Sean Hannity
The Peak Experience
from back stage Your Business Blogger was backstage with Sean Hannity of cable FOX fame. He was about to give a speech to a packed house of 1,800. "Delegates" as John Fund from The Wall Street Journal called the attendees. They came from across the country for The Washington Briefing, hosted by the Family Research Council.

Hannity looked great; sounded great. He was up. But he should have been down. No matter -- he wanted to talk about how to make the country better. And he was a business case study on The Peak Experience.

In the small talk before his introduction and as he stashed his luggage (yes he carried his own bags) we learned that he had been giving speeches and doing his radio show across the country. He got only two hours sleep the night before.

We were witness to The Peak Experience.

The guy was working non-stop. And he didn't need the money. But he wanted to give his speech for The Family Research Council, even if the scheduling fates had him sleepless in DC.

Yes, adrenaline kept him up. But it was more than a chemical dependence.

It is a cliche that doctors don't get sick during epidemics; sailors don't get sea-sick in a storm; electrical power-line repairmen are at their safest and most efficient when the lights and lines are out.

If there is a real emergency for your company or an extraordinary circumstance, your staff will know and will rise to meet the challenge. Especially if you, manager, have so trained and motivated your team that they know that they are making a difference. Doing important work. Work that's bigger than themselves.

The Peak Experience works only if real. Epidemics, tempests, blown power grids are difficult to fake. (Although some CEO's I know would try to trick the staff. It seldom works.)

The crisis, the impending event, the project must be more than a 'stretch goal.' Your team won't work Sundays for still another artificial and moving target.

The Peak Experience is an emergency; an extraordinary misalignment of the stars that doesn't take a day off, doesn't worry about overtime. And will have your team working through days at a time.

Alert Readers will recall that Your Business Blogger holds for working only 6 days each week.

Ancient Jewish tradition holds that there are exceptions where work can be done on the day of rest, the Sabbath. If your "ox falls into a ditch," -- your livelihood is on the line or there is a life or death situation -- rules can be circumvented.

But The Peak Experience, where the company ox is in a ditch, is the exception to resting.

Remember, The Peak Experience is not normal. But sometimes can be anticipated. When working the Y2K rollover, my team worked the final month -- that would be December, 1999, for our younger readers -- straight through. And we knew it would be a success.

The Peak Experience is a rush that will enter your company lore and last for years. Get ready. It will happen. If something looks like The Peak Experience, don't be afraid to work the staff to death.

These unusual events should be perceived and received as 100 year floods. Very rare, low probability, high impact. But if The Experience occurs too often, then Peak begins to look like SOP. Something ordinary.

But not Hannity. Not that morning. Sean gives a soaring speech. And gets a standing O. He knew to work The Peak Experience.

And so will you.

John Fund and
Your Business Blogger
at the FRC Briefing
The Peak Experience

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Read more on John Fund's take on the Family Research Council event at the jump.

See Evangelical Voters More Jaded in 2006

Colorado MediaMatters has a video clip.

The Cracked Door has Is there a nicer way to present the truth?

Wonkette was working. Good photos. Watch the language.

JollyBlogger is better.

Panzer Commander has photos of the FRC protestors.

Joe Carter at Evangelical Outpost has more analysis at Yes, He's Heavy; He's My Brother and An Open Letter to the Religious Right. Bookmark Joe Carter.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Condoms On Campus? Some Officials Say No
GWU To Offer Free Condoms In Freshman Dorms

Charmaine was interviewed by the local NBC affiliate here in Your Nation's Capital.

But what was interesting, to Your Business Blogger anyway, was less the content about condoms as the medium for the message. Within three hours of the broadcast, Google had the alert in my inbox with a transcript and a video link.

Watch the clip.

Google Alert for: "charmaine yoest"

Condoms On Campus? Some Officials Say No
NBC 4.com -- Washington, DC, USA
... Mealey. But not everyone subscribes to that theory, including Dr. Charmaine Yoest of the Family Research Council. Yoest worries ...

We used to budget a benjamin to capture and load The Little Woman's video clips.

But now the network does it for us -- exchanging technology for labor -- I think I'll send Charmaine off to Nordstrom's to celebrate.

This is a great time to be alive.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to visit the FRCBlog.

Posted at 8:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Michigan is a mess. In the last six years Michigan has lost 289,000 jobs. My favorite measure of a state's desirability is its ranking on the number of people who move in, as compared to people who move out.

