Communication Made Easy — Speaking, Editing, Writing, Marketing, Networking Answers

On Becoming a Publishing Superstar...

2008-12-07T08:16:00.005-07:00

An op-ed piece by Timothy Egan in today's New York Times complains bitterly about the fact that Joe the Plumber, that infamous nobody made famous by the McCain campaign, will release a book later this month. Also skyrocketing to fame with the same campaign, Sarah Palin apparently will be paid nearly 7 million if she can figure out how to capture her words for print.

The challenge for this particular commentator is a legitimate one:

Publishers: with all the grim news of layoffs and staff cuts at the venerable houses of American letters, can we set some ground rules for these hard times? Anyone who abuses the English language on such a regular basis should not be paid to put words in print.

And I agree that "writers...work every day, in obscurity and close to poverty, trying to say one thing well and true. Day in, day out, they labor to find their voice, to learn their trade, to understand nuance and pace." However, I thoroughly disagree that "Writing is hard, even for the best wordsmiths." Perhaps he meant making a living at writing is hard, even for the best wordsmiths?

I agree with Egan that if the world were fair, authors' pay would be merit based. Writers who had paid their dues would receive bigger advances and royalties than those who happened to stumble into the spotlight by accident. Fortunately or unfortunately, we live in a culture where popular sells. The funny thing is, there's no accounting for taste...so uberdreck like a Sarah Palin autobiography will likely do well, but so did Barck Obama's first two books.

That being said, Egan also is not wrong that bumblers and wannabes shouldn't necessarily warrant seven-figure advances, and the publishing industry could exhibit a little more discernment before throwing down a contract in front of someone like JTP. But just like all other corporate monoliths, they have dollar signs in their eyes. The problem, I believe, is that Egan's also correct when he says "the last seconds on [JTP's] 15 minutes are slipping away."

But Egan's whiny, petulant, poor-me commentary really addresses only part of the problem. The fact is that readers (more correctly, purchasers) still determine how well a book does...and last I checked, although George Bush certainly decimated large swaths of the Constitution, the First Amendment still gives anyone the right to say (or write) pretty much anything they want to. Who cares if JTP writes a book? How many people are actually going to buy/read it? I'm guessing the sales will limited to a fixed few. Sarah Palin, on the other hand, will likely hire a very well-paid ghostwriter and turn out something readable enough...and the legions of fans who made her a superstar will toss down their hard-earned bucks for a chance to "get to know her better." That thought makes me ill...but not because she will make money with her book.

As an editor and marketer in the self-publishing end of the arena, I often tell my clients and students that the good news is that anyone can write a book. But the bad news also is that anyone can write a book. Not everything bad, even if it's hyper-promoted, catches on like wildfire. Think back just a few short months to Jerome Corsi's Obama Nation, the book from the man who funded the Swift Boat attacks that sank John Kerry's presidential bid. I (needlessly) worried for a few minutes that it would gain traction and actually harm Obama's campaign. Wasted energy, my worry...as well as Corsi's efforts with his malicious book full of half-truths and innuendo. Not everything that's hyped sells.

In my humble opinion, Tim Egan's time would be better spent figuring out how to supercharge his own marketing, so that his work, too, will create the kind of demand he seems to so envy in these nonwriters. It's never really the best product (and a book is a product) that sells, or the worst product that bombs. More often than not, the product with the best marketing strategy and campaign behind it is the one that does well.

There's lots of room and a big enough audience in the world for all of our writing, Tim. When you hold JTP's and Sarah Palin's success against them, you don't harm them but you do diminish your own energy for creating great work of your own.

LAURA ORSINI is an editorial consultant who works with entrepreneurs and small business owners to use their own written words to increase their sales and visibility in their specific industries. She engages those who want to play a bigger game, enabling them to establish enormous credibility through enticing Web copy, books and e-books, and by teaching them to submit articles to magazines, newspapers, and the innumerable Web resources that continuously thirst for great content. A professional editor, writer, and speaker with a BA in Nonfiction Writing from the University of Arizona, Laura is the author of several exceptional workbooks, including E-Books Made Easy, Words Made Easy, Handwriting Analysis Made Easy, and 1,001 Real-Life Questions for Women. She also is nearing completion on her first novel.

Laura is an accomplished and effective public speaker with expertise in copy writing, marketing, e-books, creativity, brainstorming, visualization, business writing, handwriting analysis, and open adoption. Laura serves as Communications Director for the Phoenix Chapter of Shared Vision Network; she is President of the American Business Womens Association Scottsdale Express Network; she is VP of Education for her Toastmasters club; and she is on the Executive Staff of VDAY Scottsdale, part of the international VDAY movement to end violence against women and girls.

Pricing the Work of an Editor

2008-09-02T09:59:00.005-07:00

Received an interesting query recently from a fellow freelance editor:

I am in the process of becoming a freelance editor.

In trying to determine how much to charge for editing, I came across your web site. Would you mind sharing with me how you determine how much to charge a client?

I am currently negotiating with a potential client. He has a fiction book and some web pages he would like for me to edit for spelling, grammar, word choice, sentence structure, and clarity. When trying to determine how long it would take me to edit each of his web pages, I believe it would take me between 20-30 minutes per page. Is this typical, or am I too slow? His writing is difficult to get through. 692 words of prose took me an hour.

Please could you give me your professional opinion regarding how you might handle pricing for a client like this? Your web site is beautiful and lends itself to giving you the appearance of being knowledgeable and professional.

I look forward to hearing from you!

The thing is, this query is neither unusual nor surprising. In fact, pricing is an issue that most editors – like many, if not most, service professionals – deal with on a regular basis. The challenge becomes making sure you price what you are worth.

I made this case strongly in my reply:

Your questions about how to price are at the heart of every freelance editor’s business – and survival. One thing I have learned through years of experience is that you only hurt yourself by trying to price low in order to make sure to get the client. I happen to be on the high end for fees, because I offer a great deal of consultative and marketing experience beyond the pure editing.

There are some industry standards you can use to guide your pricing structure. For one thing, you must know word count, as opposed to the number of pages in a document. The industry standard is 250 words per double-spaced page using a 12-point font. Given those parameters for a page, most qualified editors can manage to read between 5 and 10 pages an hour. Based on that description, your 20 to 30 minutes per page is quite slow – but, again, I am unsure of how many words are on the pages in this particular manuscript. Of course, it is customary to factor the degree of complication/difficulty into your pricing – and if it is dense work that is just harder to plow through, you should definitely price accordingly.

One of the biggest challenges I think most editors face is the fact that we are in a highly specialized business that requires a very specific skill set. No, it’s not brain surgery or rocket science, but it is important work for which we have been well trained and deserve to be well compensated. The bottom line is that you need to learn how to deal with the prospects who are just shopping price. Chances are these people will not ever become your clients, because they want the cheapest rate, seemingly in spite of quality.

My answer to these queries is always to remind the writer that they are not shopping for a commodity like tires or laundry soap. They are looking to hire someone to attend to their life’s work – presumably a project into which they have poured considerable time and energy. Why, then, would they be willing to shop it to the cheapest editor they can find?

Good editing is expensive – but good editing will make or break acceptance by an agent or publisher. Good editing can position the writer as a credible expert, while lack of editing can potentially present them as a quasi-illiterate, even though they may be brilliant within their field. Good editing is the aspect that turns otherwise decent writing into outstanding writing that will edge out any competition, whether that’s in the form of Web copy, a short story contest, or a book proposal.

My friend and former client, Jeremy Tuber, wrote an outstanding article titled, "What It Says About You if You Are Willing to Cut Your Prices." In it, he takes to task those clients and prospects who try to wedge you down on price before agreeing to do business with you.

He describes a situation in which an affluent client asked him to reduce his price by 25 percent:

Instead of defending my quote or caving to his demands, I asked him, “If I was immediately able to reduce my price by 25 percent to compete with your other offer, wouldn’t that suggest that my initial quote to you had not only been over-inflated, but that it was unfair?” As you might have guessed, the surprised owner didn’t have an answer.

Here's a quick tip: No matter what business you are in, never reduce the price without also reducing the value. If a prospect asks you to reduce your price, ask them which item in the proposal they are willing to do without.

That advice translates seamlessly for editors. If someone asks you to reduce your price, tell them if you agree to that, they'll have to let you know which chapter(s) they would like you not to edit.

Use your best judgment when pricing your work. You know how fast you are, how accurate you are, and how much you can improve any single piece of writing. Choose a price - and then stand by it. The right clients will come, and willingly pay your fee. Let the rest find someone who is a lot less sure of their value and worth.

Once an editor, always an editor

2008-08-13T21:25:00.008-07:00

My personal trainer teases that I have a lousy job because I’m always on the lookout for mistakes. He tells me, “No wonder you’re cranky — you spend all your time correcting things!” It’s true. As an editor, my job is to find mistakes and correct them . . . but I actually much prefer the description I offered a recent acquaintance on Tagged: "I make other people’s words work better for them.”

The problem my trainer alludes to, though, is that you can’t shut it off. This mistake-noticing part of my brain is always at work. I notice mistakes on signs, in newspapers and magazines, on product labels, in books, and in the close captioning on the cable TV in bars.

I also notice weird spacing issues. How often have you seen a sign like this?

Probably more than you realize – because it just didn’t catch your attention the way it would mine. This is not so much an issue of correct or incorrect as it is one of aesthetics.

Wouldn’t it just look better if it read ?

Friends and networking associates tell me they’re always intimidated (and extra careful) when they send me e-mail. I tell them I’d be lying if I said I didn’t notice almost every mistake, even when I’m not intentionally looking for them. But I don’t look down or think less of anyone for being a poor speller.

There is absolutely nothing to be ashamed when it comes to one’s grammar and/or spelling proficiency. No matter how bad the spelling or how egregious the grammar errors, none of that is representative of how smart a person is or how important the information she wants to share. In fact, it is widely reputed that Albert Einstein, the unquestionably genius physicist, was so bad at spelling that he was initially assumed to be retarded. According to the 1998 ScienceGoGo.com article, "Ten Obscure Factoids Concerning Albert Einstein," Factoid #3 is:

He Was a Rotten Speller. Although he lived for many years in the United States and was fully bilingual, Einstein claimed never to be able to write in English because of "the treacherous spelling." He never lost his distinctive German accent either, summed up by his catch-phrase "I vill a little t'ink."

Being a poor speller, however, is not an excuse for sloppy work, whether it’s Web copy, memos, or an eBook. People like me have jobs for a reason. And if paying for editing is beyond your budget, at least have the common sense to run your writing past someone a little more grammar-oriented than you.

It’s good to know I’m not alone in my peculiar pursuit of spelling and punctuation precision. Neil Neches, a writer for the New York City Transit Authority received a full write-up in The New York Times for his use of a semicolon on a subway placard. His handiwork? A sign reading: “Please put your newspaper in a trash can; that’s good news for everyone.”

My trainer may be right — there does seem to be something just a little neurotic about a job that causes me to always be on the lookout for mistakes. I can shift that paradigm a bit, though, when I view it not as always looking for mistakes, but rather, as being consistently on the lookout for ways to improve the world, one word (or semicolon) at a time.

Blogs work...if you work them

2008-06-23T13:15:00.004-07:00

So I jumped on the blog bandwagon pretty early on. I had a couple good mentors who told me blogging would be all the rage, why to blog, how to blog, that it would become an essential business tool, etc. Guess what - they were right. There's only one problem - although I've had my oldest blog since 2005, I still haven't mastered the art of regular posting!

And that, more than almost anything else, is the key to blogging success. Of course, it helps to write content that passes the 5 Cs of Quality Content* test...but presuming you can do that, you still must blog often.

Even knowing how important frequency is to my blogging efficacy, I somehow don't find time to do it. If I'm honest, one of the biggest reasons is the perfectionist in me. Meaning...I spend way too much time working on the last of the 5 Cs. But I've recently begun to adopt a little motto: Done is better than perfect. So I'm hoping - seriously, really, desperately hoping - to put that motto into practice here. Yes, as an editor it pains me to see mistakes in people's writing. But it's like whacking both elbows simultaneously to publish a post of my own and later see errors in it.

Done is better than perfect. Done is better than perfect. Done is better than perfect.

While I do not owe that little mantra specifically to Steven Pressfield, I do highly recommend his book, The War of Art, to anyone who needs a swift and very hard kick in the ass to let go of their excuses, silence their inner critic, and just get to work to get it done! Reading this book literally felt like someone grabbing me by the throat and holding me against the wall demanding, "What's your excuse? Really? That's all you got? Get over it and GET IT DONE!"

And that's what Done Is Better Than Perfect is all about.

You've heard the old joke: They had to postpone the meeting of Procrastinators Anonymous because everyone wanted to wait to do it tomorrow.

Procrastination sucks. As my brilliant personal trainer, Scott White pointed out to me, look at the play on words...simply remove the "in," move one little R, and suddenly you have "pro castration." Who wants that?? None of us! So why do we do it? Because we're perfectionists and we're hiding behind our excuses. Get that book. You'll get over the excuses.

Not blogging sucks. Being great at what you do but without the clients to show for it sucks. Worrying sucks. Struggling sucks. Disorganization sucks. I've experienced all of them. Right now - my goal is just to get blogging.

