Have you ever been in a networking situation where you're feeling a bit stuck for conversation? You’re in a crowd, you’ve introduced yourself to someone and neither one of you seems to have anything else to say? Or you want to learn more about a person you've just met, but you're looking for a [...]
A couple of years ago, I had some brief conversations with JT Foxx and decided not to ghostwrite a book for him because of his attitude and approach to doing business. He’ll tell you it’s because I wouldn’t lower my professional fees to the level he could afford. Both are true. But that’s not the [...]
If you're in business, chances are you have at least some intellectual property that needs protecting. And as companies increase their use of content marketing as a business growth strategy, the need to understand copyright law increases proportionately. When it comes to intellectual property and content marketing, you have two equally important goals: Protect the [...]
I put a post on my personal Facebook page comparing Tweets by two opposing political candidates on September 11. Here’s the story (minus the names): Candidate A posted a compassionate, caring message about the significance of the day. Candidate B posted a volunteer recruitment message. In full disclosure, I happen to support Candidate A. A [...]
We shop at Lowe's fairly regularly and usually rate the in-store service from good to excellent. But last week, a couple of folks in the store really dropped the ball. That evening, I decided to go on Lowe's Facebook page and post a comment about what happened. By 8 a.m. the following morning, my post [...]
I hate it when I make mistakes. I really beat myself up about it. Oh, I do all the right post-mistake things – figure out how it happened, plan to make sure it won’t happen again, apologize if necessary, and so on. But I have a hard time dealing with it when my performance [...]
Email marketing experts suggest that the "from" line of your emails be something that your recipients will recognize: If readers know you personally, it should be your name; if they don't, make it your organization's name. That's not ground-breaking advice. But take it one step further and check out how your email might look in [...]
You have contingency plans in place for when things go wrong, but what will you do when things go right – or better than right? What will you do when your performance exceeds your expectations? Companies that experience rapid and unexpected growth often stumble. Here’s how to be sure that doesn’t happen to you: [...]
Business is about relationships, and relationships begin with introductions. The good news is that the old social rules about gender and age don't apply to effective introductions in today's online and offline business world. These days, it's all based on precedence. In other words, rank rates. When you perform an introduction, the "less important" [...]
Earlier this week, I attended Spark and Hustle, a conference targeted to women business owners created by Tory Johnson. The speakers were high-energy with great stories and valuable information and ideas. The attendees were primarily women entrepreneurs who were there to get ideas and strategies for their businesses. Tory is on a 20-city tour, so [...]
