PASSIONATE VOICES + SAY MEDIA: Canada’s Social Media Cool Kid

Here’s an excerpt from a recent interview I did for SAY Media’s blog ‘SAY DAILY’. SAY is an awesome company out of San Francisco that works with “passionate voices” like me to to pair us up with brands and stuff. They publish cute venn diagrams each Friday. Your blog is called Casie Stewart: This Is My Life – in 140 characters or less, what is your life? Lots of hard work & dedication turning my dreams a reality. Celebrating life’s moments and making the most of each day. Awesome! You’re a social media expert in Canada – what are some of your social media secrets for the rest of us? Life is about building relationships and so is social media.  If you want to grow your audience, have conversations about other things than ‘just’ your business. You’ll make more friends that way. Start a blog! A blog is the home for everything you do online. Use Disqus commenting so that Twitter & Facebook are integrated within your commenting system. Read the rest of the interview here. Some of their other voices are Tavi Genvison, Seth Godin, and The Sartorialist. Check out interviews with Honestly WTF fashion babe Leah Chernikoff.  The HTC campaign I was in last year was with SAY and so are the fancy advertisements in my sidebar. In December we went to the their holiday party in Toronto and guess who was in their signage?! Me! I was totally surprised. I know Mum would have loved to see it. Next stop, billboard then broadway! Ok, no broadway but billboard has a nice ring to it. Stay warm out there!!

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“your passion” she said

This evening I got an email from a blog reader who recently moved here from England. She said she loved my passion for life. I was sitting at my computer looking at a list of things I should have done already and feeling slightly overwhelmed. Her few words changed my day. I don’t really share emails I get from people but sometimes they are inspiring, this was one. Thank you Ashley 🙂 I love GIF making and the internet. It’s amazing how we connect using it. Think, you are reading this right now. I wrote it after being inspired by an email that someone wrote to me after reading this very same location that we are connecting at right here again after they were inspired by something I did outside. Crazy isn’t it? Found this empty park place near Fort York & Bathurst the other day. Jumped around a bit. Posed for this photo and a plane was landing right behind me as I turned around. Neato! Remember how I always say “You are younger today than you will ever be again.” I’m reminding you to make the most of each day. Maybe there is someone you want to send an email to & thank them? I wrote a quick note to Mum letting I know I’m thinking of her. They are sailing somewhere near Virginia at this very moment. I bet it’s beautiful. Thursday I go to Boston with my sister to see friends. Tres excited! A getaway from the city always makes me love it more. Flying Porter & planning to walk to the airport. Basically walking from my house straight to Boston! Yeeow! Have an awesome day!

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this is for the stylsh ones with a passion for fashion

So, this is quite exciting and big…the FIRST EVER American Apparel rummage sale in Toronto. Get ready to throw some elbows! Prices are up to 85% off! Absolutely everything is under $50 and prices start at $2. Honestly. Can you believe it? It’s free admission and located at 590 King St. West [King & Portland]. It’s on all weekend and for exact times check the Facebook event page. When you get back from the rummage sale with hands full of new gear, empty out your closet and throw your clothes up on shopmyclothes.com. They promote the recycling and reuse of clothes and accessories. I’m all for it. This Toronto based company was started by a friend of mine and told me that 85% of used clothes go unrecycled! That means style is going in the garbage! AH! NO! Most of my really awesome clothes are second hand and I love clothing swaps. I’ve got a stack of photos and stuff to upload to the site this weekend. You’ll start seeing ads around the city and on the subway soon but we know you saw it here first. I love this awesomely-cool-stylish-art-attack by blog friend Gloria writer of Urbanebloc.com. Keep up with other cool Toronto Blog Girls by visiting the site here.

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1992 Fashion = Love & Passion

Last week I picked up this book from a second hand book store on Queen Street. As a child I often spent time sewing with mum at the kitchen table. She used to make all of our dance costumes for competitions and recitals. As for myself, I’d come up with some interesting fashion designs and sometimes dress up my little sister in my ‘unique’ styles. The book has a great introduction to designing & drawing and the best part, it is from 1992! Second hand book stores are so full of life and wonder, you can go on an adventure, travel in time or visit countries & royals. I’m looking forward to the winter to bust out the sewing machine and create some vintage classic, 1992 inspired pieces!