Catch you here again soon - I promise!

* The 5 Cs of Quality Content: CLEAR, CONCISE, COMPELLING, CONSISTENT, CORRECT.

Send an e-mail to QualityContent@WordsMadeEasy.com and I'll send you my full report explaining each of the 5 Cs in detail.

It's Not a Bomb — It's Just My College Application

2007-07-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

It's true that high school guidance counselors are busy folks, and they probably don't have time to teach their students every nuance about what it takes to get into college. However, this incident is a bit over the top, in terms of a student lacking appropriate knowledge. According to the Associated Press:

A poorly packaged college application prompted a call to the bomb squad at Eastern Illinois University. Emergency crews evacuated a campus building Friday, after a postal carrier discovered a disheveled-looking package heading for the college's admissions office. "There was no return address, it was poorly written, poorly addressed to the university, there were misspellings," school spokeswoman Vicki Woodard said Saturday. "There was some tape over it. Just the overall appearance was rather strange." Explosives investigators X-rayed the package and blocked off a nearby street before they discovered the envelope contained only an application to the 12,500-student school.

A school representative indicated that in spite of the scary look of the package, it would likely be processed like any other application.

OK - so here's the question. Did no one ever teach this kid that neatness counts? We all remember Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoons, right? And we probably all had someone in our high school graduating class who had that disheveled look about him (or her). But seriously, where were this kid's parents? Where was any adult guidance, whatsoever, to help him get the application completed and mailed with a modicum of professionalism? God bless him for getting it done at all, and I truly do hope he gets in and earns his degree. No one who wants it that badly should be denied the opportunity.

There are so many things we take for granted every day. The ability to read a map, follow a recipe, read AT ALL. Our kids cannot do it all on their own. Just because they can make their own PB&J and get themselves dressed and out the door to school on time does not mean they don't need us anymore. It's a funny story, on its face, this would-be bomb threat and the paranoia that led to an evacuation. But how sad is it that any person, by the time he's 17 or 18 years old, has not had enough coaching and help to know to do it any other way?

As Great as Harry's Been — It's Time to Move On...

2007-07-19T11:02:00.000-07:00

In a post titled, "Harry Potter and the Web Disconnect," Just an Online Minute poses a great question, with regard the the much hallowed and even more anticipated arrival of the final book in the great Harry Potter series:

Could J.K. Rowling and her publisher have really believed that the eagerly awaited final book in the Harry Potter series would remain under wraps until its official release at 12:01 Saturday morning?

My response is this:

Yes, it’s sad that people want to ruin others’ enjoyment - but that behavior is not new and not inextricably linked to the Internet age! It may be easier and more viral today, but 25 years ago, two girls ran through the halls of my high school shouting, “ET lives! ET lives!” solely with the intent of ruining the ending for the masses.

To be outraged by the early release of something at this point is somewhat ludicrous. It is, in my opinion, not dissimilar to wanting a “retraction” from someone who’s uttered a comment not to my liking. What is said is said - there’s no “taking it back.” And what’s published/created is out there, whether according to the writer/publisher’s agenda, or earlier.

Those who want to dress up in capes and wizard hats to celebrate Harry’s sending off will do so

— and they will AVOID Web sites where spoilers abound. You don’t like what’s on the TV, you change the channel, right? No one is forcing people to know the ending ahead of time. Where is our own active choice in this??

I think we need to spend less time worrying about protecting ourselves from cretins and more time creating the next dynasty of characters to populate a new story. Harry has no doubt joined Frodo and Dorothy as memorialized icons of “children’s literature,” but he’s done now. Next!

Word Aware

2007-06-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few interesting word observations I've made over the last few days...

Is it "a broad" or "abroad"?

My interaction with Debbie Norwitz, new member of ABWA's Scottsdale Express Network and a travel agent specializing in volunteer vacations, had the whole room chuckling at our recent luncheon. A volunteer vacation offers you the opportunity to take a trip that combines service — teaching English, building homes, constructing sewer systems, working with AIDS orphans, etc. — with a traditional vacation. As president of Scottsdale Express, I had just opened the floor for members to make announcements about upcoming events they wanted to promote. Debbie stood and announced that she would be hosting an evening for anyone who was interested in learning how to volunteer abroad. Even though I'm familiar with her business, when she said it out loud, I heard, "anyone who is interested in learning how to volunteer a broad." So I asked, pointing to myself, "Volunteer a broad, like a chick?" The room erupted, as she corrected, "No, like volunteering...overseas." Ahhh...now I see.

Sometimes our diction can help these situations. Sometimes it's simply about paying more attention, as the listener.

Drummer needed.

Was sitting in a cool, trendy coffeehouse in central Phoenix the other night, waiting for someone who never showed up. Had the opportunity to notice a fellow patron, though, who was wearing a shirt that said DRUMMER NEEDED. My immediate thought was, "What a cool way to advertise."

However, I'm not sure it would work for all situations. I mean, I don't know many gals who would be very taken with a guy who wore a shirt that said GIRLFRIEND NEEDED, and I'm willing to bet homeless people wouldn't get a lot of offers if they wore shirts that said, FOOD AND/OR JOB NEEDED. But for this guy's needs, the advertising venue seemed perfect...depending, of course, on where he hangs out and wears the shirt.

I wonder how many inquiries he gets, and how long it takes him to find his perfect drummer...if, indeed, this is his only method of advertising.

Spelling, anyone?

Since it is impossible to write in a vacuum, it’s incumbent upon us to be conscientious about avoiding noticeable misspellings as we publicly issue relevant commentary. While I believe it is perhaps occasionally acceptable, and more likely unavoidable, to insert the odd occurrence of a weird spelling or grammar faux pas, I prefer my readers to be privileged to appreciate my commitment to humorous, indispensable, intelligent writing that supersedes that which can be acquired in the average library.

The link below contains a list of the 100 most commonly misspelled words. Peruse it at your leisure, understanding there is no judgment here of bad spellers (see There's No Shame in Being a Bad Speller/Poor Grammarian), but simply the recommendation that you immediately precede hitting “send” by using your SpellCheck function, as there generally is no excuse for embarrassing goofs which can accidentally make one appear to lack intelligence.

Your Dictionary - 100 Most Common Misspellings

Finding the Need Beneath the Need

2007-05-03T14:42:00.000-07:00

Had an interesting conversation with a man I’ll call “Client A” yesterday, which caused me to rethink a recent success with another individual I will call “Client B.” The discussion was about clarity . . . as service providers, whether we take the time to clarify the precise needs of our clients, to be exact.

Regardless of the business you’re in, a lot of what you’re selling has little to do with the product or service you supply; it has much more to do with the emotional and psychological effects achieved through those products or services. This is a tough thing for many business owners to grasp, but its impact is unbelievably significant to our overall success or failure. Although I’ve understood this concept theoretically for some time now, it was only recently that it came home to me, in real terms, just how important it is for me – and for all business owners – to understand this psychological component to our businesses.

Client A is a graphic designer who is writing a book in which he offers other designers insider tips on how to go from being “starving artists” to having thriving graphics businesses. The interesting thing is that two-thirds of his book is so universally applicable that it could be useful to people in almost any industry, the reason being that customer service drives the business. And Client A understands that as well as any business owner I have ever met.

Moreover, he gets that a significant component of customer service is understanding the client’s psychology. What is it that’s causing them to need your product or service right now? How big is their pain? And how much are you able to put yourself in their shoes to (a) truly understand their pain, and (b) be able to offer a customized solution that fits all their needs, both the readily apparent needs as well as the deep, dark, unspoken needs that neither you nor they may initially recognize at the outset of your relationship?

Client A said that in his explorations of existing texts, articles, and Web posts on the subject of running a successful graphic design firm, the one piece that seems to be consistently overlooked is the psychology behind an individual’s need to hire a designer in the first place. Whether the client’s goal is to build brand identity, find a more useful tool for connecting with their customers, or develop a unique way to truly set themselves apart from everyone else in their industry . . . there’s a psychological need driving their engagement of the graphic designer. And the same is true in virtually every industry.

Financial planning comes to mind as I think of this. Say a person decides they need professional advice as they begin to think about retirement and planning for their future. During the exploratory conversation, however, it turns out that they’re having a bitter battle with family members over their recently deceased father’s estate . . . and it was that battle that ultimately ignited their desire to get their own finances in order now. They didn’t make the connection when they called the planner; but once the planner begins asking questions and drilling down past the surface needs, the psychological components reveal themselves.

In my case, the issue arose when Client B was trying to decide between hiring me and another editor to work on her book about a subject that comes out her own intimate, personal experience. She underwent an excruciating ordeal that tried her marriage and made her question her own self-worth as a woman, and is now writing this book with a goal of helping others who may be experiencing something similar.

Client B forwarded to me some of the comments the other editor had made about her work, asking my opinion of both the other editor’s analysis, and whether or not I would be able to offer similar skills as a part of my editing service. The interesting part was that the other editor’s comments were technically very, very strong. In fact, I think I might in the future borrow a page from her playbook, with regard to the way she addressed certain aspects of my client’s writing. The problem was that her feedback sorely missed the mark when it came to addressing my client’s actual needs, which turned out to be deeply psychological in nature. Yes, my client wanted proof that the editor she would hire had the functional skills to do a good job with her prose. But it was far more important to her that this person also would be able to understand the human side of the brand-new-to-her process of sharing such an intimate personal experience in a book she would publish and make available for the whole world to read.

It can feel like it would be easier to walk
down the street naked than to hang your words,
thoughts, and opinions out publicly.

If you’ve ever written a book – or even an article – you know what it’s like to put your words out there for other people to read, digest, dissect, comment on, and agree with or disagree with. And when you’re new at it, it can feel like it would be easier to walk down the street naked than to hang your words, thoughts, and opinions out publicly, for everyone to see . . . and, potentially, take a swing at. The good news is that it’s not all that often that people actually want to take a literal or figurative swing at you. Unless, of course, you write incendiary commentary, of the likes of Ann Coulter or Al Franken . . . but, generally speaking, such controversial writers have been at the game for a while.

It does get easier, as time goes on, although some writers will tell you they never entirely overcome that initial trepidation. And as many experienced writers will tell you, it’s a challenging thing to get over the desire for external validation about your work – which can come in the form of selling loads of books or having people Digg you or e-mail your blog posts around. However, the only way you can ever really begin to write true is by divesting yourself of that need for others’ approval so that you write strictly from your heart.

My client is still learning about writing true – and it was my recognition of this fact that landed me her gig. Can I do an equal job on the technical work that the other editor laid out for her? Sure. Was that the deciding factor in her choice to hire me? Not at all.

Whether you’re a carpet cleaner, a surgeon, a personal trainer, a wedding planner, a dog groomer, or an attorney . . . how well do you really understand the psychology behind your clients’ need to hire you? I have a suspicion that the deeper you can go, in terms of identifying the true, but often deeply buried need, the more value you will bring to your clients, the greater rapport they will feel with you, and the more likely they will be to both stay with you and recommend you to others.

Getting a Handle on the Truth

2007-05-01T13:35:00.000-07:00

You can’t handle the truth!

What mildly informed filmgoer over the age of 25 doesn’t instantly recognize Jack Nicholson’s line from A Few Good Men? The fact is, however, that it’s more difficult than ever to know the truth, let alone handle the truth.

I was having a conversation the other night during a happy hour get-together for my Toastmasters club. One topic of discussion that frequently arises in our club, as a subject for prepared speeches and Table Topics* alike, is global warming. A member who has become a good friend of mine is firmly of the mindset that Al Gore and his cadre of followers, while seemingly well-intentioned, are oh-so-ever misinformed. Others, vocal environmentalists, believe we need to heed Al’s message and change our ways before we destroy ourselves. My feeling, personally, is that the truth lies somewhere in between.

During the happy hour conversation, I related my opinion that although we humans certainly have a huge impact on our dear planet, the climate cycles of our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy, and the universe en toto, are just that: cyclical. Temperatures continue to increase, and decrease, as they have for millions of years . . . and my intuitive response is that our impact is minimal, when you look at it from a cosmic perspective. This is not to say we should ignore the obvious and overt pollution our cars and factories are wreaking on the planet. Yes – humans are having an impact. It's about the degree – and the focus – of the impact where the conversation seems to get muddled.

The problem is that we don’t really know the answer, the truth. If the scientists themselves cannot agree – and when has science ever agreed 100 percent about anything? – how can we, the members of the General Public, expect to know the truth? Actually, we can’t know. And more to the point, we will never know. Not just about the greenhouse effect, but about almost anything, really. What causes cancer. Why some people are prone to diabetes. Whether a vegetarian diet is healthier than a meat-based diet. Whether salt actually increases cholesterol. Truisms about all of these abound . . . but the facts prove tricky to prove. Statistics are malleable. "Experts" are available for hire to the highest bidder. One lab test proves one thing, while the other has rock-solid evidence to the contrary.

And the funny thing is, in spite of all that, we actually have the hubris to believe we do know, can know, should know . . . about everything. From what kind of underwear the President wears to this athlete’s sexual preference to that minister’s financial profile. It’s the Information Age, for heaven’s sake – of course we can and should know the truth about everything! It’s not only our duty, it’s our right!!