Michigan has the highest "outbound moves in the country" according to the Detroit news. One of Bouchard's ads is a U-Haul truck to symbolize the exodus. But he could have used any moving company.

United Van Lines conducts a yearly study of household migration patterns. The mover reports that,

..."high-outbound" states...Michigan -- From the inception of the study, Michigan has been an outbound state.

People don't want to live in Michigan. Because they can't earn a living there. Because you can't do business there.

That's not good for Michigan, and not good for the country.

So I thought I'd ask Mike what would be the first thing he'd do if he was elected senator.

"Make tax cuts permanent [and] regulatory relief," he says.

Which would be the smart moves to encourage business creation in a particular state, or at least keep young workers from leaving.


Bouchard campaign ad
Bouchard has additional initiatives to help small businesses:

Association Health Plans for small businesses.

Legal reform

Tax relief

Medical malpractice reform

Tap domestic energy sources

And he believes that women should not be in land combat, as the president has said.

Mike Bouchard has "A Plan to Get Results and Create Jobs" as his ad says.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Mike Bouchard is running against Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat, who voted against funding a fence along the US - Mexican border.

Posted at 10:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Every civilization has rites of passage. A driver's license into adulthood.

Births, Marriages, Deaths.

And a series of firsts. A baby's first breath, steps, words, teeth...haircut.

Forgive the-day-in-the-life of Your Business Blogger. But Baby-Boo just got his first haircut. And he took it like a man.

Alert Readers will know that all pictures worth keeping belong on a remote server, not in a scrap book in your house. Store your photos on line. So that if disaster strikes, you can grab the kids knowing that the photo album is safe on-line.

Posted at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Work hard, nose to the grindstone, work long hours -- and you will succeed.

This is a lie.

Further,

Mae West Everyone does it. And no one seems to want to stop.

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful, said Mae West.

Or is it?

An unusual trend among working people, is that people love to work and spend a lot of hours at the work they love. Every small business owner I have ever advised worked non-stop. And perhaps complained. And then would ask me about that work-family balance nonsense. But soon would excuse herself to answer an important cell call. (There are no unimportant cell phone calls.)

Non-stop work is bad for your health and bad for your productivity.

Studies show that working 21 continuous hours has the same effect as being drunk. Yes -- working too much is a real high.

Among industrialized nations, none work more hours than the US of A. The two-martini lunch has been replaced with jolts of caffeine; to stay awake. Americans don't drink to escape from work and sleep; we remain at work awake and become drunk. Intoxicated with labor. Starbucks has replaced Archie's Bar.

And no one works harder or more hours than the boss. And you, the small business owner, will openly admit to working harder and more hours than any one.

Martyr.

(No one likes martyrs, that's why they killed so many of them.)

Your Business Blogger would suggest that business productivity and employee health can be improved by working fewer hours.

Heresy.

I know. I wouldn't want to stop either. But I have a trick. An answer to those 60-hour work weeks.

Put those hours into 6 days; not 7. Take a day off. Yes, yes, one whole day.

Stay with me now. Businesses actually have this as policy.

Chick-fil-A, with 1,250 restaurants and sales of almost $2 billion, takes a day off: closing up on Sundays.

Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-fil-A, made the decision to close on Sunday in 1946 when he opened his original restaurant...in Hapeville, Georgia. He has often shared that his decision was as much practical as spiritual. Operating a 24-hour a day business left him exhausted. Being closed on Sunday allowed him time to recover physically, emotionally and spiritually...

It doesn't have to be a Saturday or a Sunday. When I was working restaurants I took Tuesdays off. It matters not the day.

But pick a day. Then don't work it.

Many business owners have pestered Your Business Blogger for a set of rules on what is work or not. Because work and play are the same for all North Americans. My only suggestion for your weekly day off:

Be Unproductive.

Chick-Fil-A
Family Friendly Leave productivity and production and whatever work is to the other six days. On that one special day: give it a rest.

Oddly, I would suggest no prohibition on exercise. We should sweat on our day of relaxation. (This is America.) Sweating and exercise are acceptable unless your day job is in the NBA or the Golf Pro Tour.

And to make sure it works, find a friend who will hold you accountable. Which you should be doing for business, anyway.