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Blogtober: Find Comfort in Keeping a Diary

I really wish I had thought of this BEFORE the END of October. I know Blogtober is a thing but I had totally forgotten about it until right now. I’m listening to Taylor Swift, in my dimly lit room, surrounded by plants, looking through photos to share, browsing pottery classes, and other winter activities. It’s glorious. The last few weeks months have been weird. I guess everything has been weird since 2020. I haven’t written here much lately but I started writing in a notebook again. Have filled so many notebooks in my life and each is s time capsule, a treasure to find and relive. In high school, I used to document the highlights of each day by writing on my calendar. Blogs weren’t invented yet. In other news, I’ve been enjoying the fall weather, layering, light jackets, mixed prints. This office mirror is a great selfie spot. I’ve taken a lot of photos here. FYI: Blogtober is a blogging challenge for the month of October where bloggers blog every day or blog once a week. For some people, it’s more of a ‘Get Back to Blogging‘ thing and well, that’s where I am. I have been blogging for 17 years. It’s a habit, a hobby, a passion, a business, this is my life (haha! Blog joke). Diary blogs are where it all started, the early days of blogging. Lauren and became friends through our blogs. We talked about it on the podcast recently. When I haven’t blogged in a while, it makes me anxious. I like to sit alone in peace at my computer. I find comfort in keeping a diary of what I’m doing. Each blog post is like a balance sheet for a moment in my life. I guess you could say I’m going, going, back,…

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Our New Podcast, Cast of Creators is LIVE!

THE TIME HAS COME! Cast of Creators IS LIVE! I’ve wanted to do a podcast for ages and creating this with Nelson & the Hvr Team has been a dream. I have truly never had so much fun ‘working’ in my entire life. Nelson & I have spent our careers in media and publishing now we’re setting the stage for industry leaders, bloggers, creators and more to share their passions & perspectives. Each week, guests join us at Hvr Studios for a conversation about their lives, content creation, and business. We’ve had incredible conversations with inspiring people and laughed so much while doing it. Cast of Creators is presented by Hvr, our new social browser, if you don’t have Hvr yet, download it here! If you’d like a little more info about Hvr, read this blog post. Our initial guests include Raine Maida of Our Lady Peace, performance artist DevoDLive, multimedia host & producer Brigitte Truong, and more. For a peek at other upcoming guests, read our release on Financial Times here. Hvr, developer of the first social-forward web browser, today announced the launch of the Cast of Creators podcast, hosted by its CEO Nelson B. Thall and award-winning blogger Casie Stewart. The video and audio podcast features perspectives on innovation and the future of content with notable guests including Our Lady Peace frontman Raine Maida, performance artist, DevoDLive, and multimedia host & producer, Brigitte Truong, and is available for download wherever you consume podcasts. You can subscribe to the podcast at castofcreators.com. Hvr is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play. Financial Post, June 20,2022 Please subscribe/follow on Youtube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Listen to our first episode with Jules Mercanti here or scroll down to watch the first three episodes on YouTube. If you like the show, please follow,…

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Hvr: Where Browsing Meets Social

Right before the pandemic hit, Sean and I spent a weekend hanging out with my good friend Talia and her husband Nelson. I’d met Nelson briefly in passing but we’d never really chatted. Once we got to talking, he shared what he was working on and we bonded over our thoughts about the web, publishing, and social. Nelson grew up in the publishing business as his family were co-owners of the Toronto Star. He and his brother Henry were building an app called Hvr that blends the features of browsing and social, bringing engagement back to websites. One of the first things he said was “We’re making browsing fun again” and from that moment, I was on board. As a long-time creator and publisher to the web, I’d never seen something so exciting! Since 2005 my blog has been my home base on the internet. As social media emerged in 2010, conversations moved to platforms like Facebook and Twitter, taking engagement with them and away from websites. Today, when I hit publish on a blog post, then copy-paste the URL from a browser to a social platform, people will talk about it there. This gives engagement to huge platforms but doesn’t do much for me as a creator or for my website. Fast forward to 2022, the web is changing, social media is just rented space, the best thing you can do as a creator is have a place you own online, a website. Introducing Hvr, Where Browsing Meets Social For the past year, I’ve been working closely with the Hvr team to develop the app by sharing my experience on the web and contributing to everything from design to copy and marketing. We’re changing the browsing experience by making it easy to follow your favourite sites, discover new content,…

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Day 623: What if it turns out better?