“You can’t handle the truth.” I have to say, I don’t think a truer movie line has ever been uttered. Seriously. We can’t handle the truth. We think we want to know who, what, why, how the Iraq war was engineered. But do we, really? And what would it help if we knew that we truly are engaged in a war for oil? What if we knew Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code was more fact than fiction? What if the VP’s hunting “incident” and Pat Tillman’s friendly fire death are only tip of the iceberg, in terms of what the current administration has been covering up for the last six years? What if we knew that Flight 93 was really taken down by a ground-to-air missile? What if we knew that George Bush had really been “in on” the planning of 9/11?

They are all fantastic ideas, with smart, serious people who believe them. And I have to tell you that following the Y2K debacle – in which we spent between $200 and $600 BILLION worldwide to fix a problem we’d known was coming for 100 years – no conspiracy theory is truly too outrageous to be possible. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, mind you. But I don’t dismiss anyone because, at the outset, their theory seems implausible at best, or completely nuts at worst.

In a recent column describing his reaction to the death of journalist, David Halberstam, The New York Times’ Bob Herbert writes:

If there was one thing above all else that David taught us, it was to be skeptical of official accounts, to stay always on guard against the lies, fabrications, half-truths, misrepresentations, exaggerations and all other manifestations of falsehood that are fired at us like machine-gun bullets by government officials and others in high places, often with lethal results.

There it is from the horses’ mouths: Don’t believe everything you read. Don’t believe everything you see. Don’t believe everything you hear.

In this day and age of technoeverything, a picture may still be worth 1,000 words, but it’s no longer conclusive proof of anything. Fingerprints, voice data, government-issued IDs . . . all the things that used to represent proof now require our utmost scrutiny. And thinking this way can be a scary concept.

No doubt, it was easier when we could believe every word uttered by the likes of Walter Cronkite . . . but those days are long gone. Almost all media is in some way now beholden to advertisers – and when money’s at stake, truth inevitably gets compromised. It remains debatable whether our government officials ever really had the people’s best interests at heart, but the optimist in me wants to hold onto the idea that our Founding Fathers truly did believe in a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. They just didn’t have the crystal ball to see where we would be today, when trying to implement such a rustic, holistic, seemingly clear-cut concept.

Knowing the “truth” comes down to one simple thing: you. My friend Vickie Champion once said that we all know everything. It’s a radical concept – but I believe it’s correct. When we get still, turn off the noise that is the TV, the cell phone, the Internet, the newspaper, the iPod, the chatter at Starbucks, we really do have an innate knowing that can guide us in all things. Whether it’s the big, big stuff, in terms of the future of our planet; whether it’s about a personal situation, like paying attention to the clues that our mate is cheating; or whether it’s the simple things, like deciding what to eat for dinner, we all know the truth. It remains up to each one of us, though, to decide if we want to listen – and what we will do, once we hear the answer.

*Table Topics is the portion of a Toastmasters meeting where participants take turns answering questions posed by one member on a given theme or subject. The purpose is to practice one’s impromptu speaking skills, as the participant must form an intelligible answer of the top of his/her head and speak for somewhere between 45 seconds and two minutes.

Bad Spelling: Not Always a Laughing Matter

2007-04-30T14:20:00.000-07:00

WARNING: The following post is not PC. If black humor offends you, stop reading now and click over to Reader’s Digest or Garrison Keillor.

To appreciate this story, you really have to know Todd. He is a Certified Financial Planner™, but he’s unlike any financial advisor you’ve ever met. He is, of course, smart, charming, and well-versed in financial matters, but his approach is holistic, educational . . . spiritual, even. And what’s more, he’s funny.

He jokes that in the year since we met, my sense of humor has increased noticeably and measurably, just due to his humorous influence and subsequent, if unintended, tutelage in the art of funniness.

Being an unconventional planner, we figured Todd's company, Azmyth Financial, should keep unconventional hours: 10 a.m. to 2 a.m., 6 days a week, sounded pretty good. Don’t try to schedule an early a.m. session, though – that is the time he specifically reserves for rest, rejuvenation, and the challenging dreamwork and visioning that enables him to serve his clients with a more intuitive, spiritual, nonjudgmental, holistic approach than any other financial planning service in the galaxy. Lately, though, he’s been choosing to close up shop by midnight – a tad on the early side.

“But if a client needed you – you know, in a financial emergency – you’d stay open, right?” I asked the other night.

“Oh, sure,” he said agreeably.

“You’d be there to talk them down if they were ready to jump off a bridge at 2 a.m.?” I asked further, for clarification.

“Don’t joke about that. That’s serious. It’s really happened,” came his quick response.

“To you? You’ve actually had to talk someone off a ledge?” I asked, incredulous. He’d never mentioned such an act of bravery and heroism.

“Well, no, not to me personally. But it has happened,” he explained. “And it’s much more likely to happen in my industry than in yours,” he quipped. “I can just see it now:

‘It's obvious. I’ve always been a rotten speller, and I'm always going to be a rotten speller. I can’t go on. I must end it now.’

‘No, no - you’re a good speller, really – and a great writer. Please come down
from that ledge.”

‘I can’t. I never know whether it’s a comma, colon, semicolon, or a dash. And the its . . . forget the its. Is it it’s or its? Who knows? How can I ever hope to keep it all straight? It’s no use . . . I’m jumping.’

‘No please. Don't jump . . . we can work this out. It’s not so bad. We can fix it. There are tutors. Editors. SpellCheck!!’"

OK – so it turns out Todd’s right – again. I’m much less likely to find myself facing such a dramatic, life-or-death scenario...although I did have a client once who called me at 11:30 p.m. to ask if a particular comma on page 83 of the 27th draft of her book was really necessary.

Now, I realize that jumping to one’s death – whether over their, they’re, and there, or a pending lawsuit and potential financial ruin – is really never funny. I get that. But Todd truly is a gifted planner who can help virtually anyone in any financial circumstance, whether it’s getting out from under a mountain of debt or handling assets in excess of several million dollars. And if you called him with a 2 a.m. emergency, I have not doubt that he really would help you.

In the meantime, you can call me 24/7 if you ever need help figuring out whether it’s affect or effect.

On balance, I’d say it’s a tossup as to whose work is more valuable in a civilized society such as our own: a sound recommendation for appropriate asset allocation or help spelling recommendation. You decide. And let me know. There's a Starbucks latte riding on the outcome of your decision.

Communicating Compassion

2007-04-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

Have you ever been so fed up with the poor customer service at an establishment that you left, even if it meant inconveniencing yourself by having to drive an extra mile or two to visit another location of the same company, or one of their competitors? I have, many times in the past, in fact. I am getting better about it lately, however – mostly, I believe, because I am attracting fewer unruly or unsatisfactory experiences, overall.

I had one occur yesterday, though – the first in quite some time. This was interesting, too, because although I did leave the store without making a purchase, it was not because the proprietor was rude to me. Rather, it had to do with the way he behaved toward other customers.

I won’t pretend this is an easy situation. In fact, having just posted a blog about judgment at Dangerous Tea Party, I am trying to figure out how to utilize this episode as a learning experience without sliding down that slippery slope into judgment.

The Details

As I walked into the FoodMart at a Chevron gas station, the proprietor was shouting angrily at a woman that she needed to “get off his property!” He yelled that he’d already told her to leave once, and she hadn’t left – now he needed her to leave IMMEDIATELY. In my effort to understand, I assessed the woman. She didn’t appear drunk. She had no shopping cart or even a bag with her. She wasn’t dirty or unkempt. Do I have any idea what preceded his angry outburst? No – because I wasn't there to see the precipitating incidient. Perhaps she had tried to steal something from the store. Maybe she’d had an altercation with someone in the shop. Fact is, this angry man might have had a very good reason for his obviously outraged reaction to this woman.

Until he resumed his position behind the counter, that is, to continue collecting payment from the line that had grown while he was outside throwing the woman off his property. He challenged a man in the line, “And you know I don’t want her here, but you bring her here anyway.”

The guy replied, “Hey, I’m just trying to pay for my drink.”

But Mr. Angry Chevron Proprietor was not done. He continued loudly, “No. I said, ‘Don’t bring her here,’ but you did. You brought her back on my property. You know – I want you out, too.” And he started screaming again. “You get out of here – get off my property, NOW!”

My Response

At which point I decided I didn’t need to buy gas or anything else at this particular gas station, so I took my money and went out those front doors, thinking to myself, “I will never do business here again.” But I’m not sure that’s the proper answer either. I find myself struggling with this idea of judging the proprietor – and that certainly is what I am doing, by deciding his behavior was so over-the-top, in my estimation, that I will never shop there again, particularly as I still don’t know what exactly led up to his banning the woman from his property.

I am not a shop owner, so I can only imagine what it must be like to deal with drunks, homeless, addicts, and panhandlers, particularly as they so often meander outside convenience stores and gas stations, accosting patrons and making people generally uncomfortable. These unsightly, unseemly people no doubt have a financial impact on business establishments, as well as influencing the caliber of clientele, and the shop-owners are fully within their right to protect their businesses and their customers.

Poor decision-making never robs
an individual of his or her humanity.

I suppose what I’m hoping for, though, is a little bit of compassion. Having seen many a belligerent shop owner's response to a vagrant, my heart instinctively empathizes with the transient. Now, I am not denying that their choices led these individuals to the place where they are in their lives. They have volition, and responsibility for their decisions. But poor decision-making never robs an individual of his or her humanity. These shop owners have reached such a level of frustration, though, that they no longer can view the drunk, homeless, panhandling addict as a person; they see them only as a problem that needs correcting. And the obvious solution is to hurl them off the property as quickly as possible. I can’t help but think that for some, if erecting a moat or a wall with a sentry on duty wouldn’t adversely affect sales, they would jump right on it.

As I said before, there’s no easy answer here. I must keep in mind the Chevron guy’s desire to preserve a business he likely worked hard to build. But what I also wish is that he could keep in mind the effect his shouting has on both the individual he is confronting, and all the rest of us who must witness the confrontation.

Writing as Catharsis

2007-04-23T15:22:00.000-07:00

I was reading the AP newswire again today, about Lauren Terrazzano, a reporter for the Long Island newspaper, Newsday, who writes a column called "Life, With Cancer." She was diagnosed with lung cancer two years ago at the age of 36, and began her column in October 2006. Terrazzano recently was informed that she has perhaps 2 or 3 months to live.

With her writing, she is accomplishing two things ... well, many more than two things, surely, but two significant things. She is giving outlet to all the myriad emotions surrounding what I can only imagine is a most intense experience - but she also is giving a voice to all the others who share that experience but do not have the venue, perceived talent, or ability to hang their cancer stories out for the world to see.

Terrazzano comments on every facet of the disease. She discusses Elizabeth Edwards' most public battle, sharing her first wedding anniversary with her husband, the insensitive comments people make everyday to those living so gracefully with this insidious disease. I cringed to realize that I, too, had at one time made such a comment. It's just so easy to be flip - or insensitive - when you're not in someone else's position.

Writing is, for Terrazzano, no doubt therapeutic. As it is for many who write.

My dear friend, Rebecca Joy, shared with me a blog in January by Christine Kloser, about her miscarriage experience. In it, she talks about the excitement of expecting her second baby ... and the utter devastation that accompanied losing that child. In a marketing column, no less!

And I have personally seen writing work to help people heal. For the last two years, I have hosted an event called "The Birthmother You Know." It is a spoken word event during which birthmothers, women who have placed their children for adoption, come together to share their stories. Some have written poems, short stories, essays, stage plays ... letters they never sent. We will reprise the event again this year - but are still working out the details. Last year, though, we had a gal who shared her story publicly for the first time since giving up her son more than five years ago. She talked, rather than read, and as she talked, she cried. And the entire audience cried with her ... because even though our stories were all so enormously different, she captured in her raw honesty the element of adoption that rings true for every birthmom I have ever met ... the agony of saying goodbye, even if it is the "right" thing to do.

Interestingly, all of these examples involve women.

Certainly, men also use writing as a healing tool. Lynn Nelson, an Arizona State professor of English, in a talk about the pen truly being mightier than the sword, reads and speaks of his own personal childhood traumas and violence. Soldiers returning from battle often use writing to try to release, categorize, and understand their wartime experiences. Convicted criminals often write for a similar release, whether it's owning up to what they've done, or dealing with the ever-present violence they experience within so many prison walls. People who have survived every kind of trauma use - or could use - writing as a means to reconnect with their souls.

There's a fallacy that's been circulating for a long time, now - that in order to be creative, one must have experienced drama, tragedy, poverty, mental illness, or some other equally epic societal ill. This certainly is not the case. Happy people can be just as creative as those who live in a chronically depressed state. Writing, however - and all forms of art, for that matter - can have a dramatic and healing influence.

Whether we write to share, or squirrel our scribblings away in journals never to be seen by any other than our own eyes, the process of getting the words out of our heads and onto paper helps us dissociate from them. It makes the words, memories, images slightly less powerful, because they now live on paper, so they need not live so vividly in our minds. It's as though once we take the action of putting the thoughts, feelings, memories into actual words - whether in a journal book, a blog, an online journal, articles, a novel, or any written form - we give ourselves permission to release those words from our memory banks. We free ourselves to feel, see, do, and experience new things.

