Julie Fouque

I'm Julie Fouque, a technology marketer and avid fan of proactive leadership, or more specifically, people who inspire. A francophile since birth, I've grown my wings as a marketer for global technology companies. A CMO once called me the "content queen" because I love to churn out effective content for the purpose at hand. Whether or not it's true, I was flattered. So here I am with my own content platform on technology and leadership topics that dominate my world.

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Love this advice: What were the three times in your career when you were the happiest, the most successful, and the most fulfilled and what were you doing? Find an opportunity that matches those.

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In digital content delivery, money talks. A Web "fast lane" is on the horizon for content providers that can afford it.

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Wow, where will technology take us in 20 more years?!

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This is my favorite quote,"What motivates us is the reality of our customers." Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO

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My friend Theresa and I completed a fantastic, year-long leadership program with the Women's Vision Leadership program. She keeps on top of techniques to keep us all wiser in our leadership skills like in this clip from Verus Global. Do you use this technique? Do you know to what extent your staff feels fulfilled? Check out this and other tips from Verus.

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A walk down internet memory lane...

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I don't want a smaller tablet. I want a bigger phone...so it goes with the "phablet."

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Could a Stylish Panic Button Replace the Wrist Watch?

There are some things I can't leave the house without. If I do, I feel off balance, or as if there's a void that won't be filled until I recover whatever that item is.

It used to be my wrist watch. I've been wearing one as long as I can remember. It used to be a practical piece of jewelry, and I really did use it to tell the time.

Now-a-days, I put it on out of habit. More to balance a bracelet I usually wear on my other wrist. Like so many other people, though, I find myself constantly in front of a computer or clutching a smartphone or tablet. I no longer have a need to look past a screen to find the time on my wrist. I even find myself putting on my watch out of loyalty to the past.

      Now I may have found something that may cause me to retire my wrist watch for good. It's a stylish bracelet with a panic button. Ok, so  Cuff, the start-up company that came up with the idea, doesn't call it that but it's the essential selling point.

Billed as a security bracelet, these are fashionable bracelets, necklaces, and even a key chain with a GPS built in. The idea is you program it with the people who should be notified should you hit your panic button, and they'll get notified by a buzz. The waterproof device reveals your location so those on your panic list know where you are.

My first reaction when I saw these fashionable security devices was that they're for the paranoid. My second thought was, "Gee, did't I get my kids cell phones so they can call me in an emergency?" 

I think about my kids getting to and home from school safely. I think about all the jogs I didn't go on because I was a single female who was alone. I think about being on the road and running into some kind of un-forseen emergency only to discover my cell phone has poor service or no charge. And that's as carried away as I'll get.

While I'm not pre-ordering a Cuff bracelet today (you can pre-order them now for their release later this year), I'm glad to see someone has come out with a simple, stylish, tech-savvy device with a practical purpose. 

Check them out. Watch the Cuff promotional video. Read about Cuff in The New York Times.

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A good read to help navigate consumer tech options.

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Consumers have now bought almost one billion smartphones...

