross
• Text YELE to 501501 to donate $5 to Yele
• Text HAITI to 864833 to donate $5 to United Way
• Text CERF to 90999 to donate $5 to UN Foundation
• Text DISASTER to 90999 to donate $10 to Comp. Intl. 

AND, following up on our contest from episode 10 (where we had you count the number of times that the number 10 was mentioned and e-mail the correct answer to livingyoungandfree@gmail.com) we drew a winner. Geoff Heith has won the Flip video camera. Geoff be sure to e-mail us your address!

You can also download all of the episode as a podcast from iTunes. 

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20 years and 20 lessons learned

By Tim McAlpine

In January 1990, mid way through my final year of art school, I started a business. I was 20 at the time, had zero qualifications to be a businessman and had only had one real job (if you don't count paperboy at 12 and the fry guy at McDonald's at 14). That one real job was a part-time sign painter in high school and college. I am really dating myself, but my time at art school didn't even include computers (yikes).

20 years later and half my life invested in this business, I've learned a few things.

1. Do what you love
2. Work with people and companies you respect
3. Tell the truth
4. Get really good at something
5. Never stop learning
6. Abandon what's not working
7. Learn to say no
8. Don't take it too personal
9. Strive to achieve a work-life balance
10. Give your people freedom to excel and to fail
11. Have a vision and stand for something
12. Differentiate your offering
13. Don't underestimate the power of luck
14. Learn from your mistakes
15. Don't be afraid to ask for help
16. Treat people well
17. Not everyone will believe in what you are trying to do
18. Don't steal ideas
19. Never screen back red, it just turns pink
20. Laugh often

Thanks to everyone who has enabled me to do what I love and here's hoping for another fun 20 years.

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Young & Free presentation for NCUF REAL Solutions

By Tim McAlpine

Yesterday, DeAndré and I joined Brent Dixon for a presentation at the REAL Solutions Winter Field Coach and League Liaison Meeting in Orlando, Florida. Brent set the stage with a 30 minute overview of social media and user-generated content and then DeAndré and I split the next hour talking about Young & Free. 

Here are the slides from DeAndré and my portion of the presentation.

Thanks to the National Credit Union Foundation for inviting us out to share our progress!

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Living Young & Free Show 010: $10 Dates, the 70-20-10 Rule and 10 Finance Tips

By Tim McAlpine

Welcome our 10th episode—it's all about 2010! Chris from Alabama shares date ideas for less than $10, Josh from South Carolina explains the 70-20-10 rule and Myles from Alberta has 10 tips to improve your finances in 2010.

We are running a contest an added bonus to this episode. Count the number of times that everyone mentions the word 10 during this episode, e-mail the correct answer to livingyoungandfree@gmail.com and you are entered to win a Flip video camera. And we mean every time we say 10, even if the 10 is within 2010!

You can also download all of the episode as a podcast from iTunes. Special thanks to Matthew Hawkins for filming Cheryl's segments for this episode.

Enjoy!

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A new decade with a new site, a new employee and other new stuff!

By Tim McAlpine

I'm very excited to introduce the brand new YoungFreeHQ.com. I wrote a blog post describing the role of the new site on the new site, so I won't bother doubling up here. Please check it out and subscribe to our new Why Gen Y Blog.

I'm also super excited to announce that we have hired DeAndre' Upshaw, the former 2009 Young & Free Texas Spokesperson. Again, I've described what DeAndre' will be up to on the same blog post. Welcome aboard DeAndre'!

We will be shutting down our LivingYoungAndFree.com site within the next couple of weeks and will be encouraging members of that site to become a fan of our new Facebook fan page. We've also set up a new Twitter account to follow as well. Please add us in one or both spots if you are interested.

While the Ning social network, Living Young & Free, served the need of being a central site, it lacked a defined purpose and audience. Members include a few credit union industry folks combined with a few young people that happened to find it. In the end, Facebook and Twitter do a much better job at being social networks! Live, learn and move forward.

The new site is 100% credit-union-industry focussed and won't compete at all with our regional consumer-focussed Young & Free sites. I am really excited about the new site and I hope you are too.

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