Writing can help us heal, if we let it. All we need to do is pick up the pen or sit at the keyboard during an unencumbered time, and allow the words to flow through us.

Imus, Hip-Hop, and Our Right to Speak Freely

2007-04-19T05:44:00.000-07:00

According to an AP newswire story released yesterday, a team of high-powered music industry executives met privately to discuss sexist and misogynistic rap lyrics” in the wake of the Don Imus firing for his recent incendiary racist comments. Now, I in no way want to be perceived as endorsing Imus’ comments. The fact is that anyone with a large public platform is responsible for remaining within the bounds of decency, whether that is a talk radio host, an actor, a sports figure, a supermodel, or a politician.

As James Poniewozik writes in "The Imus Fallout: Who Can Say What?" for the April 12 issue of Time:

A reasonable person could ask, What was the big deal? And I don't mean the lots-of-black-rappers-say-"hos" argument, though we'll get to that. Rather, I mean, what celebrity isn't slurring some group nowadays?

I exaggerate slightly. But our culture has experienced an almost psychotic outburst of -isms in the past year. Michael Richards and "nigger." Isaiah Washington and "faggot." Senator George Allen and "macaca." Mel Gibson and "fucking Jews."

The problem, for me, arises when we begin splitting hairs about what is decent and right and proper and what has “crossed the line.” One thing I’d love to understand is why this comment that Imus made “crossed the line” and none of the other bile he’s spewed during his nearly 30 years on the air was considered quite so offensive. Here’s the thing: like beauty, offense is in the eye of the beholder.

So why this time? Why this incident? What makes this particular inappropriate phrase so much more inappropriate than all the other garbage that has ever issued forth from this man’s mouth – or any other person of similar stature? When you look at the list of groups he’s insulted, he really appears to be an equal-opportunity jackass – and the fact is, he has a following. There would have been absolutely no way for him to have stayed on the air for as long as he did if people weren’t tuning in to listen. Isn’t it possible it was all for show?

So now, record execs are getting together to discuss the violence and misogynistic lyrics that have filled rap music for lo these last . . . 30 years. Say what? Now, because it’s a hot-button issue, we want to talk about it? Where were we, in terms of this conversation when the gangsta rappers were killing each other in the late 90s? Where have we been as “ho” entered the lexicon as an acceptable moniker for women of every race?

Oh, right, people are watching us now. So it must be the proper time to call a meeting to investigate whether or not we need to think about changes in our unbelievably lucrative industry. According to the AP story, “After the meeting ended, it was unclear whether there would be another one. [Hip-hop mogul Russell] Simmons' publicist released a short statement that described the topic [of the meeting] as a ‘complex issue that involves gender, race, culture and artistic expression. Everyone assembled today takes this issue very seriously.’”

You bet it’s complex. And we are now headed down a very slippery slope.

To reiterate an earlier point, anyone with a large public platform is responsible for remaining within the bounds of decency, whether that is a talk radio host, an actor, a sports figure, a supermodel, or a politician. If we’re going to live on this planet together in a civilized society, we all need to take ownership for how we treat each other. And something many people seem utterly aware of is that words ARE things. Words can incent violence or rally the masses for peace and goodwill. Words can cut to the quick or words can lift our spirits and touch our souls. Twenty-six little characters . . . more than 500,000 words (according to Wikipedia about the number of headwords in the Oxford English Dictionary). It is up to each individual what we do with the words we have. How well we own them. How many we use. What we choose to do with the ones we do own and use.

Legislating appropriate behavior is a tough sell, for me. I know that all laws essentially are designed to “protect” the greater good. But when it comes to free speech, one of the single most important principles upon which our nation was founded, this desire for control, the urge to legislate what people can say and where and when they can say it is distasteful at best, and dangerous at the worst.

Frankly, I would rather let guys like Imus, Tom Leykis, and Howard Stern spew out loud and in public – and for a very simple reason. At least then I know where they stand. And being that we do live in a free country, I have the ability, everyday and all day long, to change the channel if I don’t like what I am hearing. Given our freedom to write uncensored letters, I can write or e-mail anyone my opinion of their on-air musings. I can write letters to the editor or contribute an Op-Ed piece that calls attention to and/or dissects the scurrilous comments. I can blog my agreement or dissent. As long as we retain our freedom of expression, I have the equal opportunity to make my thoughts and opinions heard.

However, the minute we start exploring ways to limit what people can say on air or write in their song lyrics, we begin to limit our own freedom to dissent, comment, argue, and grow as a result of the ensuing conversation.

Color me liberal – or libertarian – but I don’t ever want to see that freedom impinged upon. The American principle of free speech promotes dialogue on public issues, but is most significantly relevant to words that are unpopular at the time the speaker utters them. Speak up now, or forever hold your piece.

Freedom of speech which is limited to freedom to say whatever a majority of the Pennsylvania legislature agrees with is not real freedom of speech.
– Pennsylvania state legislator, Rep. Mark B. Cohen

Even the Bigshots Get Spanked When It Comes to Stealing Material

2007-04-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

An April 11, 2007 AP news report out of New York details the firing of a CBS News producer for plagiarizing a story from The Wall Street Journal. It was for a Katie Couric piece about libraries. I don’t know about you, but my first inclination is to quote Homer Simpson: “D’oh!”

One might be tempted to ask “Why?” but the sad part is that it happens all the time. People get busy. They feel pressured. It’s more or less for the same reason students cheat. And, boy, do our students cheat.

According to information on the Caveon Test Security Web site, a recent survey of more than 36,000 students by the Josephson Institute illustrates the problem of cheating among students in that the majority (60%) cheated on a test during the past year, and one in three (33%) said they used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment.

Don Sorenson, Caveon’s Vice President of Marketing, writes:

According to Michael Josephson, president and founder of Josephson Institute, "The good news is that things aren’t getting any worse — the 2006 results are almost identical to those reported in 2004. The bad news is that unacceptably high rates of dishonesty have become the norm. It doesn’t bode well for the future that so many kids are entering the workforce to become the next generation of corporate executives and cops, politicians and parents, journalists, teachers, and coaches with the dispositions and skills of liars, cheaters and thieves."

See the correlation here . . . journalists are mentioned by name!

So in spite of our inclination to ask “Why?” the more important and interesting question is, “How do they expect to get away with it?!?”

Cheating takes many forms. Managers who steal ideas from their staff and take credit for them. Students who pay for others to write their papers and then pass them off as their own. People from every industry who liberally utilize the vast information available on the Web in their promo materials, articles, books, and white papers and fail to credit the sources. Authors and reporters who create fictitious stories and pass them off as “memoirs” or “news.”
People who feign injury and disability and then file pricey insurance claims – and the doctors who sign off for them.

The most obvious, though, and seemingly easy to spot, are those who plagiarize – because (a) the plagiarizers, seeming not to be the sharpest knives in the drawer, somehow tend to forget that people who watch TV also read. Or people who read one book are quite likely to read another; and (b) with easy access to the Internet, it’s only a matter of typing a few keys and tapping a few buttons before you can find out if the material has been borrowed, stolen, or pilfered.

There are those in the info products industry who feel that it’s completely kosher to pay for “public domain” articles and repackage them into your own reports, eBooks, home study courses. This is not exactly the same as plagiarizing – as public domain means no one owns the rights to the materials.

However, I always suggest to my clients that they go for original. Honestly, there are no new ideas. I’ve said this before. Unless you’re performing cutting-edge scientific or medical research or are hot on the trail of the biography of the most up-to-the-minute celeb-to-be, there will be other material out there on your subject. And depending on the subject, possibly a LOT more material. But that doesn’t mean you still shouldn’t write your own stuff, and it definitely does not mean you should take someone else's ideas and call them your own. You were blessed with a brilliant brain. You’ve got insights and instincts and a perspective that are all your own.

Does the mere fact that a search on Amazon.com for “marketing” yields 224,868 titles mean you should not write a book about marketing? Not at all. But it does up the ante somewhat, in terms of the necessity for you to make your book stand out from the rest. New characters. A new strategy or concept. A new spin on an old strategy or concept. A very specialized and underserved niche. A creative teaching concept.

The most important thing is that you make it yours! That’s what the CBS producer forgot to do. He/she thought the borrowed story was a good idea . . . but forgot to find a new angle or a different perspective about the piece. Hell, he/she could even have taken the OPPOSITE perspective of The Wall Street Journal and created some controversy . . . good controversy . . . about libraries, no less.

Remember: it’s OK to borrow liberally if you ask permission (where necessary) and always credit your sources. Otherwise, simply look to others' concepts for inspiration, ulitmately making the final product your own. And if you have others doing research for you, be sure to double-check their sources...no matter how much you trust them. Regardless of how CBS decides to handle this situation, if YOUR name goes on a piece – whether it's writing, music, video, or visual art – if you're honest, you will admit that you've got some liability in the process that creates it.

There's No Shame in Being a Bad Speller/Poor Grammarian

2007-03-31T22:35:00.000-07:00

IThe following is the transcript of a recent voicemail I received from a client:

Hi, Laura. It's Elizabeth*. I really hope I caught you in time. You know that article I sent you to edit? Don't open it! I mean, I hope you didn't look at it yet. I just reread it, and realized it's terrible. I need to rework it. I'll see what I can do with it later this afternoon, and send you my improved version tonight or tomorrow. Thanks.

Unfortunately, Elizabeth still has not sent me the revision.

It's a funny thing about writing. Many people have absolutely no confidence at all in their ability. Thing is, they are often more skilled than they give themselves credit for. And for those whose ability is less than stellar, that's the whole reason they hire an editor, isn't it?

What I'd like to convince my client, Elizabeth, though — and everyone else out there who feels like she does — is that there is absolutely nothing to be ashamed about, with regard to her writing skills. No matter how bad the spelling or how egregious the grammar errors, none of that is representative of how smart she is or how important the information she wants to share with her audience.

In a 2000 Suite101.com article, "What Does Your Spelling Say About You Behind Your Back?" Sandra Linville references Marilyn Vos Savant's book, The Art of Spelling: The Madness and the Method. Vos Savant wrote her book after conducting a 1998 survey in her Parade Magazine column, in which she asked, "What does your spelling really say about you? Is spelling ability a measure of your education, intelligence, desire, or none of the above?"

In her article, Linville explains, "The survey garnered more than 42,000 responses, indicating that better organizational skills benefit spelling ability, rather than intelligence. However, Vos Savant realizes that inept spellers can look inept in other ways. A misspelled word can kill a job offer or result in a rejected proposal. She also states that an English-speaking perfect speller doesn't exist."

Corresponding with Vos Savant's theory, it is widely reputed that Albert Einstein, the unquestionable genius physicist, was so bad at spelling that he was initially assumed to be retarded. In fact, according to the 1998 ScienceGoGo.com article, "Ten Obscure Factoids Concerning Albert Einstein," Factoid #3 is:

He Was a Rotten Speller. Although he lived for many years in the United States and was fully bilingual, Einstein claimed never to be able to write in English because of "the treacherous spelling." He never lost his distinctive German accent either, summed up by his catch-phrase "I vill a little t'ink."

Renowned social scientist Howard Gardner has done much research on the concept of multiple intelligences. Essentially, although each of us has many ways in which we learn and perceive information, we generally have one primary area where we excel.

Although Gardner originally determined seven different intelligences, an eighth one, naturalistic intelligence, has recently been added to the list. Brief descriptions of each intelligence are:

Verbal/Linguistic — This intelligence is related to words and language, both written and spoken. It dominates most educational systems in the United States.

Logical/Mathematical — Often called “scientific thinking,” this intelligence is related to inductive and deductive thinking and reasoning, numbers, and the recognition of abstract patterns.

Visual/Spatial — This intelligence relies on the sense of sight and being able to visualize an object, including the ability to create internal mental images/pictures. People who enjoy mediation and guided imagery or hypnosis are commonly very visual or spatial learners.

Intrapersonal — This intelligence relates to inner states of being, self-reflection, metacognition (i.e., thinking about thinking), and awareness of spiritual realities.

Interpersonal — This intelligence operates primarily through person-to-person relationships and communication.

Bodily/Kinesthetic — This intelligence is related to physical movement and the knowing/wisdom of the body, including the brain’s motor cortex, which controls bodily motion.

Musical/Rhythmic — This intelligence is based on the recognition of tonal patterns, including various environmental sounds, and on sensitivity to rhythm and beats.

Naturalistic — This intelligence is based on the sensing of patterns in and making connections to elements in nature.

So although verbal and linguistic may arguably be perceived as the most commonly emphasized of the eight intelligences, it is far from the only one. The fact is that each us has special skills — and it's not always spelling and grammar. Those may be my personal strengths, but just ask my niece about my fiasco as a sub, teaching math to her 6th grade Montessori class.

My client who said she needed to rewrite her article before she sent it to me reminded me of those people who feel they have to clean their houses before the housekeeper arrives. That one also baffles me. If we could all just get past our shame about our deficiencies and focus on the things we do well, life would be so much easier.

* This name has been changed to protect my client's identity.

