Name These Cards! (please)

Name these Be The Gold cards. (Photo credit Vistaprint.)

I came across an ad for quite a few business cards for only $10 from Vistaprint one night and decided to take them up on their deal. I designed these cards and place my order only to get a second offer at the checkout of a FREE 3 foot banner as well. I quickly whipped up a banner image, uploaded and ordered one. I was quite pleased with myself. 

Be The Gold banner

I am paying for all material for this campaign out of my pocket via selling some stuff on my local garage sale Facebook group, so I do my best to keep everything low to no budget but still maintain a high quality campaign. I was so pleased with not only the cost of these cards but how they turned out. For a while now, I have been asked by people for some sort of business card with Be The Gold's info and these totally fit the bill. 




Now for a more clever name than "business cards" because that name isn't very accurate because Be The Gold is not a business. (It doesn't sound very cool either.) They are really more like word-of mouth cards. I envision them being perpetually handed out; never being kept but always being passed along to new people as this movement spreads. 

So that's where you come in! I need your help to name these cards with a cool, clever, catchy, informative name. I will be taking suggestions until Sept 7th. The winning name will be picked by me and the winning suggester will receive 2 dozen of these cards as a gift. (Sorry shipping to USA and Canada only. For duplicate suggestions, prize will go to the person that commented first). To enter, comment on the Facebook status/photo about this blog post. 

So get your creative thinking caps on and suggest away!

Monitors, Festivals and All-Stars.... oh my!

I feel so much has been going on and not enough has ended up on this blog, so I thought I would do a quick "catch up" post.

Monitor at local library

 1.) If you're local, the library is now featuring Be The Gold on the welcome monitor. I really like this idea of having a Be The Gold ad on public advertising monitors. There are so many out there, this might be a great way to reach more people. If you have a monitor in your place of work or community or in a high-traffic area you know of, please let me know in the comments or use the contact form on the website.

BE THE GOLD was at Celebrate Youth

2.) Be The Gold was at "Celebrate Youth" yesterday. It was a blast! For those of you not close by, "Celebrate Youth" is a big event setup and run by the school district. It is a last-day-of-summer celebration given the day before school starts. It is an all-day festival with free carnival games and activities, free prizes, free food, free everything. It attracts a lot of people and they estimated about 20k people showed up to partake of the fun. Each carnival booth is "sponsored" by a local business or group, but because the cost of the event is covered by the school district, the only thing supplied by the business or groups to sponsor is man-power in the form of volunteers. I was lucky enough to know several awesome young women that agreed to help me out at the event. They did an amazing job! I couldn't ask for better helpers!

Experimenting with new All-Star app tab

3.) I am experimenting with a new "All-Stars" app tab on the Facebook page. It gives points to Be The Gold Facebook fans for each like, share and comment. Basically, it recognizes the top Facebook participants. The more you like, share and comment, the more you are helping spread the word. FYI, Facebook fan pages, gather a lot of data such as "Fan Reach" and even ranks each Be The Gold status and picture I post with its "Virality". Each time you like, share and comment on a status or picture, the "Virality" of that post goes up as well as Be The Gold's overall "Fan Reach". I am not too familiar with this app and not entirely sure I will keep it. It depends on the Facebook fan's response to it. So let me know what you think.


More updates to coming soon. We are revving up for September as it is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. There are plenty of fun and exciting things in store!

Get your GOLD on!

Instructions on how to print can be seen on How to BE THE GOLD #7

I am exhausted.... but it's a good exhausted.

Just a quick post tonight. I have gotten a few emails from people wondering how they can get their hands on a BE THE GOLD badge. I am thrilled people are embracing this idea! The badges can be easily printed out for free.

Here are the links:

-One badge per sheet

-9 badges per sheet 

Just click on the print icon and print. 

To help others find the links, I installed a permanent clickable button on the website's footer. It should make getting your GOLD on much easier! 

Good night all.

Meant To Be

Firefighters' photo shoot

Lots going on behind the scenes. So little time to blog.

Today we got to continue shooting photo sessions, this time with a group of firefighters. As promised, this shoot boosted the testosterone on the website's pictures, which up until now were all pretty much female. It was a fun shoot. The guys were easy to work with and good-natured. The weather wasn't as cooperative though with quite a bit of overcast and on-and-off rain. We managed to get all the shots we needed regardless and we are so happy how they turned out! Mindy was a trooper again and even laid on the wet sidewalk to get a few shots.