How many times have you been in a situation, or given an opportunity but worried the outcome might be bad? Never? Well, that must be nice! LOL. I’ve found that through the pandemic my anxiety has gotten worse and it’s not that I think things will go bad, it’s just that I feel anxious something might go wrong. The thing is, what if it turns out better than you expected? Better than you could have ever imagined? What if all your hard work, late nights, long days, sweat, tears, finally pay off like you always dreamed? It’s possible. One of my fav books from when I was little is from the ValueTales series, “The Value of Believing In Yourself“, the story of Louis Pasteur (published 1977). Pasteur is known for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation, and pasteurization. The story is about him finding a cure for rabies because he believed in himself. Funny side note about this book, I got a new copy for Emily when she was a kid and didn’t remember the part of the story where the dog passed away. Sean was like, “um the dog DIES?! What kind of story is this?!” HAHAHAHA. Safe to say, neither of them feels the same passion for the book as me. Whoops! (I’m sure mum will find this hilarious.) Believe in yourself, anything is possible!

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Day 503: Bloom with D Luxe Lab in Yorkville

My friend invited me to stop into the re-opening of D Luxe Lab, a premier cosmetic treatment clinic located in the heart of Yorkville. It’s absolutely beautiful! I sat down for a chat with the female founder, Dema Najjar scroll down for my interview with her. Dema is an immigrant to Canada from Syria and a graduate of Rotman Business School’s MBA program, alongside many other talents. I had a consultation followed by treatment with Dr. Basil. I’m very happy with the results, workin’ to keep my face looking rested and refreshed! As a female immigrant in Canada, how did you best prepare yourself for becoming a business owner? I moved to Canada with the intention of establishing a connection with Canadian culture and community. I completed an Executive MBA at Rotman School of Business and then integrated the Canadian work force. I spent 5 years working in the financial industry at MCAP, which allowed me to build and expand my knowledge base of this industry, as well as to grant me exposure to meet new and different people. From this, I was able to better understand Canadian culture and experience daily life as a Canadian. Through my work with MCAP, I gained valuable insight into agreements and deal-making, which encouraged me to pursue a Global Professional Masters of Laws at U of T.  During the past ten years in Canada, I have had the chance to work in finance, marketing and accounting, and through my network, I have been fortunate enough to be exposed to many wonderful people who have encouraged me along the way. A couple of years ago, I took a step back and began thinking of how I could combine my Canadian experience with that of my family’s in Syria. After evaluating the cosmetic beauty industry market and establishing that…

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Day 269: Instagram Verified!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, today is a special day because I now have the coveted blue checkmark of IG of verification! I’d like to thank me for all my hard work over the years, and not giving up on me, and for staying committed to my goals. Ha! Jk, I worked with a friend at an agency who helped initiate the process. I’m now verified on Twitter (2012) and Instagram (2020). If you haven’t seen Snoop give this award speech where he thanks himself, you’re welcome. Getting verified made me think about some of the cool stuff I’ve done over the years. The process involved submitting a bunch of references to verify my work and who I am in the world. If you ever wanna do a deep creep, I have another website at casiestewat.biz with speaking, directing, brand partnerships (over 100!), and press/media over the years. Here’s a little hilight of some videos, awards, commercials, etc. Canadian Academy – Academy Social Looking back, this was a pretty neat experience and I don’t think they ever did this section of the awards as a separate event again. I was up against someone I really wanted to beat and was SO NERVOUS I would lose. I remember drinking too much that night to try and escape the anxiety. The Canadian Academy awards (Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television) are kinda like the Canadian version of the Oscars, awarding excellence in film, TV, and digital. Sunwing Commercial We shot this over a 4 day stay in Mexico. One day to rest once we arrived, 2 days to shoot (all on iPhone!), and 3/4 of one day to rest before leaving. It was a fun shoot but very busy. The whole team was great to work with. This commercial ran during the Superbowl…

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Preston High School: Welcome to the Future

