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We'll be the first generation with worse health than our parents

About.com's Kelly Montgomery  reports Baby Boomers Enter Retirement Less Healthy Than Their Parents. She writes:

The Washington Post reports that as they reach their golden years baby boomers may be the first generation which is less healthy than their predecessors. While they often have healthier habits than prior generations, more baby boomers report having chronic illnesses like diabetes or hypertension.

So let's see. The money we're investing in the markets for our retirement will now be spent increasingly attending to our health care needs. And as we retire we'll invest no money in the markets but pull even more out for not only our retirement years but our health care needs.

Did you say sharp drop in the markets in 3-4 years as this trend makes itself known in ever growing numbers?

States Care About Children

USAToday reports that more States Expand Children's Insurance Rolls.

The  State Children's Health Insurance Program has a threshold of coverage that begins at 2x the national poverty level. For a family of four the federal poverty level is $21,150. (...$21,150. I've been single and found it difficult to live on that income. Imagine raising 2 kids on that budget? What if you made $21, 151? You're out of luck?) So, the threshold of coverage goes to $42,300.

Yippee.

The trick is that ,even at the threshold of 2x federal poverty level, after 1/3 goes to taxes you're down to $28,000 for your household budget. Health insurance for a family of 4 starts these days around $1000 a month. So, now you're down to $18,000 a year or $1500 a month for a family of 4 for housing, energy, food, clothes...did we say savings? Of course not. There aren't any. 

Or...what's the one item families can gamble on? Exactly. Health Care. It's not a bad thing. It's just:

you have to pay your rent.

you have to have gas to get to work.

you have to have food.

you have to have clothes.

you may or may not get really, really sick...sick enough for a doctor's visit that won't accept you without health insurance or a hospital visit...where parents lose an entire day of wages sitting in the emergency room as those with health insurance go to the front of the line.

You don't have health insurance.

Imagine the numbers with  just a bit more than $21,150 for your family of 4's income? Let's take $24,000 for easy math. 1/3 of $24,000 is $8000. $8000 for taxes on an income of $24,000 leaves $16,000 for the household budget with 2 kids. That's $1300 a month for  housing, energy, food, clothes...Not much left of health insurance.

It ain't rocket science. I mean if a former art major can do the math off the top of his bald, white, head...really smart people should be able to do the math to find a solution. Right?  For a country that claims it's the world's sole super-power...the richest in history...it's odd that there are children without health insurance, which translates into consistent health care provided by professionals.

Eat less, exercise more

(Warning: Tongue's planted firmly in cheek...)  Now THAT'S a crazy idea: Eat less, exercise more. But that's what one of the presidential candidates suggested Saturday. Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas (makes sense a former governor of Arkansas would come up with a kooky idea), spoke Saturday in Des Moines at the Spring Into Action - Diabetes 2007 education conference at Mercy Medical Center. And there he dared to suggest that people can and should  do it themselves. The 'it' is lose weight; the 'do' is eating less and exercising more.

Crazy. Just darn kooky. Eat less, exercise more.

Before you know it, someone's going to suggest preventative care, finding ways to live a healthy life is possible and is far more cost-effective than expensive treatments for chronic ailments that arise mostly from life-style choices.  But that's not going to happen, not unless it comes in the form of a pill with twice as much text about side-effects than benefits.

* Mike Huckabee, after being diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes lost 110 pounds through regular exercise. His first training runs were around the capital building where he was Governor. He's completed 4 marathons.

Buying Our Way to Being Carbon-Neutral...Our Certificate of Indulgence?

Bying our way to carbon-neutral: is it hip, green or is it purchasing a certificate of indulgence as was propagated in the 16th century?

First off, I'm for any program that helps in any way address our species' footprint on our home, this planet we call Earth. ( Not for any altruistic reasons do I care, not just for the sake of caring or having pre-approved content to share at a latte-sipping frenzy, but for the pragmatic reason of ...it's all we got. Earth, right now, is all we got. And we really are renting this space from our children and grandchildren. So, let's clean up after ourselves and give them something they'll be happy to accept and we'll be proud to give. ) Whether it's buying trees from the arbor foundation, recycling, riding a bike, dispensing with freon, trying to find affordable home solar solutions, I'm all for it. I do some or all of these activities.

Having said that...this idea of buying personal carbon-credits to offset our personal footprints...is packaged to be a mirror of the 16th century Catholic Church where indulgences could be purchased, certificates issued, that pre-empted eternal damnation or a session in purgatory for a lighter sentence, so to speak, of mere temporal punishment. It's the adage of Give a little; get a lot. But the little is a financial donation and the lot is your soul or at least its surroundings in eternity.  It got so bad that Martin Luther needed to create a 16th-century equivalent to a bad powerpoint presentation, what with 95 lengthy points and ending this stage of his ordeal by posting it to the door of his local church. ( For those who don't get away from their computer much, that's the equivalent of  posting that puppy on his blog or a community-forum. )

Granted, is it any different when we're motivated out of guilt or an assumption of responsibility to take these steps, small ones that they are or may be but collectively could lead to something meaningful, some positive change in our children's heritage? The only difference is the lack of a formal program that organizes the management of this guilt or responsibility or solution-seeking sentiment, I guess.

The question becomes...what if the well-founded, well-intentioned, initiative of buying carbon-credits becomes a dogmatic program devoid of any real impact except to assuage guilt and provide fodder for chest-thumping at the latte' gathering...in effect allowing the life-style to continue that results in an inordinate amount of carbons being consumed by 1st world countries and their citizens while at the same time consuming the resources of 3rd world countries including their economies and communities and heritages and in return a tree is planted...or a wind-farm is built where it doesn't interfere with our property's sight lines or value.

Just wondering?