You Don't Have to Be a GREAT Writer to Communicate Well

2007-03-14T23:44:00.000-07:00

My particular literary gift is making other people's words sound better, clearer, more professional, funnier, more interesting, more persuasive. "Better" takes on all shapes and sizes because I work with all shapes and sizes of writers, each with varying degrees of skill.

Regarding the specifics of writing skills, a recent conversation comes to mind. I was talking with a woman from a networking group I belong to. She has an interesting product, and an even more compelling personal reason for promoting the product. Such seems to be the case for many in the direct marketing field, as those in other segments of sales. More often than not, people sell products or services they believe in. It just makes marketing easier if you are enthusiastic and engaged in the product or service you're promoting.

As a marketing advisor who enables my clients to use their writing to promote their goods and services, my natural first question to my friend was, "Have you ever considered writing an article about your involvement with products that promote a healthy environment for kids?" Her response to me was one I hear again and again – and the very reason I have a thriving practice:

"I can't write at all."

Let me offer various translations of that for you:

"It's been a long time since I've written anything and I'm just terribly out of practice as a writer."

"A long time ago, someone told me my writing wasn't very good."

"For a long laundry list of reasons, I lack confidence about my writing."

"I have great ideas, but it's impossible to get them out of my head, down onto paper."

"I always get writers' block every time I try to write something, even an e-mail."

Almost anything but, "I'm atually just a terrible writer."

And even terrible writers can still have fantastic messages. One of my longest-term clients is one of the worst writers I've ever known. But he's brilliant and has an amazing amount of information to share. Most importantly, though, he recognizes his weakness and hires someone (moi) to compensate for his deficiency in the area of written communication.

The truth is that most people just need more confidence and more practice to become better writers. Writing is like most skills: if you don't use it, you lose it – at least to a certain degree.

Another way to become a better writer is to become a better reader. Study writing that appeals to you, paying attention to sentence structure, word choices, cadence, tone, etc. Practice mimicking that author's style with your own writing.

There are hundreds of books and tools out there to help you, as well. Just Google "book" and "become a better writer" and you will almost immediately have more resource choices than you could ever hope to read in a lifetime.

One last way to make writing easier for you, if it's the writing part that has always been a struggle for you, is to dictate – speak instead of write. Services like www.idictate.com and www.copytalk.com offer unbelievable steals on dictation services that arrive in your e-mailbox like magic. So think about talking your next book or article, instead of being fearful of that blank page.

Whatever you do, make sure you share your message with the world. You were blessed with talents and skills, and part of honoring your human contract is by using them as widely as possible.

Understanding the actual request

2007-03-07T11:11:00.000-07:00

How often do we hear a question or receive a request and completely misunderstand or miss the point?

This happened recently in my Toastmasters club. We had a request to make a presentation to a group of employees for a local company about how the participants could improve their public speaking skills.

Understandably, our leadership saw this as a great opportunity to promote Toastmasters, an organization whose mission is precisely that — to enable individuals to practice and perfect their public speaking skills. However, the request from the company was not for us to come in and sell Toastmasters to their employees. It was to teach them some public speaking basics.

Public speaking basics include such things as:

Knowing your audience
Knowing the goals for your presentation (persuasion, entertainment, damage control, sales, motivation, etc.)
Writing your speech out ahead of time — but focusing primarily on the opening and conclusion — that it's OK to extemporize the middle
Knowing that sometimes you just have to throw out the speech you've prepared and wing it — if it's not working, the subject is not fitting the audience, you've lost them and they are falling asleep, etc.
Understanding how important rehearsing ahead of time is Remembering to BREATHE while you're up there
Mastering use of the space
What to do with your hands
The importance of vocal variety
How to incorporate props approriately
Trying to work without notes as much as possible
Remembering to have fun — if you're bored, scared, or nervous, your audience will sense that and you will be much less effective

In our enthusiasm to demonstrate our Toastmasterability, we came close to missing the mark entirely. Although I believe that we should not miss the opportunity to make a pitch for the attendees to think about joining a Toastmasters club — or forming their own internal club — I believe that should be only as a small segment at the END of our presentation. The thing is, if they want to know more about Toastmasters, all they have to do is visit any meeting. A Toastmasters sales pitch was not their request and it should not be our sole focus.

How often, though, do we do this in our businesses and in our lives? It's sometimes hard work to understand what people want when they ask questions or make requests — but if we want to be the best communcators we can be, we must get to the core of the actual question and answer that. To do otherwise convolutes the process and can lead to some sticky situations and, in the case of personal relationships, potential hurt feelings.

Three basic rules of communication:

Say what you mean.
Make sure you understand the question that is being asked.
Speak your truth (with honesty and integrity, always).

Talking About God — It's Getting Easier

2006-12-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

Workplace spirituality. As much as I believe in it, it doesn't affect me so directly, as I am self-employed and work from home. It does, however, affect many people — and it is affecting me lately, as twice in one day it's come to the forefront of my awareness in a major way. The first was through my reading of Megatrends 2010, by Patricia Aburdene. The second was via Workplace Spirituality, a Web site I just stumbled across during research for an article.

I grew up Catholic, and although my parents were involved in the Liberation Theology movement in the late 80s, I still never had much experience with the whole arena of preaching, proselytizing, witnessing, and collecting converts. In my experience, Catholics just didn't do that kind of stuff. At 18, I joined the Thomas More Newman Center at the University of Arizona, and about fainted when they began teaching us that Pope John Paul II did indeed want us to go out and preach the Good News. I was pretty good at talking to God — but the very idea of talking about God was something I felt better kept private. The "amen and alleluia" Protestants I came across throughout my childhood had caused me no end of horror. How could anyone be so energetic, unembarrassed, and uninhibited about their faith?

I think part of my problem was confusing religion with spirituality. Once I found my God — the one who wants only my best and highest good, the one to whom I can turn in gratitude for the multitudinous blessings in my life, or for help when things are not so easy — it became simple to understand wanting to raise my voice to proclaim God's glory.

One relatively recent discovery for me was the KLOV radio station, a national Christian Contemporary Music station. I began listening about a year and a half ago, stumbling acorss a song I recognized from church while driving on the freeway one afternoon. Now even though I grew up in the strictest of Catholic homes, I'm not a particularly churchy girl. In fact, the religious zealots drive me bonkers...but so do the church-state separatists with no better way to spend their time and our money than by filing lawsuits to keep entire municipalities from calling those tall living things we put lights on and presents under during the last month of the year CHRISTmas trees.

But KLOV does require a certain amount of spiritual commitment. I started listening because I was getting burned out on all the alt-rock stations who day after day played one song after another with lyrics like, "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you — why'd you leave me?" As much as there is really good stuff out there (Kelly Clarkson is my guiltiest pleasure), there's just so much ugliness and hatred and dysfunction celebrated and spewed via commercial radio that I wanted a respite. And I found one in KLOV.

I'll be the first to admit, though, that there are times when it's way tooooo Christian/churchy for me, a cradle Catholic who, while experimenting with Unity right now, will always feel her spiritual home is with the papists. So, when the KLOV folks start ramping up the sermons or getting on their weird, right-wing political soapboxes, I use my God-given brain and arm to change the dial on my radio. All that being the case, some of the music is so unbelievably inspiring and uplifting that I cannot help but crank up the volume and sing along at the top of my lungs. That's when I truly have to be unworried about what others think and simply celebrate the joy of the moment, the beauty of the Universe, and the abundance of God's blessings.

Certainly, I'm getting better about having God/Spirit-centered conversations. Funny how it's so much easier to talk about things when you have a passion for them and really believe in them. My sister raised my niece without any religious programming; she let her find her own way to a fairly conservative Protestant belief system in her early teens. I, on the other hand, have always been grateful for my lifelong instruction in the Catholic faith. Even though there are many things about the religion — about organized religion, in general — that I question or with which I disagree, I feel abundantly blessed to have been educated in a religious environment (12 years of Catholic school), more familiar than most Catholics with the teachings of the Bible and a full grasp of the sacraments, and graced with a foundation of spirituality that allowed me to become the kind, creative, spititual seeker that I am, at 39.

I now attract people into my life, almost exclusively, who have not only an understanding of God/Spirit, but for whom this belief is a central tenet. And when I come across those who are struggling or angry or unsettled, one of the first questions I ask — as soon as I have created enough of a rapport to be able to ask it — is, "Do you pray?" It's non-confrontational, but a "yes" or "no" answer opens the door to further conversation about spirituality and faith systems.

Would I use this approach at work, if I had a "real" J-O-B? You bet I would! I could even see myself being one of those rebels who gets sued or fired for breaking the rules by speaking God, speaking Spanish, speaking politics... As it is, I use this Spirit consciousness, when applicable, with my clients...and so far, no one has been offended or alienated.

Aburdene's whole point is that we are definitely moving toward a society of corporate spiritual consciousness. What a different world it promises to be, if she is correct.

Never Too Late to Give Thanks for Special People

2006-11-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm a day late on this. As I imagine a lot of people did, I hesitated to post about the things I'm thankful for on Thanksgiving . . . because it's just so . . . conventional. That doesn't mean I didn't write my own gratitude list in my journal, and that it didn't run to two pages. I have a very blessed life and many, many things for which to be grateful.

So when I read the following question on a new blog I came across today (The Art of Getting By), I decided to accept the challenge:

What are five people, places or things you are thankful for?
Here are the five (5, cinco, fünf, cinq, cinque, itsutsu, FIVE?) people for whom I am most grateful.

(1) My family. Yes, I am cheating here, but it's my list, so my rules. Mom, from whom I get my creativity and feistiness. Dad — we really missed you this year. Corina, my beautiful and amazing sister. Samantha, the most goregous songbird I could ever have been gifted to know. Ann . . . and David — yes, even Ann and David — for the never-ending learning opportunities. Spencer, Grace, Sophie, Moondanz, Brutus, Chazz, Cleo, Koko . . . as well as the rest of the unnamed pets, and the myriad cousins, uncles, aunts, grandparents, and the entire assembly of Rendon & Orsini progenitors.

(2) My son. Apart from my family (again, my list, so my rules) because he is apart from me, living with his adoptive family in Gillette, New Jersey. With him, I must group his adoptive family, Kathy, Bruce, Jill . . . and all the people whose lives have touched his and whose lives he has touched. Thank you so much for lovingly accepting your role as Christian/Eric's family and community at the time when I could not give him that. (Oh, also grateful for his birthfather, Tony, without whom he never would have come into the world. Wherever you are, Tony, Happy Thanksgiving.)

(3) The incomparable Todd Smith. It's been a mere six months, and I don't remember what my life was like before he arrived in it. Todd is the most amazing man I have ever met . . . God truly blessed me when he dropped Todd into my life . . . a brilliant financial educator . . . unbelievably perceptive, kind, compassionate, funny, wise, nonjudgmental . . . you have changed my world utterly, Todd, and I would go to the ends of the earth for you . . .

(4) The most amazing personal trainer and SEO coach on the planet, Scott White. Those links are for you, baby! Scott has the ability to motivate and inspire, regardless of the mental trash that gets in my way. He is smart, funny, and ever so supportive. He constantly encourages me . . . and, more than anything else, he believes in me, even if I don't always believe in myself. Thank you, Scott. You are such a gift.

(5) I initially thought this fifth spot would be a challenge. How to whittle down the list of a dozen or more likely candidates to one? David Hepburn. Joanne Tedesco. Jacie Carter. Rebecca Joy. Therese Skelly. Vickie Champion. Linda Herold. Paula Dawson. Mitzi Lynton. Allan Sabo. Father Renna. Father Murray. Sister Laurian (yes, I went to Catholic school). Tim Gartland. Tom Otsot. Ken Bolden. Jane Oh Kim. Jon Lazar. Deborah Davenport.

And then it hit me. The fifth spot is mine. I am grateful for myself. For my life, my accomplishments, my failures, my hopes, my dreams, my goals, my idiosyncrasies, my love, my creativity, my vision, my wishes, my possibilities and promise and potential. I am thankful for me.

Overall, it's been a pretty fantastic Thanksgiving weekend so far . . .

P.S. - Samantha nailed me for not adding God to the List of 5, but technically (s)he's not a person . . .

PR Can Be a Useful Tool for Small Business Owners

2006-11-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

While I see Lewis Green's point in his recent post, "On PR: Not the First Strategy of Small Business," I disagree, in part.

The fact is that any business owner is in two businesses: (1) the business of the product or service they offer, and (2) marketing & selling the product or service they offer. This is where PR comes in, even for a small company. PR ― or public relations ― is, as Green points out, a facet of marketing. So is advertsing. And, given the choice between spending marketing $$ on PR or on advertising, for a small business owner, the better choice is PR, by far.

Sure, a massive PR campaign with guaranteed placement and coverage in three or four different media vehicles will cost you a pretty penny. But it doesn't have to cost a million dollars to begin a small, successful PR campaign. If you write them well and in the proper format, it IS possible for your media releases to generate interest, buzz, and coverage. Two important things to remember about getting your story picked up are being consistent and creating relationships with the reporters, columnists, talk show hosts, and others in the media.

Be consistent ― but don't be a pest. Make sure that even if your stories don't get picked up the first handful of times, the reporters and editors you are targeting are consistently seeing your name and details about your business and/or activities.

