Clearly, I am not a big believer in the power of photographic illustration for my blog posts. I had to laugh this morning, when I received an email newsletter with the heading, “Three Hurdles for New Businesses” and this illustration: Hurdler wearing socks People who know me in person understand what I mean when I […]
Continue reading...May 10, 2010 By 1 Comment
Creating High-quality Audio Files
I drive about 500 hours a year, and I listen to audio files most of the time I’m in the car, especially when I’m on the longer legs of a journey. I listen to lots of “how to be in business” content, as well as the occasional fiction; recently, I discovered college classes available for […]
Continue reading...April 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment
You are (so) not in charge
I listen to a lot of internet marketing advice, and I subscribe to blogs about productivity and email management, and I hear advisers telling me to “train my readers to open my email” and “plan your mailing to get your email opened” and “manage the customer experience” and all sorts of other blather that’s beginning […]
Continue reading...April 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Knowledge, or Imagination?
New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become. Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world. Albert Einstein Why is […]
Continue reading...March 18, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Frustrated Frugality
I can, in some cases, be exceedingly careful and frugal with my money; not all the time or I’d be considerably more well-off. I set the thermostat at 80 in the summer and 65 in the winter. I save the clean water that runs while it gets hot and use it to fill the dog […]
Continue reading...March 10, 2010 By 2 Comments
Counting and Dental Floss: Measuring Productivity
Today’s post at Productive Flourishing, Charlie Gilkey’s blog about productivity, was written by Ali Hale, who gets paid to write blog posts. She writes about a woman’s approach to the Cult of Productivity, in which everything is counted and optimized, often at the expense of experiences that don’t quantify well. Ali suggests (excessive) “counting” is […]
Continue reading...March 3, 2010 By 2 Comments
Umm… Uhh…
There’s a simple solution to the non-words “umm” and “uhh” in public speaking*: it is virtually impossible to “umm” and “uhh” when you are making eye contact with a specific person. Umms and uhhs happen when you look at your notes, the wall, the ceiling, the floor, or a crowd = collective, not crowd = […]
Continue reading...February 24, 2010 By 1 Comment
Twitter for brick and mortar businesses
I’m not, at this moment, a Tweeter. I listen to and read about discussions of how it’s possible to use twitter to grow your online reputation; that it’s vital for companies to have the instant reputation management that Twitter facilitates, and that “Twitter is where the conversation is happening.” OK. I am not sure what […]
Continue reading...February 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Blog Categories, Taxonomy, and the Dewey Decimal System
Ever pondered the list of blog categories any particular author uses to aggregate his or her posts? Ever tried to categorize your own? Easy, the first time or two. But before you have very many posts at all, you have almost as many categories and you can’t quite remember why you put any one post […]
Continue reading...February 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Cash Register Kaizen
My corporate life was consumed by Six Sigma and process improvement. While we rarely used the term “kaizen” (the tiny incremental changes that have been used to drive long-term improvement in factories), we nevertheless thought about the behavior constantly. In my private practice, I support clients in the slightly more informal “Lean” office design, which […]
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