Ford sells less...loses less

Ford reports that it loss less this year than last year. It's a big improvement. Last year they lost $1.4 Billion for first quarter 06. They lost only $282 million during the first quarter '07. And it reports a slight increase in overall revenues.

Great! you say.

Um....hold on.

“This has been an encouraging quarter for the company,” said Alan R. Mulally, the chief executive, “but turning around the business will not be a quick or easy process.”

No. It won't be easy.

In North America, the focus of the restructuring plan, Ford lost $614 million from automotive operations, $172 million more than a year ago, because of lower sales of its most profitable vehicles. Ford and other automakers make the most money on sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, which have fallen out of favor for many consumers amid high gas prices. Revenue from North America was $18.2 billion, down from $19.8 billion.

Yes. It could get lengthy.

When you're an American automotive manufacturer and your overall losses decline as you sell less of your product in the American markets,

When your sales drop 9% in the North American markets but your losses from those sales grow by over 20%....

When you achieve the above despite laying off 30,000+ workers in your North American factories...

When you now have more workers outside the US than within it...

When your high-end domestic models aren't wanted any more (Could it be that no one can recognize them or they're gas guzzling SUVs...Nah.)

When your Premiere Auto Group (Aston Martin, Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo) nearly triples its profits from a year ago (and it's reported you're planning to sell that division!!!)

When your car-selling divisions outside the US are the ones generating profits...

When it's not your cars that make money but your credit division...

Then um...turning around the business will not be a quick or easy process.

Or maybe it will be. Numbers like these make the decisions sound inevitable. If you lose less by selling less, then selling nothing makes you a lot more money. And management will take the credit for the turnaround after it's over, but not the responsibility for its need.

Maple Sugar Harvest: Thinking Global, Acting Local

Harvesting maple syrup in VT is becoming a case-study in Thinking global, acting local. It's Maple Syrup Time, So Why the Whiff of French Fries.

Pick Three and Win

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing has posted his 3 favorite books and asked readers to post their 3 favorites. I commented with my list of 3. Here they are so you don't have to scroll through all those comments. (You should scroll through those comments to see what people read and find some new authors...some great recommendations there.)

* All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

* 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez  (Note: You almost need 100 years to keep track of all the players in this book. But...it's worth the effort.)

* Love in the Time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

I'm reminded of some great ones:

* Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, recommended by Jay Werth. (wow. Stunning book.)

* Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, recommended by Bonnie

Bonnie's gotta be from the South with the other two choices of authors: William Styron and Pat Conroy.

My wife and I just watched Gone With the Wind again a few weeks ago. Despite the current over-use of both awesome and amazing in our current lexicon...the movie remains both even after having seen it 10-15 times over the years.

There are some authors I need to check out:

* Swallowing Clouds by A. Zee recommended by Lisa Braithwaite

* Never Come Morning by Nelson Algren, recommended by Jay Ferrari.

Managing Change

How do you do it? How do you manage change? There's no real manual...but there's lots written about this challenge.

Anita Campbell at Small Business Trends wrote about this in a recent post titled: Adventures in Entrepreneurship: Managing Change.

Question: How do you manage change?

Response: One of the most important ways to manage change is simply to stay in tune with the world around you.

The good news, however, is that managing change may actually be easier than most people think. Nearly 50% of managing change is just to make ourselves aware of it — to stay on top of current events and culture. Most of us readily have the tools at hand. We simply need to set aside time to do it.

[Small business expert Steven Little] advocates that every small business owner read 50 magazines a month (or Web sites, newspapers, radio shows, or other sources of information). Break it down and the number sounds do-able: it amounts to fewer than 2 a day. And, remember, they’ve repealed the law that says you have to read a magazine cover-to-cover.

I trade magazines for books and feeds.

Books: I have 5 books at home that I'm reading at any one time. I grow tired of the writer's style, approach, or content; I pick up the book just below it. It forces me to integrate the content of the 2 authors...I'm not successful, often, but occasionally I am and that helps add to the benefit from their reading. Over the years of our marriage my wife understands I'm weak in a bookstore. Weak means I'll buy a book or 2 or 5 at the drop of a hat. Before we were married I mentioned to her she should never leave me alone in a bookstore...I'll come out with 4-5 books. She laughed then. She knows now.

Feeds? God bless the inventors of RSS. Seriously. In 30 minutes I can scan through, reading closely some, content from a list of 15-20 feeds.

Disclaimer: Anita interviewed me on her Small Business Trends Radio show recently. Despite that...she's got a great radio show for small business tips and leaders and innovators. This interview opportunity came to me from my  friends, Andrew and Steve McGill at PeerSight Online. They offer a peer counseling community for CEOs. And...that experience has been a great boon for me and our company. Here's our shout-out for PeerSight Online. Thanks, guys.

Got Any Good Windows Vista Tips

Alexander Wolfe, at Information Week's blog, is asking readers Got Any Good Windows Vista Tips?

Here's mine: Don't; Don't upgrade.

I haven't seen a compelling reason to upgrade. The features aren't compellingly greater than with Windows XP and its standard user and then you have all the headaches in configuring Windows Vista. Alexander's comment says it all:

If you're like me, you don't have it at work, but you've been spending an untoward amount of time with it on your home PC.

Exactly. It's not ready for prime-time use at the office. AND...AND...you need to spend untoward amounts of time with it...Operating systems should neither be seen nor heard. They should allow you to do your job, get on with your life and your online activities.

Oh well. Alexander did share his hard-earned Top 5 Windows Vista Tips to Personalize Your PC.

And reading these tips, it only reinforces my tip. Who wants to spend time enhancing their background with DreamScene? How many people look at their computer's background? Here's his comment:

My experience with DreamScene proved that some work well, while others can be decidedly funky. Even on a dual-core system -- I'm running a 3.2-GHz, Intel Pentium D 940 -- DreamScene sucks up a lot of processing power. One other caveat: my sense is that DreamScene doesn't appear to work and play all that well with any security programs you're likely to have on your machine.