Today I spoke to Preston High School’s grade 10 and 11 students. I was invited to talk about my career, taking a unique path, and the changing world of work. I graduated from PHS in the year 2000 and most of the kids in the group were born 2000-2002. Crazy! Where did the time go?! Back in 2000, wifi was getting popular, I’m pretty sure I had a Nokia phone, and a job at Blackberry seemed like a great career move. The world has changed so much since then and speaking at PHS today made me really proud to be part of the growing social media world. Going Back in Time I first learned about marketing at PHS and it lead me to a three-year Business Marketing diploma program at Conestoga before heading to Australia for university. I always a passion for marketing and entrepreneurship, I loved marketing because it allowed me to be creative in business. While at uni, I started an online diary to keep my friends & family informed of what I was up to using MSN Spaces. This was even before I discovered MySpace. I was my first step into having my own place on the internet. When I came back from school, I wanted to work in fashion. I met someone on my flight from LA to Toronto who connected me with one of his clients. I was home from school for two weeks before moving to Toronto to sublet a room in a house with 5 students. I took over the room from someone I met at school in Australia.  The skills in learned in marketing have carried me through my career and helped me to be a leader in a new industry as it developed. Creativity in business has helped me navigate situations where…

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Get to Know High Beauty, Sativa Seed Skincare

I recently went to the launch of High Beauty, a line of skincare made with Cannabis sativa seed oil you can now find at Hudson’s Bay in Canada. I’ve been using the products for a week now and my skin feels soft and radiant. I was so impressed with the products and beautiful packaging, I wanted to learn more about the brand. I’m really interested in new products that contain anything derived from hemp for cannabis. I reached out to the founder to get a bit of a backstory and learn more about the company. Scroll down for my interview!

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Thoughts on Graduating: Find Something You Love

Last week I spoke at the graduation for Conestoga College. There were 15 programs graduating and hundreds of students. I got to wear a gold cape as a ‘special guest’. I checked the colour of the cape before the event and came prepared with gold shoes. It was pretty cool! The top photo above is me with Conestoga College president John Tibbits at the presentation of my Alumni Award last year. I was in shock when I found out I’d been nominated for the Premiere’s Award then Conestoga surprised me with an Alumni Award. [The highest award from a college delivered by the president!] This isn’t the kind of award you can apply for, and I am so honored to be recognized. I took my mum, and her BFF (aka my second mum & Fairy Godmother!) to the ceremony. We had a great time! Looking Back… I’ve spent the last decade working in social media as the industry grew and developed. I’ve had my blog for 14 years. When I went to Conestoga College for Marketing, social media was not invented. Blogs were not invented, there was no Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. I was into marketing as soon as I knew what it was. I chose to study it in college because I had a *feeling* the internet would be something big. SMART THINKIN’ EH! Honestly, in college, I used to skip class and I hardly ever bought textbooks. I didn’t have much money in college or university, but I always did the work. I worked well in groups when I was the leader, I liked writing, I was really into presentations. I didn’t really know what I wanted to be when I left Conestoga College, so I went to university, in Australia. I liked business but I had no…

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5 Cannabis Podcasts to Elevate Your Knowledge

This week an article I wrote for the Twisted Extracts blog went live. My relationship with the brand grew over the last couple of months after they sent me a few of their cbd edibles to try. I completely fell IN LOVE with the Twisted Extracts CBD gummies and CBD caramels. I found they really chilled me out and helped me be calm/focussed, without getting high. I ordered a bunch with my own money when the samples ran out! If you’d like to research more into the compound CBD, head on over to educational websites such as CBD School. This blog post includes 5 podcasts by talented Canadians that will inform you about what’s going on in the cannabis industry, legalization, benefits of the plant, and ways to consume. The blog also goes on to discuss the different strains of cannabis. For example, did you know that strains such as blue city diesel can be used for their euphoric and happy mental effects? The different strains of cannabis can have a unique impact on your wellbeing and therefore it is important to educate yourself about the key differences if you intend on using this drug. Within each podcast, you’ll find stories by interesting people from a wide spectrum of backgrounds and learn how they got into the weeds. Each show is hosted by someone I know or have met and can vouch for their knowledge of the cannabis space and passion for the plant that is the hemp flower. If you’re keen to try a CBD edible, use this link to get $10 off your first order of Twisted Extracts. I’m quite keen on these Cara-Melts and they’re $13 for a pack of 8, containing 8x10mg CBD. Any questions, lmk! Canadian Cannabis Week is coming up at the start of…

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