Let me begin by saying that despite my now long-running "foray" into the digital media space I have never considered myself a digital media "enthusiast." After all, the word "enthusiast" denotes someone who is truly passionate about what they do and while I have always had a love of marketing I have not always had a passion for the digital media space. Nor a hate. I suppose I was simply indifferent. I mean, what is "digital media" anyway? And, you've likely noticed by now that I don't use quotation marks sparingly. I'm a "fingers-hanging-around-my-head-in-quotes kind of gal." That information is important to you, as the reader, because it sets the tone for this article.

Roughly two months ago my friend forwarded me a link to a website and told me to check it out because it was "cool." (There it is again). So I went to www.slingbox.com and in fact agreed with said friend that it WAS cool. I started poking around and found that they were promoting a contest at that time. I read on. The contest was looking for "stand up comedy" submissions that featured their product, the Slingbox (a device you set up in your home that "slings" your favorite television shows and recorded programs to your laptop no matter where in the world you are).

This got me to thinking. I had engaged in stand up comedy years ago and wondered if I could pull something like this off. I mean, the prize was $10,000 and who couldn't use a little extra holiday dough? So I got to brainstorming and I reviewed the submissions already posted to get a pulse on my competition. They sucked. That inspired me because if there's one thing I like more than a challenge, it's a challenge I'm fairly certain I can win!

Fast forward a week. I've come up with an idea that ventures beyond traditional thinking - certainly with "stand up" being the primary parameter. I would write a song featuring the Slingbox and then produce a video to accommodate it! And....drum roll.....I did! ME! The person who doesn't sing, own a video recorder of any kind, nada. But this shows you the lengths I will go to to hear the words "you've won!".

Sadly (yes, there's always one of those in a story like this one), I somehow "missed" (read: the webmaster missed) the submission deadline and I didn't make it into the contest. HOWEVER, being the savvy marketer that I am, I sent my well-crafted, finely honed piece of work to the PR, head of Marketing, and Biz Dev folks over there at Slingbox and lo and behold got their attention!

I didn't win the 10 gees...but I did win a Slingbox for my efforts ($150 value)! That's nothing to sneeze at! Better yet, the creative process, kudos from countless friends and co-workers, and opportunity to look at myself for hours on end resulted in a new hobby. A hobby that over the past two months has (some might say) become an obsession! I prefer the word enthusiast myself. But whatev.

This is how it all got started - my passion for video making and songwriting. And I thought you should know this going into my article so that you a) better understand who I am as a person b) keep up with my video making evolution and c) get inspired to possibly do something like this for yourself (start checking YouTube community for new contests all the time!)

I never thought I'd be someone to actually use one of our products (terrible as that sounds) but now Creator 10 has become an invaluable resource to me. Check out my Slingbox video and it will all make sense. ;)

Enjoy!

(Oh, and good luck because any contest you enter that I'm already entered in will end in swift defeat). Insert evil laugh here.