So, let me get this. It doesn't work well, chews up a lot of processing power, AND doesn't play well with any security programs you're likely to have on your machine. What? You mean you need to create a gaping whole in your computer's security system to use a feature that chews through processing power and it's part of an operating system that's difficult to install in its own right. That's so Microsoftian.

I'm not cranking on Mr. Wolfe's article. He's shared some good tips based on his experience with Windows Vista...on his home computer. They're useful tips to read. Thank you Mr. Wolfe.

GEL: Day One Morning Session

I attended GEL in NY City last week. Before we go farther let me say it was a wonderful, fun, productive, inspiring, creative, engaging, brain-opening, ultimate networking event. Well-organized, never straying from its focus, staffed with wonderful people, attended by wonderful people and oh, the presenters and session-moderators were, right-said-fred, wonderful too.

My morning session was learning to juggle with The Flying Karamazov Brothers.

What's juggling got to do with GEL, or Good Experiences?  This YouTube video tells it all in the words of one of the original Flying Karamozov Brother.

And here's a pic of me with my patient teacher.  It looks like we're laughing at a private joke...I think it was something about the hair or my lack of it. He was a great teacher, great person, put you completely at ease, very integrated, harmonious, understated presence. See the YouTube video.

Broadband Penetration in the US?

We're number 15...we're number 15....!

Last year we were number 12.

We're currently ranked 15th among industrial nations for broadband penetration in our homes and businesses. And we rank 20th among the 30 members ofthe OECD for how fast we're expanding broadband penetration within the US markets.

And, um, we pay 10 times for this access vs what consumers in other countries pay. We pay on average $10 per MPBS vs $1.00 per MBPS by other OECD nations.

So, let's see. We get less and we pay more for it....Somebody's winning this game and it's not the US consumer nor our competitive advantage with the world.

Link from Information Week.

Link to OECD site with rankings.

TV as it could be: CNBC's Innovation Series

Every Sunday night, at 8 PM Central, CNBC broadcasts its series on Innovation. You should watch it. It's TV as it could be. I've seen great speakers, thinkers and leaders of business address Innovation in detail. It's well-organized. It's opinionated. And being about innovation they offer a podcast series too.

It's not the be-all, end-all, for programming or content on Innovation. But...you should watch it. During commercials flip over to watch Planet Earth at the Discovery Channel. That, too, is TV content as it could be. Or do the reverse, flip to the Innovation series during commercial breaks at Planet Earth. And download the podcast for Innovation series for more detailed uninterrupted listening. Or buy the DVD from the Planet Earth Series, with no advertising.

GM: Finding another person to blame

It was recently announced the GM no longer is the world leader in automotive sales. That honor belongs now to Toyota.

And this news is as newsworthy and surprising as dog bites man after man doesn't feed the dog, taunts the dog, patronizes and mocks the dog for 10 years. Finally...the dog bites.

GM"s been ignoring the American consumer for over 10 years now. Inferior quality, marketing campaigns centered around patriotism when their quality issues could no longer be denied, continuing to push SUVs when people wanted hybrids, claiming alternative fuel cars weren't possible when university teams were able to deliver one with a much lowe  budget, blaming their workers health care costs for poor sales (Course when sales were up you didn't hear GM complaining about these costs...), choosing legislation over competition, on and on.

GM's latest target for blame was the housing market and its current decline.  Odd. I didn't see GM thanking the then robust housing market for its sales records of a 3-4 years ago. And odd, the housing slump here in the US doesn't seem to impact Toyota's sales.

Another few more quarters like this and GM will be at the end of excuses. It'll start blaming the dogs for eating their cars.

SOBCON07 Speaker Interview: Drew McLellan, Found of McLellan Marketing Group

Drew McLellan, founder of McLellan Marketing and blogger at Drew's Marketing Minute, spoke with Mike Wagner, CEO of White Rabbit Group and blogger at Own Your Brand, about SOBCON07 and Drew's presentation at this event.

Here's the link to the MP3 of their conversation.

SOBCON07 happens May 11 - 12 at the Chicago O'Hare Sofitel Hotel. The event is designed to help bloggers help each other take their blog to the next level.

That makes Drew a good resource to offer both as a presenter and an attendee. Drew's blog, Drew's Marketing Minute, is an example of how you can take your blog to the next level. And Drew uses that blog extensively in expanding his marketing reach, growing his audience, developing a connection, building relationships. Drew's about  page on his blog offers this:

He’s a straight shooter who talks about marketing in a way you won’t forget.

That's a good thing in Drew's case. Take this post: Marketing Tips from A Marketing Agency: Be a Drip.

The natural urge it seems is to deluge our potential consumers with information...

I think in most cases, it's a mix of insecurity and not really understanding the audience.

Then he goes on to offer a solution, an easy-to-implement solution, a cost-effective solution, for free. It's so clear and simple and so effective.

Anyway, back to the interview  and SOBCON07. If you're interested in taking your blog to the next level and you want to work with other bloggers who have solutions or share the same desire and maybe working with them you both could help each other find your solutions...and you want an interactive event not one where you're lectured at, granted sometimes it's by great speakers but still as Drew writes it's like there's a hard, driving rain, the ground can only absorb so much of it before the water just runs off...[Attendees] can only absorb so much information before [a speaker's] well-crafted words just run off, falling on deaf ears...or forgotten by the time we reach our driveways, then take yourself to SOBCON07.

IgniteIT is Happening Today

Aaargh. Somehow this event slipped past my radar.

IgniteIT, Emerging Technologies Conference '07 starts today in Ames, Iowa.  I've got a full schedule for the next few days made even fuller by my being out last week. Still, it's tempting to drive the couple of hours to see some of the speakers at this event including:

* Don Norman, cofounder of the Nielsen Norman Group and author of The Design of Everyday Things.