Create relationships with members of the media. Remember, they're people, too. So call them up. Let them know you have expertise in their subject. Make yourself available. Ask how you can help them. They're not inaccessible, and they're not ogres. As long as you are respectful of their time, and aren't constantly calling or sending releases about little Johnny's first-grade spelling bee win or Aunt Hilda's prize-winning rutabegas, they will want to talk with you. Why? Because they need content! Sports and the hard news sections of any paper or segments of any TV news broadcast are the primary places where news occurs as it happens. In virtually every other area, stories and reports have to be researched and written ahead of time. Reporters are constantly on the lookout for good story ideas. If you have one, do yourself and your favorite reporter a favor― share it with them!

And even if you don't have a whole lot of initial success in getting your story picked up by the media, you can always write your own piece and submit it to a smaller newspaper or journal. Either way (they write about you or you author your own piece), you are creating what is known as a third-party endorsement. That means that an independent entity is vouching for you. If you spend money to run an ad, anyone who reads the ad knows that you paid for it. And unless it's a truly spectacular piece of work, has an unbelievable can't-miss offer, or hits the reader at precisely the right time, its chances of success in a single appearance are slim. However, with the single appearnce of an article or news story, the organization who runs the piece validates you as newsworthy by running it; even if you write your own article, you're still validated because they thought your piece was good enough to put in their publication. And, with stories you author yourself, you almsot always get a resource box at the end, which contains a very short bio and your contact information.

Once you write a release, use it! Beyond simply submitting your media release to the local media, think broader. Are there specialty journals or magazines related to your field? Are there regional or national publications you can submit to? Have you considered purchasing distribution through a source like PR Web? And if you've written your own article, don't forget to post it online. Use a service like Article Marketer to get your story scattered across the Internet. These are low-cost tools that can really pay off in huge PR returns, if your work is well-written and well-edited to begin with.

So, yes. A BIG, glitzy, pull-out-all-the-stops media campaign is probably beyond the budget of most small businesses. But there's no reason you cannot make a smaller, systematized PR and marketing campaign work very effectively for you.

In the Phoenix market, one woman has done a remarkable job on her own PR. After scoring 300+ media appearances on her own (no PR firm involved) in her first 6 years in business, Eileen Proctor of It's a Ruff Life Dog Daycare is now making a living teaching others how to create media relationships that guarantee publicity. And as the NLP folks teach us, if someone else can do it, we can too. All we need to do is study what they've done, and then copy or adapt it, as necessary.

PR does work. Use it ― and watch your business skyrocket.

Networking 101

2006-11-05T19:27:00.000-07:00

"None of us knows as much as all of us,
and I know a lot of people."
— Charles Morton

You've probably never heard of Charles Morton — but he's right. It's the collective knowledge that makes us powerful. And that is precise reason networking is so important to any small business owner or entrepreneur. We've all attended our share of networking events. Some of us do it with more consistency than others. The problem is that even with lots of practice, we don't always get as much out of our networking expenditures (time, money, energy) as we could or should.

My women's networking group, Scottsdale Express Network, set out to correct that yesterday when we hosted a 4-hour workshop called Networking 101.

The interesting thing was that only 20 people showed up. More people had paid, but didn't get there for some reason. Others had known about it, but evidently had more important priorities. With an inkling from our pre-registration that our turnout could be low, we thought about cancelling the event. However, Vickie Champion, a great mentor of mine (and attendee of the workshop) taught me a long time ago the value of not forcing things. "Would you do it, even if no one came?" she used to ask her students to ask themselves — the message being that we need always to remember that no matter what we're doing, it is about the process, and we have to detach from the outcome.

So, since I knew that we would definitely have some attendees, even if it was not as many as I had originally envisioned, I knew we would go through with the event — if for no other reason than that the people who needed to be there would be there. And they were. There also was great food; new connections were made; and lots of brilliant information was shared.

We had three excellent presenters who each talked about different aspects of networking. At the end of each presentation, I went around the room and asked someone from each table to state their main take-away from that presenter. What follows is a synthesis of those take-aways:

Tammy Stanley — Have both a 30-second and a 10-second intro. And know that it takes longer than 30 seconds to craft these intros. Remember to do something interesting. No one else at the meetings you attend is likely to do anything all that memorable, so why not you? Go for the gold! The worst thing that could happen is that you flop. But what if you land a perfect 10? Isn't the chance to succeed beyond your wildest dreams worth that shot?

Chip Lambert — First, we need to know what we want — for our businesses, and for our lives. Next, we must realize that everything we want or need is, at most, 3 questions away from us. The key is knowing what to ask, whom to ask it of, and then being unafraid to do the ASKING!

Susan Ratliff — Whenever you go out to network, go prepared. Use your attendance at trade shows as a networking opportunity. And even if you cannot meet or capitalize on all the other attendees at an expo, do something noteworthy to meet and appeal to the vendors at such an event. They are a captive audience, and will appreciate you for making an effort to meet their needs!

Who among us has not played the Business Card Shuffle at one time or another? But that does not have to be your regular networking experience. Set aside a couple hours to hone your 30-second intro. This first requires that you know who you are, whose problems you solve, and how you solve them — and then be able to describe it all succinctly. Make a point to figure out what you want, and who can help you get it. And make yourself memorable, whether it's at a tradeshow or a networking event.

Don't be a wallflower. Be the one people like. Be the one people trust. Be the one people remember. And, most importantly, be the first one they call. You can get in the game or you can sit on the sidelines — the choice is yours, alone.

Living the Truth

2006-09-24T15:13:00.000-07:00

A quick Google search of the term "living out loud" revealed 330,000 results. Changed that just slightly to "living the truth" and the number was reduced to 58,000. I think this post is about a bit of both...living out loud, which cannot happen, really, without living the truth.

But what do you do when you find yourself having to live a lie? Or at least having to keep a full disclosure from someone?

I remember a colleague of mine at Lehman Brothers in the mid-90s. My friend was of mixed (Western & Eastern) ethnicities, being Swedish on his mom's side and Iranian on his father's side. Although he lived and worked in the Anglo world of investment banking, he kept many of the Eastern traditions, particularly as they related to his spiritual life. But he also had an interesting objectivity about Western beliefs.

One day, our conversation turned to a story in the NY Times about a service in Japan that enabled women working as escorts (hookers) to save face with their families, because it provided them a way to give their families a false belief that the women had legitimate jobs — whenever anyone called their "office" number, a receptionist would take a message, thereby covering for the girls. My friend thought the cover business was a good idea, as it allowed these women to keep from embarassing their families. At the time, I held the more didactic position that the truth was sacred — and that living a lie was a bad thing. My colleague pointed out to me that this idea of full disclosure is a very Western concept . . . and he argued vociferously that there are times when telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth can be bad, edgy, detrimental — even dangerous.

I suppose I've grown more open-minded since that conversation . . . but it wasn't until today that I've actually found myself in the position of having to live the lie to protect someone I love.

The short (and less-than-scintillating) version of the story is that I inadvertently found out some information about someone I love . . . information I know for a fact that this person has gone to great lengths to keep personal and private. We haven't known each other all that long, and it remains possible that one day this person will decide to reveal the information to me on their own. Without knowing all the details (the information I uncovered is incomplete, to be sure), I can only guess that the circumstances of the story are embarrassing, even shameful . . . and I fully understand why this person would choose to keep the information from me.

As my NYC colleague pointed out, the fact is that just because we know someone well . . . just because we love them . . . even if they are our life partner . . . does not automatically mean that we are owed full disclosure all the time. To imply that an S.O. relationship should be completely free of secrets is to say, essentially, that we want to climb inside that other person's head and be them. Thanks, but no thanks. I have enough trouble most days just being me. I've got my stuff I tell no one — or tell only selected people. This special person in my life deserves equal consideration.

The problem for me arises in the question of how to remain in integrity in our relationship while preserving the privacy and not revealing my inadvertent discovery . . . because in not telling, there does remain the component of living a lie.

It's an age-old question. You learn your best friend's husband is cheating on her. Do you tell her? Some say yes, some say no, others say it depends on the situation. I am of the school that there are very few black and white answers that fit every circumstance every time. In my situation, I am choosing, at least for the moment, not to tell.

As someone newly exposed to the Unity Church in Phoenix, I have been quite taken with their Commitment to Living Love.

I commit to living love, to the best of my ability, with my thoughts, words, and actions. I am excited to share this commitment with others.

I go to my heart, and I ask you to go to your heart, because I believe in
the connecting power of love.
I see the greatness of myself and I see the greatness in you. Your life and
my life have infinite possibilities.
I love and accept you just the way you are, and I respect your right to be
different and think differently than I do.
I love you and myself enough to tell you what's going on with me and to
listen deeply to what's going on with you.
I forgive myself, and I ask for your forgiveness, when I am not living
love.
I use words of kindness, encouragement, appreciation, and gratitude to build
up you, myself, and others.
I care for you. How can I support you?

Number 4 and number 7, particularly, speak to me with regard to this issue of communication. I have no doubt that I will, eventually, have to live my truth, and disclose my unfortunately timed discovery. To do any less will likely kill this oh-so-treasured relationship. But as a very wise friend reminded me, I do not need to disclose all today.

And so, today I set my intention to receive divine guidance about the timing of my disclosure, so that I can know with utter certainty the precise time to reveal this discovery, come clean, and speak my truth. In the meantime, preserving my loved one's pride and privacy — and continuing to embrace them fully — is simply another way of living out loud and living my truth.

Have you ever encountered a similar situation? What did you do? How did you handle it? I invite your responses!

What's Your Networking Personality Type?

2006-02-05T22:36:00.000-07:00

How much does your success depend on the people you know?

Personal success, business success, satisfaction in life . . . how much does your success in life depend on the people you know?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and give you my highly scientific estimate that . . . it matters A LOT.

When you consider that it’s the people with whom you surround yourself that you turn to for love, support, encouragement, validation, ideas, advice, conversation, and the like . . . it becomes clear that they matter a great deal to your success. If the people in your life are not doing those things for you, you might want to start thinking about getting new people in your life.

And reciprocally, we do the same things for the people in whose lives we find ourselves.

The next question is: how do you meet the people in your life?

Many folks make two incorrect assumptions about networking:

(1) that it is always related to business; and

(2) that it only happens at specific meetings or organized events that call themselves "networking functions."

A network is just a collection of connected people. Everyone in your network is, at minimum, connected to every other person in your network through you.

Follow the logic here . . . if your network is made up of people you know, then every time you go out and meet someone new, you add them your collection of connected people — your network . . . which means that every time you meet someone new, you are networking.

But what kind of a networker — or people meeter — are you?

That’s the big question.

There are certain kinds of personalities we generally are drawn to — and others from whom we run screaming away.

Let me illustrate.

First, we’ll talk about the people we don’t usually like to meet.

* The Entertainer — This person must be the center of attention at all times.

* Grand Inquisitor — This guy hammers others with rude, impertinent, insensitive, or irrelevant questions.

*TheMysteryMan — He's not quite sure what he does, what he offers, why he’sinbusiness,or why he is where he is when you meet him. Sherlock Holmes would have a toughtime figuring this guy out.

* The Card Dealer — She throws her card at every person she meets, whether or not they are interested.

Now, let’s shift to talk about the people we usually love to meet.

* The Hostess with the Mostest — She knows how to give a genuine compliment and make you feel instantly welcome.

* The UN Ambassador — This highly connected individual introduces people he knows to each other.

*TheStoryteller — This guy always has a great story . . . and tells it well. People flock to hear him. An interesting story will get and keep people's attention — and prompt them to ask you more questions and want to get toknow you better.

*TheInvestigative Reporter — This gal finds outwhat makes you tick. There's a great acronym to keep in mind for the Investigative Reporter networking style: ICE.

Investigate — Learn everything you can about your new friends' wants and desires.
Celebrate — Celebrate their victories and successes with them.
Equilibriate — We’re all equal, so treat everyone — whether famous or simply background helpers — equally.

If who we know matters to our success in life — and I promise you that it matters A LOT — how we meet people is important in determining who we know.

They — that ubiquitous they — say, "It’s not what you know, it’s who you know."
I’m not sure I buy that. I think it’s what we know, AND who we know.

Do YOU have a specific networking/connecting/people-meeting style? Are you a good people meeter?

(ICE acronym thanks to Adora Spencer and John Demartini.)

__________________________
This was my "Getting Comfortable With Visual Aids" speech for my Toastmasters club. Airpark Toastmasters meets every Thursday from 12:05 to 1:15 p.m. at the Raintree & 101 campus of the University of Phoenix. Guests are always welcome at no cost!

Hey, you creative types — what's your "money blueprint?"

2005-11-29T01:39:00.000-07:00

Writing for writing’s sake. Art for art’s sake. How can someone who writes, paints, or makes music simply for the love of the art convince himself to monetize his art? How can he make a real living at his art? Are the two — the making of art and the earning of money — always mutually exclusive? Is it possible for a writer, painter, artist to make money at his craft without selling out?

It’s a question that has haunted artists the world over for centuries. A question with no easy answer.

What is art? Why do artists create? Many will tell you it’s not up to them, the creating. They literally have no choice in the matter, because for them, to not create art has the same effect as not breathing. They have to create in order to stay alive.

