Tracy Mueller

Check the #greatinterviewsadvice hashtag on Twitter for more on this session. University of Kansas Professor Nancy Baym led an interactive session about conducting great interviews, whether for broadcast, print or recruiting. Some of the points were pretty standard, but overall it was a helpful discussion. Some main points: “What questions should I ask?” is not [...]

“Make a damn mark–a blank page is always terrifying.” –Visual note-taker Austin Kleon Visual Note-Taking 101 was the perfect follow-up to Dan Roam’s Why Words Won’t Work session. The session kicked off with free sketch books (pictured left) and tons of enthusiasm from panelists Kleon, Sunni Brown, Mike Rohde and Dave Gray. They each have [...]

Dan Roam’s SXSW Interactive talk on visual thinking was far and away a highlight of the conference for me. His book, “The Back of the Napkin,” has been on my reading list for awhile, and it just shot to the top after hearing him speak. Roam’s central point: EVERYONE is a visual thinker. 75 percent [...]

Last year I attended SXSW Interactive for the first time, after being convinced that it’s for more than just web developers and startup gurus. And it was awesome. Exhausting for an introvert like me. But awesome. One of the things that I value most is that my SXSW experience managed to hit some high, soaring, [...]

Every once in awhile a piece of journalism just grabs hold of you, sinks its teeth in and takes over your soul. And I mean that in the best way possible. I read Chris Jones’s Esquire magazine profile of Roger Ebert last week, and I still can’t shake it. It was moving, fascinating, funny and [...]

TOMS Shoes has become a hit in both the business and fashion worlds while doing its part to help those who need it. If you’ve somehow not heard of the company and its one-for-one mission, here it is: for every pair of shoes TOMS sells, it gives away one pair to a needy child. (“TOMS” [...]

I had a blast in college. Yes, I worked hard, but I also screamed at the top of my lungs at Longhorn football games, played ultimate Frisbee in the park, wandered around the Drag for no reason at all and got excited about ordering a #1 combo from Junior, the best and most famous Wendy’s [...]

We just published the Fall/Winter 2009 issue of Texas, the magazine for UT’s McCombs School of Business. I’m managing editor and wrote the cover story, “Diagnosing the H1N1 Pandemic.” Business school? Isn’t that where they study boring things like derivatives and fair-value accounting? What does a global health emergency have to do with business school? [...]

You can spend enormous amounts of time and money on strategic, professional PR, but let’s face it: for any public-facing company, good public relations starts with good customer service. I’m a PR professional and a customer service snob, so when I had an amazing, above-and-beyond, month-long experience with online photography shop AdormaPix, I had to [...]

Twitter’s new lists feature offers users a much-needed way to organize who you follow and group them into custom categories. And since you can see what lists others have placed you in, it’s also a fascinating and useful way to see how other tweeters think about you or your brand. I discovered this rather rudely [...]