* Ragu Ramakrishnan, VP and Research Fellow at Yahoo Research

* Neal Stephenson - author of Cryptonomicon one of my favorite fiction books in a long time.

* Guy Kawasaki - pretty smart guy in his own right...and a pretty good speaker, too.

* And  demos of new technologies being developed at ISU.

PeerSight Online

One of my challenges, and I doubt I'm alone as a small business leader, is getting good advice. By good I mean useful, in-depth, independent, unfettered, concise, independent of any vested interests, only one agenda and that's helping/being helped, and with people whose advice matters.

It's generally not considered a sign of competence by an executive to admit, much less, to admit challenges exist in their business. ( For the record, over the years, I've grown comfortable asking strangers, even among my gender, for directions...) But they do; and we do. Challenges exist. We face them and need solutions...today.

So the idea that you can meet in an environment of trust with our CEOs and share your pain, your successes, maybe some solutions you've earned, gain some from the other members or have solutions percolate up as part of the open conversations among your CEO peers is...a godsend.

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing recommended I look at PeerSight Online. It's created and run by Andrew and Steve MacGill. Luckily, I followed John's recommendation and contacted them.

Quite honestly, it's been a delightful surprise. It's so rare a resource truly delivers on their promise.  But PeerSight Online with Andrew and Steve fulfill their promise and they're great to work with. Hence, the surprise and the delight.

The format is a regularly scheduled conference call with 6-8 other business executives. It's hosted by a facilitator. There's an agenda for the meeting for targeted discussions and time for open dialogue. There's a strong accountability element, peer approval, for tasks and goals and solutions to be delivered. Other than answering to your peers there's no penalty. But that alone is a motivator, a great motivator. It serves as a real clarifier for my planning and goal-setting and resource allocation process.

The members cover a range of industries and experience. That only broadens the learning curve we provide each other.

As we get to know each other, it's my experience that the meetings and results keep growing richer and deeper and more valuable.

And Andrew and Steve are great listeners. They're willing to incorporate any idea that helps the members reach their goals and helps PeerSight Online achieve theirs.

Guys, thanks.

Small Business Advantages

Skip Reardon, Be Excellent blog*, has a series of posts on the Small Business Advantage. I love 'em. Here's a couple that rang my smile bell:

* Leveraging Advantages: The point of articulating small business advantages isn't that small businesses are better than big businesses, but that they're different from big businesses.

Learning to leverage differences is what competitive advantage is all about.

* Customer Intimacy: In smaller organizations, a much greater percentage of team members work with customers directly. BOTTOMLINE: In smaller organizations, decision-making is more timely, and both team leaders and team members can execute on those changing market trends earlier.

Regarding that last point...that's a problem in all organizations: disconnection from those you serve, those who seek your service/product/experience. The only way to solve that (and it's a never-ending challenge) is to keep the structure flat and always, relentlessly, facing the customer. Too often, as the organization grows, the voices in that organization's head grow louder and more distracting than the voices of those who pay their bills.

Back to Skip and Be Excellent blog...there are more Small Business Advantages he's articulated, much to the advantage of us small businesses. Thanks, Skip.

* Helping the Best Small Businesses to Achieve Lasting Excellence.

Relationships Who Won't Tolerate "I Don't Remember"

Silence....more silence....still more....I can't think of any. 

Assuming the conversation topic is something more serious than where's the salt shaker...answering I don't remember once, much less 74 times, in a 2-3 hour conversation would be a conversation-ender where that conversation is in a formal setting, with time allowed to prepare for a clearly stated topic, like a job interview or a family counseling meeting or performance review with your contractor or employees or a board meeting or a city council meeting or grand jury testimony or deposition or legal testimony in a civil or criminal case or over coffee with your close friends (Hey, how's it going? I don't remember....Ok. funny. What's been going on since I last saw you? You know I have no memory of that meeting. Seriously, dude. What's up? ...Sir, I have no recollection.) 

Imagine that scene with your spouse. Where you been? I don't remember. Didn't you say you'd be on time for dinner? I have no memory of that discussion. But we talked about it yesterday. You know, I can't recall....

Oh yeah, that would go really well. Really quick, too.  And if my goal was to end that relationship and I used this approach, I'd be feeling upbeat  the next day, too.

GEL Conference

sI'm attending GEL today and yesterday. It's...very, very, VERY good. This morning's presentation by Andrew of Songs to Wear Pants To...was hysterical, inspiring, amusing, uplifting, well-done, on-time, on topic and a living reminder to...do what you love, listen to people, add yourself to the conversation...and don't look back.

* Note: I'm sure the other presenters were outstanding also. But....long story...I was late.

Putting Email on a Leash

Web Worker Daily offers an 8-step blueprint for an empty inbox.  Seems pretty straightforward. As Bob Walsh at ToDoOrElse wrote...it's a dirt simple workflow to clear out your dreaded inbox.

We can all use that.

Bob's book, Clear Blogging, is right next to me as I write. It's THAT good. I'm on chapter 4. Chapter 3 I breezed through. It was about setting up a blog. He used screen shots from all the popular blog aps to show you how easy it is to set up a blog. Cool.

Our addiction to Oil

The IMF has gathered some shocking statistics: U.S. gasoline consumption as a share of gross domestic product is nearly five times that in the other major industrialized countries; gasoline accounts for 43 percent of U.S. oil consumption vs. 15 percent in other countries; fuel efficiency in America is 25 percent lower than in the European Union and 50 percent lower than in Japan. No wonder the world doubts our seriousness on energy issues. - From the Washington Post. 

Yes. That would tend to undermine photo ops and speeches of our leaders to the contrary. And this situation didn't happen this year, or last year. It's a situation that's been created with regular investment of time and denial, obfuscation and manipulation, fear and convenience.