On a side note, I hadn't ever had the chance to see the firetrucks since moving to town. Not many fires around here, I guess. It was a happy surprise to arrive at the fire station to find all the trucks were a golden color. It was like it was meant to be.

We have a few more sessions which we hope to complete before month's end. Stay tuned!

Behind the scenes at the session

When I Say "Be The", You say "Gold"!

Reaching new heights with BE THE GOLD!

What a fun morning! We got to hang out with a stellar group of guys and girls. They were so polished, coordinated and enthusiastic, they could only be cheerleaders! I have never seen a group so in sync and easily directed before. It was amazing to see close up. The group consisted of almost 20 teens (only 5 pictured in photo above). With a group that size, the session could have easily gone south pretty quickly or at least taken FOREVER to complete, but this group were a joy to work with and we finished in record time.

Mindy and her husband at work.

Mindy and her husband were the other half of today's success. Mindy is always patient, creative and awesome at directing. She brought her "A" game with this session, capturing some amazing photos. The photo above always makes me smile. Every time I look at it I just feel motivated. I hope others feel the same sentiment.

Later this week, we will be shooting some more sessions. So far, the demographic of models have been young and feminine. There will be more masculine types coming soon, I promise.

If you haven't already,  please like and share Be The Gold on Facebook. We are almost at 1100. I think with a little elbow grease we could reach 2000 in no time. Let's make it happen!

Is this real life?

Preview photo from today's shoot for Be The Gold

Another photo shoot completed; this time with two beautiful and talented young ladies. Seriously photogenic, these girls completely rocked it modeling for photos today! They were so awesome, I could have mistaken them for professional models. They never complained as we moved them and posed them in, sometimes, the most awkward situations. They were great sports.

I wish I would have taken some behind-the-scenes pictures of the photo session. Mindy's husband would sometimes hold up a giant reflector to adjust the light. Couple that with Mindy's monster camera and two gorgeous girls posing, our little group definitely turned a few heads on the street.

Monday marks another photo session. It will be our first group shoot. I am really excited about it. I am sure the photos will come out just as stunning as the ones taken so far. Looking at the pictures on my computer now, I feel like they are out of a dream...like not real life. Then I realize that I was there... at the shoot. This IS really happening. This IS awesome. Makes me feel like I want to burst because YES, this IS real life!

Things are Developing... no pun intended!

Preview of photos for Be The Gold

Things are definitely coming along!

I am most excited by the amazing photos soon to be posted on our website and various social medias. The above picture is a preview of those pics. I think they came out stunning. Mindy from Mindy Weston Photography was amazing at not only being professional and patient in setting up the shots but also in capturing what I had envisioned in my head for the photos all along. She has been a major blessing in this project!

We have a quite a few other photo sessions to complete with various other models. By the way, Brittney, the lovely lady in the preview photo, is Dallin's Sunday school teacher. She is beautiful inside and out. We had a lot of fun at her shoot and even had time to get some super cute pictures with her and the adorable scene stealer, Tucker, her maltipoo puppy.

For this photo shoot, I was looking for pictures of shopper going about her errands striking up a conversation with a clerk via her Gold name tag. This word of mouth situation is a perfect example of what Be The Gold is all about. Brittney's mom just so happens to own the trendiest most fashionable shop in town, LuLu Bella's. It was the perfect setting for the pics. I must admit I had never been to the shop before the shoot and I was so impressed with the decor and level of detail in the store. So well done!


Tomorrow has plenty more work in store. Another photoshoot, more emailng and phone calls, lots of planning.... the list goes on. It is truly a labor of love!

Almost Ready

There has been so much work put into this campaign. So much behind the scenes, I thought it would be nice to document it all with a blog.

During this journey, I have met so many amazing people that have blown me away with their generosity and willingness to help. People's support and kind words keep my engine going on those nights I am feeling exhausted or overwhelmed. As all the pieces start falling to place, I realize that I would never be able to do this without the support of my loved ones, the community and even (eventually) the whole nation.

One of those big pieces completed (or almost completed) this week, has been a new website. I gave designing it on my own a go and it turned out awesome (...if I do say so myself). I am so pleased with it. Top it off with a .99cent domain purchase from godaddy and I was off to the races. I say it is ALMOST done because the photos on the main page need to be updated. The current ones are "stand-in" pictures.

In fact, today was the first photo shoot for the new photographs. I am sooo excited about them. More info on them in an upcoming post. But for now, I am happy with the progress so far and know that the best is yet to come!

Preview of new website for Be The Gold.