I live in a (very) small town.  It’s right next to a slightly larger small town. 

Today, I was reading their weekly (yes, weekly!) paper, perusing what’s planned for the 4th of July when I came across this gem:

“One apple pie will be named the best in town at the second annual Louisburg Freedom Fest apple pie contest July 4th.   Sponsored by Senator Pat Apple and his wife, Debbie, the apple pie contest will benefit the Friends of the Louisburg Library.”

An apple pie contest sponsored by a local politician named Apple.  Brilliant!

Any bets as to whether he get re-elected when his term is up?  I’m willing to bet he does. 

What about you? 

If you own a business, or want to build your personal brand, what kind of event could you create and sponsor which will forever brand you in a positive light in the minds of YOUR customers?

Today I was quoted by “The Salary Reporter” on PayScale.com for an article on their blog entitled “7 Tips For Boosting Your Career Through Online Social Networks”.

The seven tips they recommend are as follows:

1. Join online social networks
2. Establish goals and a strategy for online social networks
3. Think through your personal and professional identities
4. Develop and update your online profile
5. Make connections on online social networks
6. Join groups inside online social networks; ask and answer questions
7. Explore the Jobs tab on LinkedIn

Click HERE to read the full article, and to get a complete explanation the 7 tips.

If you are really serious about using Social Networks to boost your career or to market your business, CLICK HERE for my On Demand webinar “Social Networking Success”

I arrived home late last night from Salt Lake City, where I was training 200 call center reps for a new product launch I’m managing. 

The training lasted 11 hours. 

It was only supposed to last 10. 

Why the extra hour? 

Because of inconsiderate people who don’t comply with the time allocation they’ve been given for a presentation.  

Let me explain…

There were four training sessions throughout the day, with four clients presenting at each session.  Each client was given 40 minutes to train. 

ONE of the clients went over their time limit by at least 10-15 minutes at each and every session.  They had no consideration whatsoever for the timing, schedule, and logistics of the 200+ other people involved in the training process.

This delay pushed the entire training schedule off track, causing a lot of stress, anxiety and even a missed flight for another group who was there. 

Recently, my mom joined a local “professional networking” group where each person present is given one minute to deliver an “elevator speech”.

It drove her crazy, because certain people went 2, 3, or even 4 minutes over their allotted time.  She finally quit the group for a couple of reasons, but this was one of the biggest ones.  Their loss.

Bottom line:  If you are a speaker, trainer, presenter, sales person, giving a networking pitch, conducting the weekly staff meeting, or in front of an audience for ANY reason…if you’ve been given a time limit, PLEASE sit down and shut up when you hit that limit. 

The audience, the organizers, and the presenters following you will greatly appreciate it. 

PS – If you need help learning how to craft an effective presentation within a time limit, RUN, don’t walk to your nearest Toastmasters club.  I HIGHLY recommend it!

I was in the process of hiring an assistant a couple of months ago, when circumstances beyond my control delayed that from happening. 

I had even identified the person I wanted to hire, but she found another job in the meantime and is no longer available. 

Therefore, I’m back in the search for a great Administrative and/or Marketing Assistant. 

CLICK HERE to check out the full job posting

Be sure to read the comments on that post, where I was honored and humbled by an unsolicited testimonial from a former employee and current friend.

If you fit what I am looking for, please apply.

If not, please forward the job posting to someone who does.  Thanks!

Today I was being interviewed by Kristina Cowan “The Salary Reporter” for an article she is writing, when I mentioned checking out a particular website to see if it had any kind of decent traffic.

When she asked me how I found the information so fast, I told her…then realized I had better share the nifty little tool with you so that you can “spy” on websites yourself.

It’s called popuri.us…and it’s “A tool to check at-a-glance the link popularity of any site based on its ranking (Google PageRank, Alexa Rank, Technorati etc.), social bookmarks (del.icio.us, etc), subscribers (Bloglines, etc) and more!” according to the website.

I love it because it very quickly allows you to check out the “traffic legitimacy” of any given website.  I often get calls and emails from people claiming to have a “high traffic website” and wanting me to buy ads or otherwise gamble on their claim of high traffic. 

One click on popuri.us can confirm or deny this claim.

The report you get back from popuri.us looks like this one, which is the actual report for the blog you are now reading:

A couple of key numbers to look at:

Google PageRank:  This is a number, on a scale of 1-10 indicating how important and relevant a website might be according to Google. 
What to look for:  Any number below 3 is pretty small.  4-5 is moderate, and above 6 is a very well trafficked website.

Alexa rank:  This is a rank of popularity against every other website in the world.  In the report above, the number didn’t show up for some reason, even though I have an Alexa rank of 724,735.  Odd.  Anyway, hopefully it will show up for you. 
What to look for:  The lower the number, the better.  Anything below 1 million is an ok website.  Below 500,000 is doing VERY good.  Over 1 million is a traffic “wannabe”.

Yahoo BackLinks:  This indicates how many other websites Yahoo has recorded with links back to the subject site. 
What to look for:  Anything less than 500 is practically invisible.   1,000 - 2,000 is moderately popular.  Over 2,000 usually means a lot of people value the content of that particular site. 