SOBCon07 Speaker Interview: Phil Gerbyshak

Mike Wagner and I interviewed Phil Gerbyshak today about the upcoming SOBCon07 event, why he's excited about it and why everyone, bloggers or not, should attend. Here's the MP3. You can subscribe to this podcast using the graphic in the right margin in conjunction with your standard RSS reader. And here's the iTunes feed.

Mike blogs at Own Your Brand; Phil blogs at Make It Great.

And...Phil made it great. His enthusiasm was infectious. He's clear, articulate, passionate in general. But he's all that times two for this event, SOBCON07.

Phil's a self-confessed relationship geek. His blog and his passions are all about how to make it great: relationships personal or professional...AND making yourself great. How to grow, how to grow with others, how to help others  grow is clearly his passion and his expertise. And THAT'S why he's excited to attend. SOBCon07 is clearly about the relationships, the interactions, strengthening and deepening among the attendees.

Paraphrasing Phil pretty closely relationships built off the blog are stronger than those built only on the blog. And that's the point of SOBcon07: bringing bloggers together to take their blogs and their business and their life...to the next level.

You gotta love Phil's take away for the event: Make myself better; make my blog better.

  Check out Phil's book: 10 Ways to Make It Great. Version 2.0 offers an eleventh way. His tip for making it great he shared with us was: Starting at the end, work towards today. Translation: what's the legacy you want to leave...then work toward s today to start leaving it.

Debbie Weil's Answers Your Questions TODAY

Debbie Weil's teleconference is TODAY. She's going to:

to answer - in practical, hands-on terms - your most nagging questions about launching a corporate or CEO blog. The first teleconference will focus on the knotty problem of creating content for a corporate or organizational blog.

And it's TODAY, not next week, as I said in my earlier post this week. AND as it's happening at 1PM Eastern TODAY...that means there's still time for you to register. So...leave this site right now. Go to Debbie's site to register for her teleconference on getting started with a blog by finding out how to create content for it. Do it. Leave here now; Register there now.

SOBCon07 Speaker Interview: Wendy Piersall of eMomsatHome.com

Wendy Piersall is a kind and patient and smart and caring...everything: entreprenuer, friend, mom, wife, leader, role model. And she was kind enough to spend 30 minutes with me today to share her thoughts on the upcoming SOBCon07 event, May 11 - 12 at Chicago O'Hare Sofitel.

Here's the MP3 recording.  (We did what we could to enhance the quality of her connection.)

My first impression of Wendy came before the call when I checked out her blog. It's very impressive. It's well-organized, bright, great content, happy. It makes you smile when you visit. You can tell Wendy's an expert and a dedicated and passionate expert at connecting with people.

It's her passion for the past one and a half year. It's a culmination of her being an entrepreneur at heart, a mom, a wife and she's been depression free for the past 3 years. There's a lot of missions behind this blog. And those missions overlap into her motivations for attending SOBCon07 .

My second impression of Wendy is she's incredibly patient and flexible. I say that because Wendy and I both experienced the truism that...sometimes...[Technology] happens. And our technology happened today. But with Wendy's patience, forbearance, we found a solution.

Wendy's 2 reasons for attending are:

1) Liz Strauss.  Just because Liz asked. I want to go to the ends of the earth for her.

2) Relationships. If you're a relationship blogger...I want to be around those building relationships...and this is a powerful force.

Liz Strauss. Liz is the organizer of the event. When you contact Liz you don't get a response, you get a whole world. She lives her mission. She's mastered the art of breaking down the walls...

Wendy's not the first person to mention Liz as a primary driver for this event. Starbucker did, also. And I'm willing to bet others do, also. It just may have to do with her focus on putting people together and letting them connect and grow with each other, and not just putting speakers in front of strangers for a short-term brain upload.

Relationships are a recurring motivational theme for those speaking at the event. Every speaker we've interviewed say this is the driver for their attendance and participation. And it goes back to the the theme of this event: it's bloggers helping bloggers take their blogs to the next level.  And it'll be these relationships that will sustain each attendee's progress towards that goal: the next level.

Wendy warns those attending SOBCon07 to expect a hug. She doesn't believe in handshakes. ( How cool is that? Imagine how different work and play would be if people greeted each other with hugs instead of handshakes. )

Top 10 Reasons Why Happiness Boosts Productivity

Actually, happiness is the ULTIMATE productivity booster. Alexander Kjerulf, Chief Happiness Officer, writes Top 10 Reasons Why Happiness is the Ultimate Productivity Booster.

Check this out:

If you want to get more done at work, the productivity gurus out there will tell you that it’s all about having the right system. You need to prioritize your tasks, you must keep detailed logs of how you spend your time, todo-lists are of course essential, you must learn to structure your calendar and much, much more.

But that’s not where you should start. You should start by liking what you do.

Hello-o-o-o-o-o? It seems obvious. If you're not motivated, enthralled, captivated, excited, psyched, thrilled, energized, revved....no productivity system's gonna work. Why? You won't use it. I've always found when I'm motivated, revved, energized, etc...my productivity system is the best. And when  I'm not, it ain't. It's me, not my system.  ( Granted a better system can at least stop making people miserable at work. And that's a start. )

The single most efficient way to increase your productivity is to be happy at work. No system, tool or methodology in the world can beat the productivity boost you get from really, really enjoying your work.

BAM!

The Mechanics of WOM

I stopped by to see what Seth's writing about these days. He hasn't missed a beat. Concise, crisp, clear. Check out his post The Mechanics of Word-of-Mouth.

Sometimes, we worry so much about tracking and selfish actions and mechanics that we ignore the biggest factor: people like to talk about stuff.

And all you have to do is give. Give some stuff to talk about. The rest, the talking part, just comes natural.

