This past weekend I was in San Diego on a pleasure trip.  

While taking a walking adventure around downtown, we cut through the San Diego Convention Center. The show in progress was a gathering of the 2008 Annual Assembly of the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.

These folks know how to party.

Check out the seminar topic for the Friday November 21 9:30 am session.

Who could have left this gathering without being thoroughly captivated by this title?

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Based on my research, one of the industries that is most reviled in our lives is Cable. Ask most folks what they think of their cable company and the answers range from non-pulsed (rarely) to extreme loathing (all too often).

Today, being a Monday, I woke up ready to attack the day. I had a laundry list of things I knew could be accomplished. They ranged from installing a new Logitech QuickCam 9000 to accumulating names and numbers for business development outreach during the balance of the week.

The morning got off to a fast start and by 10:00 am I was cooking, with two separate computers whirling away. ‘It is going to be a very productive day’, I thought.

That mild euphoria lasted until about 10:20 am when the slow internet connection revealed itself quickly to actually be failed cable service - both TV and internet were down.

Ever the resourceful entrepreneur, I knew this brief interlude would be a great time to run to the hardware store for mouse traps (don’t ask!).

On the way home I spied three trucks on a neighboring street, one with a ginormous spool of cable. [click to continue…]

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Over the last 9 months I have fired up the business of shorespeak and brought the message of Increasing MQ- Memorability Quotient to thousands of folks across the U.S.

During my talks I outline the 10 MQ Clues. These are the catalysts to increasing your memorability with clients, prospects, friends and family.

One of these 10 is Communication.

As part of the talk I tell audiences that they need to figure out ways to connect with folks that might be a departure from the methods they employed previously. Snail mail, out - email in. Email, out - text messaging in. Expensive ads out, relating to communities of clients, prospects, customers (any and all of the above) - in.

Communication as defined in Wikipedia is: a process that allows organisms to exchange information by several methods.Exchange requires feedback.

Of the dozens of definitions available to cite I chose this because communication does require several methods (listening, talking, verbal, non-verbal). In addition, the ‘exchange/feedback’ portion resonated as well.

As business creeps (dives?) into recession, companies are looking for ways to communicate with clients and prospects in ways that will maximize their message, gather market intelligence about their brands, engage in 2 way dialog with their customers, and uncover potential fan bases.

At the same time companies are all about finding ways to minimize their cost.

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Last week a friend mentioned that she was numb.

My first thought was to recommend a good MD.
                            
Turns out she had become emotionally numb.

Seems that the events of the last 45 days in the financial services community have taken their toll. 

She explained that during the period that just ended (we hope) 10/31, or so, the daily assault of rotten news left her without emotion. As she read and heard about the failure or near failure of Countrywide, AIG and Lehman the news began to run together. It was compounded as the WAMU, Wachovia, Merrill deals were being announced.

It was at that point that the light went on - I’m a bit slow.

Many of the events of the last 45 days are, individually, occurrences that only happen once a decade, maybe less, in the ‘old world’.

Now we have experienced this amazing run of incredible news.

And along the way we tend to forget the people behind the news. When headline after headline, and report after report, are bad news we get numb.

My friend has only allowed the emotions of the circumstances to get in when the conversation was live or on the phone. It was only at that point the situation became real. 

I understood what she was saying.

This converation reminded me to be mindful of the numbness. 

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Read the November 960 newsletter that will be released tomorrow:

This Just In: Sky Falling, Film At 11

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The last few weeks have been quite the roller coaster ride.

Every day there is another piece of news that sends folks into pronounced highs or lows. The stress of this assault of information about our economy, the election, our savings and our livelihoods can take its toll.

Along with that stress comes the acknowledgment that you might not be in the best mind to make decisions.

In fact science has shown that during times of great stress you are subject to the following issues regarding your ability to make decisions: [click to continue…]

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