Listen.

Listen.

Listening involves more than just the audible sounds or the written words that people use to communicate. True listening means that we not only hear the words, but we understand them. We take the time to think about what they mean to the person on the other end....
Imagine.

Imagine.

Our imagination allows us to come up with creative solutions that can take our strategy in a totally different direction from where we thought we were going when we started. This is where we can have the most impact if we really let our minds open up and run...
Connect.

Connect.

Connecting is the tactical phase of social media engagement where we reach out to key people or even entire communities with our message. We connect with people where they are, not where we think they should be.
Inspire.

Inspire.

It is a rare occurrence to truly inspire people with marketing messages. Inspiration occurs when we strike deep emotional chords with others in such a way that they can't help but share their experience with everyone they know. When this happens through digital media, the results can be staggering....
Latest entries

A Date That Will Live In Infamy

December 7, 1941.

70 years ago today, the US was attacked at Pearl Harbor in what would be described by US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as ‘a date that will live in infamy.‘  This attack is the event that precipitated the US entry into World War II.

A remarkable thing happened that day and in the years following it – people from the United States and around the world achieved what must have seemed impossible at the time; defeating the Axis powers on 3 continents across two massive oceans.  Nothing on this scale had ever been done before, nor has it since. Read more…

Thanksgiving and Black Friday

Thanksgiving.

“A national holiday celebrated as a day of feasting and giving thanks for divine favors or goodness, observed on the fourth Thursday of November in the U.S. and in Canada on the second Monday of October.”

That’s the definition according to Dictionary.com.

Nowhere in there does it mention rushing out of the family dinner to stand with a mob of people who are waiting to stampede into Walmart and other retailers for ‘deals’ that are just too good to pass up. Read more…

Occupying Life

The original plan was for this week to be a ‘writing retreat,’ but I’m pretty far away from that goal so far. I’m sitting in my friend’s house in the suburbs while he and his family are out of town and remembering what life was like out here.

I like my loft in the city, thanks. :)

Despite my assurances to get back into a more frequent posting schedule, it hasn’t played out that way. Now I know why Chris Guillebeau is so militant with his post schedule.  Once you slip, it’s over.

Read more…

Being Present, and Saying Yes

The past couple of weeks have been some of the most intense, yet incredibly rewarding of my life. Mainly because of people I’ve met and experiences I’ve had out in the world.

In the online world of blogging, check-ins, status updates, tweeting, liking, sharing, posting, etc., it’s easy to forget that real relationships can be formed by putting our phones and laptops down and sitting face to face with people or bonding in groups.

Some people balance these two worlds well, but I struggle with this at times, and my silence here over the past couple of weeks proves to me that I have a lot of work to do in this area. Read more…

Serving and Civic Duty

‘Juror number 20.’

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  Did the judge seriously call juror number 20?

Yes, he did.

Tuesday morning, I reported for jury duty, prepared to plead a hardship case on why I could not serve on a jury this week. Believe me, I had several really good reasons. In fact, you might even say that this week was the perfect storm of conditions that made one more commitment (much less one of this size) totally inconceivable.

Read more…