Net Promoter Score: "I was rattled by the '8'."

One of our sales agents received an '8' from a customer after the customer was asked to take the Ultimate Question Survey.  And that's how it effected her. She said: I was rattled by the 8.

We review the Net Promoter Scores with each agent each week. The agents follow-up with  each new customer after their first use of our service. As part of that follow-up phone call they use the Ultimate Question Survey.  And then the agents include the results from their weekly call in a wiki project we've set up using BaseCamp from 37Signals. (Our customer service team does this as well with long-term customers. And we review the results weekly.)

This was the first time a new customer had replied anything less than a 9. And... I was rattled by the 8.

The score immediately got my attention. I wasn't alarmed. But I knew we wanted to review the score and what led the customer to rate us an 8, not a 9 or 10.

The customer had previously raved about the personal attention she'd received in setting up her account and the ease of use. So...it was understandable then the agent was rattled/surprised by the score of '8'. the customer replied: A. she never gives 10's to anything; B. the "sound quality and post-production" wasn't stellar. We queried her further to find out the quality of her phone connection would be an issue with any audience. But still, we'd led her to believe, created an expectation in her that...we could do the impossible...turn a pigs ear into a silk purse or in this case turn a staticy, weak connection into a stellar sounding line.

That prompted the agent and I to think through what else...what else can we do, could we do, to take a customer who never gives an 10 and one where we'd inadvertently created an unrealistic expectation...what could we do to deliver an experience for her that would inspire her to break her own rules and GIVE US A 10!

That's where you create crazy, passionate, obsessive loyalty in your customers. When we can inspire a customer who never gives a 10 to finally ... give a 10....(and we can do it while maintaining a cash-flow positive quarterly report...) that's when we've created a sticky message, reached the tipping point, generated not good profits but GRRREAT profits.

We talked a bit more.  We reviewed what we do. And we know there's always more we can do. But in the context of a cash-flow positive company, where we focus on quality experiences, personal attention, and offering more than a conference call with it being what our customers value...

And we focused the question of what more can we do towards what incremental enhancement, a refinement, a slight improvement could we make that ratchet up even slightly our customers' experiences. And not just by one agent. But by everyone in the company. What if we each made a slight improvement, picking one area/process/item/collateral/response to make perfect or significantly better? Could we do that? Could we all challenge ourselves to take that step. I can't speak for the agent I was meeting with. But I can say...I got a little excited by this simple step and its potential to move us closer to this goal of making a person give us a 10 on the Ultimate Question Survey, who previously would never give a 10.

We'll roll this discussion out to everyone and ask: is there one improvement you can make in what you do to improve a customer's experience with our company? And it can be a refinement of an existing process that will free time to spend directly with customers, or save money to spend on customers, or simplify some instructions or improve the graphics or add instructions...

My refinement (ok, it was already in the works) is to have Customer Service calls roll over to my desk before going to voice mail. I'll let you know how that goes.

My other step will be to create perfectly clear communication with everyone. I tend to be a bit impulsive, much to the distraction of everyone. I'm getting better. But I can get better still.

Improving customer experiences and creating passionate, loyal, customers can result from a gigantic make-over of your company's mission and focus.  And it can also result, I think, from a regular conversation that brings attention to all the little steps that create your customer's experience along with a willingness to just improve one thing.

We'll test the latter and let you know how that progresses.

Q & A w/ Debbie Weil

Debbie Weil, author and corporate blogging coach, shares some of her (free) advice about starting a multi-author blog.  Q & A on Launching a mult-author corporate blog. 

After reading this post from Debbie, I realize I'm still learning about this blogging thing. Even after almost 2000 posts, Debbie can still teach me lots about this thing called blogging. Here's some things I learned today from Debbie's post (and wish I'd learned 3 years ago...)

* My best tip: Don’t start with “who.” Start with the “what” of your blog.

Then complete this sentence: “The goal of my organization’s blog is to: X.” Now add the following sentence to the strategic plan for your blog: “Our blog will provide Y and Z of value to our readers.”  (POWERFUL advice.)

* Make it about them; not about you. (I'm still learning about that one...)

* Blogs are just next-generation Web sites. They will become an expected part of the basic navigation of any corporate site.

* Your blog won't get traction (and may be criticized for being marketing spin) if the writing is salesy and not useful. It's gotta be informal and authentic.

My one regret with this blog is the URL. But 3 years ago I found myself paralyzed trying to find a name/URL for it that would fit. I made the decision to move forward with the URL you see above. Times would change and likely so would this blogging thing, its purposes and audiences and how it's used. And in that process, a name, a more inclusive name, would make itself known as I understood the resource better. 

The only change over the past 3 years is how powerful and important it's become. and make this blog thing happen And so I did, all the time thinking I'll go back and rename it/readdress it, etc. Never did. Now I'm reluctant to change the name/URL. At this point, the content's important, not the name for any blog. With rss feeds and email subscriptions and bookmarks and tagging and all that...the value of a clever name pales to the value of interesting content. I'm not saying I succeed on the 2nd. But that, adding content, is my focus.

DISCLAIMER: I always smile when I see Debbie's content. She's one of our customers whose calls and emails always include a smile for/by me.  She's open, honest, a great writer, dedicated, funny, she speaks directly with a wysiwyg-personality. We sponsor her newsletter and a teleconference she's having next week. She's profiled our blogging efforts in her book, The Corporate Blogging Book; She's interviewed me on her radio show, The Corporate Blogging Show. We're sponsoring that, too. (For me, I'm always having to contain myself from having way-y-y too much fun when we're recording our conversation.) For us, business is about working with professionals, where we can add value to their day, and they ours.  Debbie and others fit that bill. And we support them as we can.