Poverty consciousness is a real thing. It’s a belief that being poor is good, or, at the very least, inevitable. This belief stems from the mindset that we don’t really deserve to have money, or that money is inherently bad.

The clichés abound: Money doesn’t grow on trees. We’re not made of money. [Love of] money is the root of all evil. I’m just trying to make ends meet. It’s too rich for my blood.

How many of these clichés went into forming your belief system about money?

For some strange reason, artists in particular have an odd disconnect about money. They seem to have formed the opinion that getting paid well for the innate act of creating is somehow wrong. But why is it wrong to get paid well to bring beauty, inspiration, challenge, passion, a message into the world? How did we get stuck in that mindset?

In order for artists to transition from a collective poverty consciousness toward prosperity consciousness, we’ve got to move past this idea that having money is a bad thing.

The fact is that money is just a concept. Sure, we have dollar bills and coins that serve as our currency — but all that means is that we have a physical means of exchanging a concept. Somewhere, way back when, we all agreed that a piece of paper with a picture of George Washington on the front and a pyramid and an eagle on the back represents one unit’s worth of value. To a native tribe member living half a world away, an American dollar bill might be an interesting icon, but it likely would have little or no value. Our money has only the value that we, as a culture and country, have agreed it holds.

Money is a simply a placeholder for a concept. Units of worth. If we didn’t agree that our currency represented value, it wouldn’t have any. OK? Money is an idea. Currency is a placeholder. Neither of these has any inherent positive or negative association, unless and until we give it one. Plain and simple, money is neither bad nor good.

But in the way of our world, what with the fact that we’ve agreed to this system of currency exchange for everything — from rent to car payments to chai tea to paint to canvas to film to printer cartridges — the fact is that having money is a good thing. Repeat that again, out loud, with enthusiasm. HAVING MONEY IS A GOOD THING!

Whatever you may have long believed about the badness of money or people who have it, having money equals having freedom. Having money gives you options. Having money opens doors. Having money enlarges your sphere of influence. In short, the more money you have, the more art you can make and the more people you can reach.

Aren’t you tired of scrounging for supplies? Making do with less than? Secretly wishing you had a wealthy benefactor while simultaneously feeling guilty for wishing for it? Sitting home raining down judgments on your "sell-out" friends and their "real jobs" because you’re making a living (i.e., scraping by at a subsistence level) from your art — while those same friends go out for coffee after a recent opening?

If you’ve decided you’re tired of living in poverty consciousness, you can start replacing your old negative money blueprint with a prosperity conscious one simply by changing your thoughts. For one thing, get new clichés: Show me the money. Roll in the dough. Laugh all the way to the bank.

Your money blueprint took a lifetime to create. Disassembling it will take some time, too. Just remember, if you change your thoughts, you change your life. You know what you think of your art. Now it’s up to you to decide how you are going to think about money from here on out. Art and money. They can peacefully coexist in your life, if you let them.

The Power of the Press

2005-09-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

TROPICAL STORM OPHELIA STRENGTHENS

ASTRODOME MAY CLOSE NEXT WEEK

BUSH REQUESTS $51.8 BILLION FOR HURRICANE RELIEF

TOXIC FLOODWATERS A CONCERN IN NEW ORLEANS

REHNQUIST MEMORIALIZED AS GREAT JUSTICE, GRACIOUS MAN

PLIGHT OF STRANDED ANIMALS WORSENING DAILY

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IN MARRIAGE DISPUTE?

A quick scan of a few online news sites this morning revealed these as the top headlines of the day. What they mean to each of us differs, depending on where we live and the impact of the story's issues on our particular lives and circumstances. What separates news from gossip, in my opinion, is the weight of an issue's importance to the community at large.

Definition of Freedom of the Press

The first amendment of the US Constitution states:

"Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and consult for their common good, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

The press — now media — is a strange institution. I worked for the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson while I was in college, and for a few years once I finished school. It gives you a different impression of the media to actually be a part of it. It's always been my hypothesis that the infamous OJ car chase and ensuing trial/media frenzy (which happened after I left my job at the Star) changed journalism forever.

The fact is, news is a business, and just like almost every other business, the profit margins drive the decision-making. And an unfortunate amount of American corporate profits depend on how well companies play along with Uncle Sam's rules. It seems to me that most Americans are deluded into believing that we really have a free press. However, I'm not so cynical as to believe there is no good that comes from the keyboard (or microphone) of a dedicated reporter.

We're more fortunate than most...we just each need to be vigilant and dig deeper than the surface if we really want to uncover anything that actually resembles truth. But then again, you could go one further and ask: "What is truth, really?" I'm willing to bet that your truth and my truth may overlap, but they are radically different. And the same can be said for every person on the planet.

One of my minors at the University of Arizona was journalism. This is the course description for one of my classes, Journalism 205:

Gathering, evaluating, and writing news. Completion of this course with a grade of C or better also satisfies the Mid-Career Writing Assessment (MCWA) requirement. This is a Writing Emphasis Course.

Incidents in journalism from my life

Don Bolles

On June 1976, when I was 9 years old, an Arizona Republic investigative reporter by the name of Don Bolles was murdered, a bomb placed beneath his car because he was getting too close to the truth in one of several stories he was researching.

"We don’t just primp"

When I was in college, I was invited to a journalism conference in downtown Phoenix, close to the same hotel where Don Bolles' car exploded, as a matter of fact. I remember being in the bathroom before the luncheon began, noticing a very well-dressed woman standing in front of the vanity mirror. She pulled a tiny can of hairspray from her purse and sprayed her hair. Then she checked her lipstick and straightened her skirt. I had no idea who she was, only that she seemed quite concerned with her appearance. I was a bit surprised when she turned out to be one of the keynote speakers for the luncheon. One of the strongest points she made was about the divide between print and broadcast journalists. She complained that the writers all seemed to think that those in broadcast weren't really journalists and that all they ever did was primp. Golly, if the shoe fits...

"Get me the most unattractive photo you can find of Carolyn Warner"

It was in 1987, during my tenure at the Star that I got to see, firsthand, how biased the "news" really can be. My first job at the Star was in the library, doing research for the reporters, copy desk, and city editors. It was exciting, interesting, and challenging work and I loved it for the first 5 years. One night, a long-time chief copy editor came in and demanded of the photo librarian that she find him the most unattractive photo she had of Carolyn Warner, then Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction. I was aghast. Apparently he had a grudge or was for some reason displeased with her and decided to get even. Guess I'm getting less naive, these days.

OJ

As I mentioned earlier, this was arguably the most infamous real-life car chase of all time. A country united, watching OJ’s SUV as it was trailed for hours by southern California police, changed everything about the way we handled major news events. In fact, it changed WHAT we considered to BE major news events. Until that time, the only ongoing TV coverage that had official names and designer graphics were the kidnapping of the Iran hostages in 1980-81 (the continuing story of which birthed ABC’s Nightline show) and the hijacking of the Achille Laurel in 1985. Now, the smallest, least significant "news" gets tricked out and prettied up to become a saga onto which we can hang a catchy title and logo.

Even the Challenger Space Shuttle explosion in January 1986 and the first World Trade Center bombing in February 1993 did not generate the kind of coverage we routinely interrupt regular programming for today when someone marginally famous does something a little odd. Since OJ, we’ve become accustomed to gluing ourselves to the TV and reading every shred of "news" about a blue stained dress, the death of a tiny model, celebrity trials of all ilk, NASA disasters — and until this past two weeks — the mother of all coverage, the image of the Twin Towers falling . . . again and again and again and again, till we saw it so many times we can now, four years later, still see it in heads.

As frustrated as I am by what I see as the devolution of the media over the last 20 years, the fact of the matter is that media is a two-way street. The National Enquirer would not have chosen, more than 30 years ago, to shift from a traditional New York City tabloid paper like the New York Daily News or the New York Post if no one read it. And the salacious style of reporting by MOST media outlets would not have come about if it didn’t work. There’s lots and lots of money in gossip . . . and the news providers are ready, able, and oh-so-willing to give the people what they want.

This is not to say that there are not reporters out there who give everything to their jobs.

Only you know how much you trust statistics, but it's been reported that as many as 40 percent of everyone in the journlism industry suffer marital difficulties related directly to their jobs.

In an excerpt from Behind the Front Page: A Candid Look at How the News is Made, David Broder reveals:

"The job is tougher on our families than on us. Divorce rates are high, and those who stay married still must contend with missed dinners, missed weekends, missed vacations. The strains arise because as journalists we put the pursuit and publication of news first. We feel the tug of family ties; of friendships; of ethnic, religious, racial, and national loyalties; and of our partisan, political, and social views. But we define ourselves by our calling, and we resolve most of our conflicts by making the goal uppermost."

As of yesterday, at least 41 journalists have been killed covering the Iraq war since it began; dozens every year around the world, the most infamous and gruesome of whose deaths was Daniel Pearl's.

The Internet has changed things. Bloggers get prime time coverage now. Love them or hate them, independent filmmakers like Michael Moore and Morgan Spurlock, the guy who made the film Supersize Me, are beginning to erode the role that big business and the two primary political parties in our country have had in handcuffing one of our most precious First Amendment Rights — Freedom of the Press.

But each and every one of us, as a news consumer, has the obligation to demand that the news we see be as objective and complete as possible. I quit my subscription to Time magazine because all you ever had to do was read the last line of any article to know which way the reporter’s bias leaned. Human nature is incapable of completely unbiased reporting — but we are smarter than we give ourselves credit for. We know when we’re being lied to. We know when we’re not hearing the full story. And we know when it’s time to say . . . enough’s enough.

I’ve been reading a lot in the Katrina aftermath — I watched one TV program, but I can’t get my news that way — it doesn’t work for me. Generally, I get my news via the Op-Ed pages. That way I get both sides and I can ferret out my own version of the truth. The best piece I’ve seen out of all the myriad articles and writings I’ve read came from a woman named Meryl Runion — who writes a weekly e-zine called SpeakStrong.

"[CNN Reporter] Anderson Cooper asked Senator Mary Landrieu about responsibility for relief efforts. When Landrieu went into a litany of congratulations and praise for politicians, Anderson Cooper interrupted to say:

"'I've been seeing dead bodies and to hear politicians thanking and complimenting each other cuts the wrong way.'

"This is the kind of intolerance of spin our media and citizenry needs. Landrieu sounded wooden throughout the interview, and although Cooper's words did not immediately humanize her response, in subsequent clips Senator Mary Landrieu appeared very genuine and clear in her focus."

The press in our nation is powerful. Let’s hold up our end of the bargain and keep on keeping them accountable.

________________________________
This was my "Research Your Topic" speech for my Toastmasters club. Airpark Toastmasters meets every Thursday from 12:05 p.m. to 1:15 p.m. at the Raintree & 101 campus of University of Phoenix. Check the monitor in the lobby for the room number. Guests are always welcome at no cost!

Is what you're saying what others are hearing?

2005-03-02T01:48:00.000-07:00

I’m so GLAD to be here today.

I’m so glad to be HERE today.

I’m so glad to be here TODAY.

Yes, that was the same sentence — three different times. But does each instance of it say the same thing? Not at all. What makes the difference? The word being emphasized in each sentence.

With "I’m so GLAD to be here today," the emphasis is on being glad — not happy, excited, frustrated, or upset. Clearly, the point is I’m glad about being here.

With "I’m so glad to be here TODAY," the emphasis is on when I’m here — today. Not tomorrow, not next week. I’m happy to see you on this very day.

Why are these distinctions important?

Well, in verbal communication, what you say has everything to do with how you say it. And how you say things has a lot to do with what people hear, when you speak.

I don’t know about you, but personally, I’m very skeptical about statistics. I’m always impressed when people use statistics in their presentations, speeches, and articles — but not because I believe the statistics. Rather, I think the use of statistics indicates that they did some research.

Depending on which research you believe, anywhere from 70 to 93 percent of our communication relies on something other than our words themselves. Any way you slice that, more than half of what we say is conveyed through our body language — eye contact, hand gestures, posture, tone of voice, etc.

So when you talk to people, are you saying what you think you’re saying? And, more importantly, are others hearing what you think you’re saying?

What if I were to stand in front of you and say, "I’m so glad to be here today," with my arms crossed, and a pouty, irritated look on my face? Would I really be saying I was glad to be here?

What if I were to say it with my back turned to you? What do you think that would mean??

We convey much of our message by how we say what we say.

But what about the message itself — the kernel of the conversation? How clearly are we delivering our ideas? How sure are we that people are understanding the message we think we are conveying?

Do you remember the Andy Griffith TV show? Almost invariably, the plot revolved around some breakdown in communication. I used to think Opie was the stupidest kid on the planet . . . if he had only managed to speak up in so many instances, he could have saved himself and "Pa" a lot of grief. Sure it makes (made??) for humorous TV, but it's a different story when we have those kinds of communication breakdowns in real life — yet life is full of them.

One place, in particular, where this is noticed is in the conversation between men and women. Innumerable jokes, books, TV shows, and movies are dedicated to the "he-said she-said" that goes on when men and women try to communicate with each other. Part of this stems from the fact that men generally are doers while women are talkers — but more of it comes from the fact that although we know what we want to say, what we do say, what we expect the other person has heard us say, almost never do we stop to make sure that what we said is what they heard.