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This morning I went to Best Buy with my son to get a pair of headphones. He got his first pair of super cooling looking headphones, the kind that Michael Phelps wore during the Beijing Olympics. My son was thrilled and thought I was the best mom in the world. What he didn't know was that the trip to Best Buy also included scoping out an iPod touch for his 10-year old sister. It feels like three iPod shuffles, an iPad, an iMac, an old iBook, a PC with Windows 8, and a hand-me-down MacBook, iPod, and iPhone 4 are enough gadgets. Nevertheless, as his younger sister has pointed out several times, my daughter hasn't jumped on the hand-me-down electronics and big brother monopolizes every device. My son suffered through nearly an hour of me quizzing the sales guy on the difference between iPod Nano and iPod Touch, the various sizes of iPod Touch, cases, colors, iTunes accounts, parental controls, activating the device, and more. With the nifty headphones in the bag and an iHome charger/clock-radio for a new iPod Touch, we headed across the street to the Apple store at the mall to get just the right iPod Touch. (Resellers, this is how to lose a customer without stock!) My son and I walked in the Apple store, put our name in and waited about 10 minutes. One super nice Apple employee walked me over to a desk for personal setups. I told the guy I wanted to buy an iPod Touch, and before I knew it another Apple employee in a bright blue tshirt whisked up, dropped off a nifty little box with the desired iPod Touch in it, and disappeared. The chipper guy at the setup desk walked me through the setup (not necessary, but I love chatting with Apple people!) and I was on my way. By this time, my son and I were plotting how to surprise my daughter. Although the short wait in the always-crowded Apple store seemed tedious, both my son and I basked in the moment of being there to make yet another Apple purchase. As Apple intended, we get quite a kick out of being in the Apple world and felt modern, cool, and on the edge of fun just being there. We set up the new iPod Touch and iHome dock in my daughter's room while she was still out with my husband. And when she got home I asked her to run grab something in her room. It was hard waiting downstairs for her to discover her new device...then all of a sudden we heard this massive squeal of joy. It was followed by "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" When I got up to her room, my daughter was sitting on her bed with great big eyes. She looked at me and said, "My very first iPod Touch! I can't believe it!" She was literally shaking with excitement. My son and I had so much fun getting her this gift. It wasn't until I sat down tonight that I made the connection with my first portable music player at the same age back in the 1980s. When I got that portable boombox, I carried it all over the neighborhood feeling like I was the coolest kid on the planet. I think my daughter experienced the same thing with her portable music player, only hers can do so much more in the space of just a few light ounces. While technology has changed by leaps and bounds since the 1980s, technology of the day can have a wondrous effect on the user no matter what decade you're in. Thank you Apple. I felt like the best mom in the world sharing a wonderful gift with my 10 year old in 2014. I wonder what the equivalent will be when my daughter has a 10 year old of her own to share a similar experience with.

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More women on the move in technology...

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Women on the move...

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A very telling article on a shift in a once monolithic company.

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I asked my daughter what caption might work with this photo. Her spur-of-the-moment response inspired me. A great example of how the way we choose to see things reflects our outlook on life!

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Digital diaries...must check these out!

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Going for the Rebound

The other day I ran out to grab a sandwich at lunch. I was punching the buttons on the car radio and caught a local DJ talking about the Denver Nuggets basketball game against the Oklahoma City Thunder that night. Although we live in Denver, the Thunder is my son's favorite team, and Kevin Durant is his first and, so far only, sports idol. So I caved. I got two tickets for the Thursday night game and headed downtown after homework was done for a date night with my son. Our conversation included the usual "How was your day?" which my parents always asked me and now like habit I ask him. What's nice is that my son gave me his middle school brief answer then asked me how my day was, too. That particular day wasn't stellar, and the escape to the basketball game was just the remedy. Junk food, a fired up crowd, flashing lights and a DJ pumping up the crowd. It was a wonder the players could focus given the distractions all around the arena. As the Nuggets sunk basket after basket, they pulled ahead of the Thunder and remained there basically the whole game. My eyes were fixated on "KD," watching in amazement how he glided across the court in only a few steps, graciously stepping to the foul line each time he was fouled. As the players ran back and forth across the court, I realized that a lot of the time the crowd was shouting "rebound!" Naturally, you want to make the basket. However, if you miss, the next best thing is to recover the ball so you can take another shot. I realized in a split second that the leadership lesson from the basketball game that night was "rebound." So something didn't work out, the day was disappointing, but how I chose to deal with it was my choice. I thought that if these professional basketball players train themselves to go for the rebound time after time, I could certainly do the same. Train myself to get over the missed basket and instead focus on what success I still have looking ahead for that rebound. Even more instructive was the opportunity I had to show my son how I could go for the rebound and move on. I did. And the night at the game was more memorable than I had anticipated.