Laugh-track comment of the day: CAFE Kills People

CAFE kills people. -Sam Kazman, General Counsel for the Competitive Enterprise Institute*

Higher CAFE standards could ... reduce social welfare by worsening traffic congestion and increasing the number of traffic accidents - Congressional Budget Office report on the possible effects of higher CAFE standards.*

CAFE stands for Corporate Auto Fuel Efficiency standards. The logic of these comments is that when we, the American consumers, finally receive cars with higher fuel standards we'll be so delighted...why rush right out the door, jump in our new fuel efficient cars and....just want to drive around. We'll drive more! We'll want to spend another hour or two or three each day stuck in traffic. And we'll die. Or more of us will die, anyway...from a higher number of traffic accidents that's resulted from more of us just driving around, deliriously happy that gas costs $2.50 a gallon instead of $2.75 and we get 24 miles to the gallon instead of 21....

There really isn't any need for laugh-tracks on these types of comments.

* As quoted in The Heartland Institute, CBO Hangs Price Tag on Tougher Fuel Economy Standards.

That article and its brilliant humor was published 3 years ago. And here come those arguments again in a federal courtroom in Burlington, VT where the auto industry is:

suing to block a 2004 California regulation on global warming from taking effect. The rule would require a 30 percent cut in emissions of greenhouse gases from cars and trucks sold in Vermont and New York, which follow California’s air quality rules, to be fully phased in by the 2016 model year.

In court filings, automakers have argued that regulating the emissions will increase pollution, cause more traffic deaths and lead domestic automakers to stop selling most of their passenger models in states that adopt such regulations.*  Challenge to Emissions Rule is Set to Start

And people say the auto industry doesn't have a sense of humor...

Highrise: another winner from 37Signals

WorkHappy finds another killerest resource for the entrepreneur. This time it's HIGHRISE, a CRM product, from 37signals.

Like WorkHappy, we're huge fans of Basecamp, the wiki product from 37Signals.  From WorkHappy's description, we'll love HIGHRISE too.

Anything is better for managing my contacts and communication than Outlook which also remains my cesspool of chaos. 

I'll sign up for HIGHRISE shortly. I'll let you know my experience, too.

The CAFO Dilemma: An interview with Dr. Kendall Thu

The Iowa Source presents an interview with Dr. Kendall Thu a cultural anthropologist and professor from Norther Illinois. His specialty is the relationship among industrialized food systems, rural social dynamics, public health and the environment. Essentially, a perfect person to discuss the impact of CAFOs or confined animal feed operations.

Here's some excerpts:

It's important to understand how the CAFO issue is a manifestation of the primary flaws of the food system underlying all sorts of injustices and inequities. This includes human health, children's health, air quality, water quality, and racial injustice. We need to see how this broad swath of issues interlink so we can bring the necessary together to initiate change.

[CAFO operators are] not Darth Vaders of the rural landscape. They're just doing what they think they need to do to survive...

But the situation is a travesty. We need to figure out why it is they don't have options and alternatives...We need to help provide solutions so people against CAFOs can work with these producers saying "We dont want your facility in our neighborhood, but our group will assist you in finding alternatives through research.

CAFOs are set up for short-term production and are not designed to last a long time. [Unfortunately, the damage to the surrounding communities and environment does last a long time.]

CAFOs Stink! Read how America's top pork producer churns out a sea of waste that has destroyed rivers, killed millions of fish and generated one of the largest fines in EPA history. Welcome to the dark side of the other white meat.

New Urgency in Debating Health Care

New Urgency in Debating Health Care (NY Times, blog-friendly link.)

But with their medical costs ballooning, top executives of large companies are starting to speak up again — and many are calling for a national approach to fixing health care. Few advocate a wholesale shift to government-directed medicine, but most are seeking broad changes in the employer-subsidized health system, which they regard as unsustainable in its current form...

Now, it's not just the overlooked community of survivors with incomes  below the poverty line and who can't afford health insurance, it's not just the uninsured children who are easily ignored with throw-away comments about boot-strapping and global competitiveness and personal responsibilty, nor is it the middle-class with pre-existing conditions that either prevent coverage or prevent affordable coverage (same thing, really). It's reached the point that now businesses, large and small, established and startups, have joined the conversation about the need for a rational, affordable, health-care system. Many, not small business mind you, have a program now of health care benefits for their employees. No, the alarm for companies with existing programs arises when they look out 3-4-5 years.

“Five years from now this problem will have to be cured, or the competitiveness of the United States will be dramatically affected,” said J. Randall MacDonald, senior vice president for human resources at I.B.M.

The surge of interest, Mr. Galvin* said, “is driven by compounding health cost increases at three times the general inflation rate, plus the entrance of Wal-Mart and other retailers” that are beginning to feel the pain of out-of-control increases in costs.

Pitney Bowes, and Wal-mart recently, have introduced corporate wellness programs that include clinics, exercise, as well as affordable or even free drugs for certain needs. Pitney Bowes saw it's annual cost increases drop to single digits over the past 15 years.

The CEO for Costco is quoted as predicting that within 10 years the number of uninsured will rise to 75 million. That's almost 25% of our current population.  25% without affordable health-care is when you start being unable to ignore its impact on the social fabric.

* Robert S. Galvin, global health care and policy director at General Electric

Manners in the World of Blogs

A Call for Manners in the World of Blogs.

The conversational free-for-all on the Internet known as the blogosphere can be a prickly and unpleasant place. Now, a few high-profile figures in high-tech are proposing a blogger code of conduct to clean up the quality of online discourse.

I love a paragraph so loaded with irony. That's why I love a paragraph like this one.

Irony 1. I love a mainstream media icon like The NY Times pointing down its nose at the blogosphere and calling it a prickly and unpleasant place. You mean as opposed to your articles and columns or the replies they stir? Or as opposed to our national discourse, using any media,  on politics, race, religion, sports, foreign policy, economics, health care, taxation, women's rights, abortion, child-care, etc, etc.