Word values play a role here, too. In the English language, we have so many options for ways to say a lot of things. Take the idea of "happiness," for instance. Think about all the words that have roughly the same meaning. If you were to put them in order, from weakest to strongest, the word values might look like this:

* OK * Fine * Glad * Pleased * Happy * Delighted * Joyful * Gleeful * Giddy * Excited * Overjoyed * Thrilled * Jumping up and down *

Happy is sort of just a generic middle-ground term.

And look at the difference in value between "joyful" and "overjoyed."

So what kinds of words are we using when we speak? And do we mean the words we speak? Some women have a bad habit, when asked, "Are you OK?" of saying what? "I’m fine," when clearly they are not fine.

Lesson number one for all of us: Say what you mean, and mean what you say. If you’re not fine, but you say you are — even if your body language says something else entirely — it’s not fair to get enraged with someone for not reading your mind, for not reading between the lines, for not discerning that when you said you were fine, you really meant you were having a very bad day.

So how do we improve our communication? How can we be sure others are really hearing what we are saying. I’m not sure we can.

There’s a technique in conversation called "mirroring." This means that, as the listener, you repeat back what you heard the other person say, to be sure you understood them. In effect, you’re making sure you heard what they thought they were saying. This is a clear sign of a great listener.

But we won’t always have the luxury of communicating with highly skilled listeners.

Sometimes, the people we most need to communicate with are busy, irritated, or so wrapped up in their own worlds that hearing the message we intend to communicate gets lost in the process.

That’s why the onus is on the communicator to make sure your listener not only heard — but understood — what you were saying. Speak clearly. Speak slowly. Choose your words carefully. And, if at all possible, confirm from your listener what they understand you to be saying.

________________________________
This was my "Your Body Speaks" speech for my Toastmasters club. Airpark Toastmasters meets every Thursday at noon at the University of Phoenix campus located at Raintree & 101 in Scottsdale, Arizona. Check the TV monitor in the vestibule for the room number. Guests are always welcome!

How Connected Are We, Really?

2005-02-03T00:25:00.000-07:00

Let's begin by playing a little game you might remember from childhood called "Word Association." Close your eyes, if you’re so inclined — and think of the first word or idea that comes to mind when I say the word "network." OK — go ahead and open your eyes.

Now, if you’re in the high-tech industry, specializing in hardware, in particular, chances are you thought of the wires and cables that connect computers together. If you’re in any way involved with broadcast media, perhaps you conjured the image of a group of TV stations that all transmit the same programs, such as ABC, NBC, and CBS, once called "the Big 3." If you’re an entrepreneur, it’s very likely the word triggered for you thoughts dozens of people crowded into a hotel conference space, nervously clutching their drinks, reciting their canned speeches, and doing the Business Card Shuffle.

According to a 1975 edition of Webster’s Unabridged, a network is defined as:

Any arrangement or fabric of parallel wires,
threads, etc. crossed at regular intervals by others
fastened to them so as to leave open spaces.
Regardless of which of these concepts resonated the most for you, each one is — fundamentally — about the idea of connection.

The networking I want to focus on today is most closely tied to the entrepreneurial networking concept — although I do hope to paint a picture for you that illustrates how your human connections really just mirror the cables and wiring that make up your computer network and or broadcast company.

Let’s shift gears for a moment, and consider — what, really, is the power of one? Ideas, enthusiasm, creativity, knowledge, talent, production of a product. Great. Good for me, with my ideas, enthusiasm, talent, etc. But how does any of these things benefit me — or others — if I have no one to share them with?

Now consider what happens if we take our one, and add one more person. Now we’re talking about the power of two. When you have two people, you have a community. No longer a single individual trying to go it alone, in addition to ideas, knowledge, and products, you now have support, a sounding board, a collaborator, a partner, a customer.

So what happens when we multiply our tiny group of 2 by itself? We get four, right?

Certainly some of you remember those dopey shampoo commercials from the 70s — if I tell two friends and they tell two friends . . . and so on . . . and so on . . . and so on . . .

That dopey commercial had it right. That is exactly the power of networking.

Let’s take an example.

Let’s say Joe is looking for a job. He’s highly skilled and extraordinarily qualified as a widget-maker. Unfortunately, his position has been eliminated. Now let’s say "Joe" decides to look on this as an opportunity. Although Joe loves making widgets, he decides this is the Universe’s way of giving him a chance to try something new, something he’s always wanted to do . . . like stand-up comedy.

Of course, Joe was really, really good at his old career. He was, in fact, Supervisor of the Widget-Makers. And because of the respect he’d earned in that position, he had all kinds of widget industry contacts. But now he’s looking to move into the comedy arena, and he realizes that while they may be very funny in their own way, none of his widget colleagues knows anyone in the stand-up comedy business. Joe really, really want to be a stand-up comedian, but he has no idea where to start. Who can he turn to for help? Certainly not his widget buddies. So who? There’s got to be someone.

But he doesn’t know any comedians . . .

Do you think there might be something wrong with the thinking here? That’s right — it’s limited. OK, let’s see if we can reframe this.

Joe doesn’t know anybody in the stand-up comedy industry . . . but I know Joe has a computer . . . that’s attached to the Internet . . .

So one idea is for Joe to go home and get online to do some research. But is there a better way? A more direct avenue into the world of stand-up comedy.

Wait . . . wait . . .

What does Joe spend at least half his time online doing? If he’s anything like me, he spends a lot of his online time on e-mail! And who’s on the other side of every e-mail? A person!

Now we’re starting to get somewhere. Rather than stopping at his computerized network, what would happen if Joe tapped into his human network?

Oh, but wait. Joe still don’t know anyone involved in the world of stand-up comedy, and most of the people on his e-mail list are widget people. Back to square one, right? Not so fast. What if Joe scrolls through this list? Oh, wait, there’s a friend he used to work with at the newspaper in LA. Maybe she knows someone. And look, here’s the name of an actor friend in New York. Think he might know anyone?

Oh, oh . . . and look, here’s Joe’s Toastmasters e-mail list. Certainly one of these fine people knows at least one person who knows one person who knows one person who has their foot in the door as a stand-up comic.

And that’s what networking is all about. How many people in this room know at least 10 people they’d consider solid contacts, either professionally or socially? And how may of those contacts do you think have 10 solid contacts of their own? And so on. And so on. Just because Joe doesn’t personally know anyone connected to the stand-up comedy world does not mean he’s not connected to the stand-up comedy world . . . it might just mean that the connection is a few degrees separated from him.

So my question to you is this: How big is YOUR network? How big do you want your network to be? Can you use your professional, networking, releigious, educational, and personal connections to grow it? Of course you can!

If you belong to an organizaiton or associaiton tha has a national parent group, the next time you travel, for business or for pleasure, consider finding the local chapter of that group and attending as a guest. They’d love to have you — and you’d get to see how a group in another part of the country — or perhaps another part of the world — runs their meetings. And just maybe, you might add another link to your network.

I received an e-mail the other day from an online community I belong to — they were introducing a new staff member, the VP of Connectivity. This is how they defined connectivity:

Connectivity is all about connecting with people
in meaningful ways that create opportunities for growth.
Some of my friends call me a networking queen. I don’t think I’ve quite earned the title of queen, but I will admit certain pride in thinking of myself as a networking princess.

Here's my challenge to you. What would it take for you to think of yourself as a VP of Connectivity — a conduit for collaboration, a success fosterer, a strategic alliance bridge builder, a talent farmer?

It's up to you, for each of us truly is exactly as connected as we want to be.

________________________________

Why Media Releases Work

2005-01-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

Many small businesses have limited budgets when it comes to marketing and public relations. If your budget forces you to choose between spending your dollars on advertising vs. spending them on public relations, a good PR person will get you more bang for your buck every time.

The job of a PR firm is to get you face time in the media, whether in the form of an article in the local paper or a spot on a national news program.

Which do you think carries more weight with readers and viewers? An ad they know you paid for, or a third-party story about you, your company, or your event?

Question: Do you have to hire a PR firm to get your media release noticed?
Answer: It’s a good idea — but it’s not always necessary.

It is possible to have your story picked up from a media release you write yourself. A well written media release, put in front of the right editor or news programmer, will generate a story — regardless of whether you hired a PR person to write it for you, or you wrote it yourself.

ADVANTAGES TO HIRING A P.R. FIRM

A good PR firm/publicist has contacts in the media, and will work those contacts to get your story visible coverage. You will pay a good fee for this service (generally in the neighborhood of $150-$300/hour). The reason you're paying so much is primarily for your publicist's connections — as that is what is more likely to get your story media coverage. A good publicist knows the writers/reporters/editors/producers personally, will call them up, and will stay on them to cover an event or story.

If you are trying to create visibility around a huge event, an experienced publicist really is a MUST, as they will be able to offer all the expertise required to perform a successful media blitz.

CAUTIONS ABOUT HIRING A P.R. FIRM

Most PR firms work on a retainer basis — some pre-determined fee that covers X number of hours worth of work on a monthly or quarterly basis. However, please keep in mind that no one can promise you they will get you coverage. Seriously, RUN from any PR person who makes a guarantee of any sort. Promises are unrealistic. There's a saying among publicists that publicity is a gift. A good publicist WILL deliver, mind you — but no one can realistically promise you coverage.

What you'll want to know about firms you're considering is what kinds of media placement they've received for their current clients. This means doing your research. There are several PR people in the Phoenix area who may be good at what they do, but failed miserably to produce any media coverage for my clients. Make sure that if someone promises you the moon, they can deliver.

A relationship with a PR person/firm requires the ultimate in finesse and a great, trusting bond. If your publicist doesn't have any passion for what you do, they can't possibly do a good job for you. If they don't understand your business, or what exactly your goals are, they won't be able to generate coverage for you.

ADVANTAGES TO DOING IT YOURSELF

If you are a strong writer, chances are you can craft a good media release that will garner notice and result in a story. The more you do of them, the more your name will stay in front of the editors/producers whose attention you are trying to attract, and the more practice you will get.

Even if you are not a strong writer, you probably can hire a good writer for $50-$100/hour, which will save you a considerable amount of money, vs. hiring a PR firm simply to construct a media release for you. However, if broad, visible coverage is a must for your business, you probably are better off going the publicist route.

REASONS TO WRITE AND SEND A MEDIA RELEASE

Find something newsworthy about your business or organization. Some PR newsletters suggest sending out a minimum of one media release per week, the idea being to get your name in front of the people who can help you, and keep it there. There’s a fine line, though, between being persistent and being a pest.

So what’s newsworthy about your business?

- You have a new branch/location.
- You have a seasonal product/service.
- You can tie your product/service to a popular trend.
- You’ve added exciting new staff members — or landed a highly sought-after board member.
- You’ve established a new partnership — or secured a distinguished new client.
- You or one of your staff receives a promotion.
- Your or a member of your staff has received an honor or an award.
- You or one of your staff has been acknowledged for a significant achievement.
- You’ve exceeded your quarterly or annual financial goals.
- You are participating in a community service event.
- You have a specific event to promote.

TIPS FOR CRAFTING A SUCCESSFUL MEDIA RELEASE

1. Use the term "media release" instead of "press release." There are many forms of media now — "press" is passé, and some editors are touchy about the term.

2. Be sure to use the 3 C’s: clear language, compelling language, and correct language.

3. Be judicious about your use of jargon and acronyms in your media release. The only time this might be appropriate would be for a trade magazine, but even then, use discretion. You don’t want your otherwise-effective release tossed in the trash because the first person to read it does not have a clue what you’re talking about.

4. Write in third person, even if you’re writing about yourself.

5. Use a quotation from someone connected to your event, award, promotion, even if it’s your own quote.

6. Double-space it and keep it short — 300 to 500 words MAX.

7. Get it to the proper editor or producer (i.e., don’t send a story about your satin slipper business to the sports editor).

8. Allow enough lead time (generally 2 to 4 weeks — but it’s up to you to research this for the particular media outlet you’re contacting).

9. Find out how the media outlet you’re approaching prefers to receive their releases: in the body of e-mail, as e-mail attachments, or via fax.

10. If you do send an e-mail, be specific in your Subject Line — perhaps use the headline from your release.

11. Do NOT call to "check whether they got your release." This is guaranteed to get your release tossed in the trash.

12. You may, however, call back to "add" further details to your release. All you’ve actually done is hold back something of a bit of importance from the original release, but when you call, you act as though it is an added "development." IF the added info is important enough and you handle it correctly, this quite often will move your release to the top of the pile, or you will be asked to re-send it.

13. Don’t get discouraged if your story is not picked up on your first try — but keep on trying! There are so many media outlets, and they all need copy! You can provide that with a well-written release about something newsworthy.

14. Try online sites like PRWeb.com and Prudent Press Agency. These are Internet sites for posting media releases and articles that generate great visibility. They have fabulous rankings on the major search engines!

15. Hire a pro to help you craft the perfect media release.

_____________________

LAURA ORSINI
Panoply Creative Services
602.253.8463 — lorsini@mindspring.com
www.1001RealLifeQuestions.com

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