CLICK HERE to check out the stats on YOUR favorite site

Someone really nice over at Electronic Retailer blog mentioned me in their post today, and put a link to my site.    In the interest of making it easier to understand why they linked over here, I’m compiling a quick list of my “New Media” related posts to make your browsing experience more efficient.  

The DRTV industry still doesn’t get the internet

How to market on Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn

Social Networking / Social Media

Google SMS aka Google Text - Your mobile concierge

The end of the internet?

I’m finally Twitter-pated

 

Enjoy!

 

 

Yesterday, I was on the phone with speaker and author Mark Sanborn creating an audio information product on the topic of “Leadership”.

Over the 90 minute duration of the recording, he shared many great leadership strategies and nuggets of wisdom.

One of these ideas in particular really hit home, and he gave me permission to share it with you.

The six questions a true leader will ask themselves each day:

 

1. What needs to be fixed? 

2. Am I passionate about fixing it?

3. Who needs my attention? 

4. Am I passionate about giving it to them?

5. What needs to be improved? 

6. Am I passionate about improving it?

Simple, yet profound.

I really believe that if you start each day asking yourself these questions, at the end of the day, you will accomplish more, make a bigger impact, and be a better leader. 

What do you think?

Today I was calling a company on their toll-free number, when a message came on saying their “number had changed” and that I needed to “hang up and call 10-15-15-800 (101515800?) for National Toll-free Directory Assistance to get the correct number.”

Being the cautious type, I didn’t trust this was legitimate, so I Googled the number, and found out it is some sort of scam. (Click here to see the results from Google) 

If I HAD dialed that number, I would have been charged $5.00 for the directory assistance, or possibly much more according to some of the posts I found.

It turns out that I had mis-dialed one digit in the phone number I was calling and the number I mis-dialed was connected to this scam number.   When I actually dialed the correct number, I reached the company I was calling.  The classic “fat-finger” dialing mistake.

Lesson learned:  If this happens to you, DON’T dial the number!

Oh, and if you actually do need directory assistance, I’m still loving Google SMS…and it’s FREE!

The last day of Fantasy Sports Camp was today, and all of the kids had a great time this week!

The kids learned Lacrosse for one full day, baseball for two days, and made new friends and memories to last a lifetime.

One of the campers learning lacrosse this week
(Photo from Kansas City Star.  See more images HERE)

Sizzle, the mascot from the local pro ball club (Kansas City T-Bones) visited today, along with some pro players from the team.   They challenged the kids to a game, and everyone had a blast. 

The success of the camp was due in large part to generous donations from many of my friends, family, and business associates who “stepped up to the plate” and responded to my request for contributions. 

I want to thank EACH and EVERY ONE OF YOU who helped out. 

I am publicly acknowledging a few of the generous donors below, but many others also donated who wished to remain anonymous. 

If the name below is bold, it means the donation was a business, and you can click on their name to visit their website.  Please support those who supported the camp by clicking on the links when you see them.

Thanks again to EVERYONE who supported the children this year.

Kellie Diersman – Simply Fun
Scott Everson - Everest Luxury Linens, LLC
Jackie and Henry Massman
Warren Honeycutt - Get Fit Live Well
Jeff Herring – The Internet Article Guy
Alexandra M. Barbo, Ph.D.
Vicky Fenton Ciaravino and Joe Ciaravino
Denise DuBarry Hay
Stephanie Gunning – Stephanie Gunning Enterprises LLC 
Scott Randolph – My SEM Pro 
Alan Dobzinski - America’s Accountability Expert
Michael Jones

PS – There is still time to donate to help kids throughout the year with hearing aids and many other great activities in which Sertoma is involved. (More names will be added as more donations arrive)  Please CLICK HERE to make your tax-deductiable donation.

UPDATED:  The Kanasas City Star did a great write-up about the camp. 
Check it out here

I saw this story in the news today, but didn’t think twice about it.

Then reader (and good friend) Dave H. sent it to me with his comments. 

I realized this was a perfect “Customer Service Loser” post.

Thanks Dave!

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Spell-check runs amok in Pa. yearbook
Several high school students got new, and unflattering, last names
The Associated Press
updated 12:21 p.m. MT, Mon., June. 2, 2008

MIDDLETOWN, Pa. - A computer spell-checker run amok christened several Pennsylvania high school students with new — and in some cases unflattering — last names.

Middletown Area High School’s yearbook listed Max Zupanovic as “Max Supernova,” Kathy Carbaugh as “Kathy Airbag” and Alessandra Ippolito as “Alexandria Impolite,” just to name a few.

“It was kind of funny, but kind of rude at the same time,” Ippolito said.

The mistakes were found on four of the yearbook’s 176 pages, co-editor Amanda Gummo said.

Ed Patrick of Taylor Publishing, which printed the book, said his company is responsible for the errors and will provide free stickers printed with the correct names.

“It happens all the time, every year,” Patrick said. “Look at any yearbook in the country.”

Comment from Dave H. –> I don’t know what is scarier.  The error, the asinine solution (a band-aid instead of an entirely new reprint), or the lame explanation by the company rep damning his industry.

Touche’