For an institution that depends on free speech the resulting prickly unpleasant and unpleasant places that result from The NY Times, etal, enjoying that right and its exercise to create its readership and revenues...it's a bit of a chuckle to read that designation.

Irony 2.  I love the irony of bloggers who've howled in the past for free speech and authentic speech, who've shouted of the power of blogs is in its immediacy and reach in sharing ANYONE's thoughts...who testify to the power of blogs in bringing creativity and community and power and that its power arises from its being freed from the shackles of institutional control, ....and to sing about the power of the blogging community to self-censor by voting with their feet and eyeballs and ears as to which content they find the most valuable....to now see them  be the same ones to designate themselves as the purveyors of all that is right and acceptable, much like main stream institutions have done, always for a good purpose...never for a self-serving purpose...with badges of approval indicating that person's one of us and with its lack that person is not one of us....

As an adult I don't see myself needing a 3rd party to designate for me whose opinions are acceptable. It's a bit patronizing and parental for someone to volunteer to be the FCC of the blogosphere.

Before we go any farther...I'm not talking about verbal or written threats of violence. There are laws on the books to address those issues.

But...I remember reading on a blog where you know you're saying something when people disagree. You know you're creating passionate fans when you do something amazing and do it consistently so no one can assign it to mere luck. Using a sports metaphor, the first time a team wins we all celebrate their achievement and pat the underdog on the back...And as they win again and again, they become a dynasty, and people turn on them...and the attack websites now go up and the commentators couch their prickly and unpleasant commentary in oh-so-professional terms.

It's our nature as a country that we love the underdog and love to take down the king.

It's the nature of free-speech that it allows unbridled passion. Sometimes it's ugly to see. It's ugly to read. It's ugly to hear. And these days, it's ugly to see much of the time in our country as the discourse has taken on such an aggressive, attacking tone as the level of fear is exploited.

MOST of the times...it's a wonderful event. One we all enjoy.

But it's a VERY slippery slope to begin to designate who's acceptable and part of the clubhouse and who's not. And it's so sadly ironic that bloggers would want to assume that mantle of power, approving or disapproving parts of the conversation.

And it would be sad to throw away A. free speech and B. the power of a resource like blogs because of a recent dustup of incredibly horrible behavior of an incredibly small minority of people on the 'net.

It's tough when you're getting reamed by gossip and hearsay and twisted facts. You know you've done right. And there are those whose jealousy and anger and self-esteem issues twist some material for their agenda.

Putting a cute little label on a blog isn't going to change this part of our nature as humans.

The self-correcting part of this open dialogue is that over time...people are smart enough and bright enough to essentially see the true nature of a person's words, spoken or written, and actions. Free and open communication allows that to process to take place much sooner, much more efficiently. In essence, a person can hang themselves with their own vitriol much sooner with an open conversation.

So, back to the topic at hand. Let the police deal with illegal activities. Let each of us choose what we want to read, when we want to read it. The inherent self-policing element of this approach has served to create a powerful resource like blogs, unleash an unbelievable torrent of creativity with the unfettered internet and the resources that have been developed. And as we do with TV and radio and print...we can turn the channel when our senses are offended.

Healthcare for Half the people, half of the time

Lessons of Heart Disease, Learned and Ignored.

“We’ve done pretty well,” Dr. Nabel said. “But we could be doing much better. I’ve heard some people refer to it as the rule of halves. Half the people who need to be treated are treated and half who are treated are adequately treated.”

For a health care system considered the world's best, certainly the most expensive, we've achieved the ability to deliver treatment to half the people who NEED to be treated and  we can only deliver ADEQUATE treatment to half of them.

25% of those who need treatment receive adequate treatment. Not great treatment, not preventative treatment. Adequate treatment. For 25%...of those needing treatment for heart disease, the nation's number one killer.

As the character John Winger , in the movie Stripes said... "There's something very wwwwrrronnnggg".

An Army of Housewives Defeating TB

An Army of Housewives Battles TB in Pakistan

We're convinced here in the US that health care solutions require great big budgets and expensive equipment. They don't.

TB kills over a million people per year. That's over 20,000 a week. And in Pakistan, one of the world's poorest countries, they have a very simple, inexpensive, cost-effective plan that's steadily raising the cure rate to 89%. Higher than in many developed countries.

A little creativity can save a lot of money and a lot of lives.

Our prescriptions are in our drinking water.

Drugs are in the water; Does it matter?

Residues of birth control pills, antidepressants, painkillers, shampoos and a host of other compounds are finding their way into the nation’s waterways...

A spokesman for the EPA says there's uncertainty as to the risk to humans...Of course, he would say that. That's why you need a prescription for these same drugs...because they are dangerous if taken in unprescribed amounts or together with other unprescribed drugs. And adding them to our drinking water is tantamount to delivering these in unprescribed amounts together with other unprescribed drugs on a global or macro-level scale. But...there's uncertainty as to the risk to humans.

And of course, the EPA would say there's uncertainty as to the risk to humans from nouveau cocktails in our public drinking water from an uncontrolled variety of painkillers and antidepressants, as well as farm chemicals.  The Supreme Court recently needed to remind the EPA they had the authority (hint: should use the authority) to protect the environment. Environmental Protection Agency....get it?

Otherwise, the EPA with the recent  change in its mandate (Unstated verbally but clearly communicated by its actions) can now be known as the Environmental Disclaimer Agency. (Why yes, those are known carcinogens in our drinking water but...there's uncertainty as to the risk to humans. There's no studies to show that carcinogens in drinking water presents risk to humans...)

Not to worry, at some point there will be enough evidence to make the EPA (shall we go ahead and call it the EDA?) look like Saddam's press secretary in 2003. You know the guy. He's the one who kept saying