How do you thank someone who's friendship and support has changed your life? I'm going to try to do it by letting you all know how wonderful this specific person is…
Betsy Weber and I met in person at the first PowerPoint Live. It was like a spark that just kept growing. If you don't know Betsy, she is the Chief Evangelist for
TechSmith corporation. They make SnagIt, Camtasia, Jing, Morea, and ScreenCast.com.
I used SnagIt long before I knew Betsy. Sharing tips about SnagIt and PowerPoint started us off. From there, the friendship grew. We would see each other once a year or so at an event. Before too long, we were chatting on-line with this and that… not very frequently at first, but more and more often.
Within a couple of years, the friendship went from aquaintances to online friends to one of my best real-life friends. The change wasn't obvious to me, but it was to my husband. I have a sister Betsy. For the first couple of years, if I talked about "Betsy" it meant my sister, where as "Betsy as in Weber" meant Betsy Weber. I don't know when that changed, but now "Betsy" means Ms. Weber, and "Betsy as in sister" means my sister.
Betsy introduced me to the world of social media. At times, she seemed to know more about myself and where I was headed in life than I did. She would email me: "Have you tried out XYZ site?" and I would respond, "Not yet… Let me look." I learned about Twitter, Facebook, and so much more that way. I learned that you could make a living talking and listening to people about products you loved. I learned that the community work I did as a volunteer could become a career.
When she fell in love with OneNote, I was one of the first to know. Yea, I was a OneNote MVP - that was part of it. But it was also, a chance for me to share things with her that she just didn't imagine it could do. I had showed her tips in PowerPoint, but nothing life changing. OneNote was life changing.
At some point, it became a given that if we were in the same state, we would do a video blog entry or two for The Visual Lounge. Some were silly, some were serious. All were fun to put together.. All were also fraught with problems out of control. (Hey Betsy - Remember the cold room at APCUG?)
She has been my mentor as I decide to redirect my life. She encouraged me to start my blog. She was the one who told me about PodCamp AZ and said to see if they needed help.
Now, I send her as many links as she sends me. If my email doesn't go bing with something from her, or my IM doesn't tell me Betsy wants to talk, it is an unusual thing. We share so many common interests... gadgets, technology, OneNote, TechSmith products, speaking, community, etc. I have had the pleasure of speaking with her at a conference. We know each other's loves and lives. We could be sisters in some ways.
But our relationship is better than sisterhood. We choose to become friends. And now, I get the joy of telling all of you how much she has meant to me.
It's her birthday. It just seemed the perfect time to tell her: Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for supporting me through good times and bad. Thank you for listening and laughing. Thank you for being there.
I can only hope the friendship grows and grows as time goes on. Betsy, you make a difference in my life all the time. Thank you.