Be accountable to your private board of directors or mentor. Or better: spend the day with kith and kin. You will be more productive -- in work and perhaps, in your marriage.

So. To be more productive. Do nothing, one day a week.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Chick-fil-A was just recognized by the Family Research Council for a family friendly; marriage friendly workplace. More at the jump.

Continue Reading »

Posted at 10:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

FRC Action, the c4 component of The Family Research Council sponsored a briefing this weekend at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC. Your Business Blogger attended with Charmaine and the Penta-Posse.


Charmaine at the
podium for the
FRCAction Briefing

The 2,000 attendees at The Briefing

Radio Row

La Shawn Barber, Joe Carter and Jared Bridges

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Cross post from Reasoned Audacity.

Be sure to visit La Shawn and get her take on the event.

Tony Perkins, President of the FRC, has an open letter to Barry Lynn

An Open Letter to the Reverend Barry W. Lynn Dear Reverend Lynn,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your presence this weekend at our Washington Briefing, Values Voters Summit 2006. I was delighted to see your name as a paid registrant for a number of the activities. As head of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, you, of course, disagree with us on a number of issues.

Your support of same-sex marriage and abortion coupled with your opposition to school choice and any public recognition of God would make most people think our differences are vast. However, your willingness to attend our Briefing shows that even you recognize the importance of concerned citizens being involved in public discourse.

While you are here, I recommend you attend our Saturday session, The Role of Churches in Political Issues, moderated by Dr. Kenyn Cureton with speakers Reverend Herb Lusk, Reverend Dr. Richard Land and Reverend Dr. John Guest. I am sure you will find it enlightening as the panelists discuss how to apply the teachings of the Bible to the issues we face today.

It is reported that many Evangelicals do not vote and I'm sure you would agree such citizenly neglect is detrimental to any democracy. That is why we are holding our Briefing and also participating in nonpartisan get-out-the-vote rallies around the nation. Thanks again for being with us.

Photo credits: Your Business Blogger

Posted at 11:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

FRC Action, the c4 component of The Family Research Council sponsored a briefing this weekend at the Omni Shoreham in Washington, DC. This is a cross post authored by Jack Yoest. Photo credits: Jack Yoest


Charmaine at the
podium for the
FRCAction Briefing

The 2,000 attendees at The Briefing

Radio Row

La Shawn Barber, Joe Carter and Jared Bridges

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Cross post from Jack Yoest and FRC: Family, Faith and Freedom

Be sure to visit La Shawn and get her take on the event.

Posted at 11:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

The deadliest skill a leader can possess is the ability to persuade.

Rush Limbaugh
Photo Credit:
Your Business Blogger As Alert Readers know, Your Business Blogger is a cheerleader for lifelong learning. If there is a class that can improve my skills, such as they are, I'm in.

So to improve my ability to communicate, I though I'd sit at the feet of a wise instructor. And ask stupid questions.

(Which are the only kind I ask.)

I needed to pick an instructor who could help me in this continuous learning. I wondered -- who has Rush Limbaugh worked with?

That would be Stephen D. Clouse who teaches at the highest levels in the intersection of entertainment and politics.

I joined Stephen as he lectured at the Leadership Institute in Arlington, Virginia. The purpose and passion of Clouse's work is to train leaders to communicate -- to persuade.

To be effective, Clouse says, you must be likeable. Willie Loman, in Death of a Salesman, would step out into the world with a shoeshine and smile. And have a desperate need to be liked.

Which is not unlike the first step in the sales process of establishing rapport.

But Clouse was talking about more than a need to be liked -- he emphasized that to succeed at the highest levels and to persuade, you must truly like people.

Enjoy people? Like people?

I'm doomed.

But there might be help for you. Clouse gave a number of tips to improve your likeability -- by improving your vocals.

1) Speak slowly. Clouse reminds us that the great communicators from Larry King to Bill Clinton to Ronald Reagan have a very slow speech delivery.

2) Enunciate each word completely. Many of us will trail off at the end of our sentences. Clouse says, "A microphone is cruel to those who do this because everything is captured and conveyed."

3) Punch key words. Your listening audience wants to learn, and more important, to be entertained.

4) Extend vowels. Conveys warmth and emotion.

5) Natural voice in an 'audio check.' The sound tech will adjust levels to your voice. Be natural.

Which may require practice. The professionals make it look easy.

And professionals use professionals to coach. If you would like to contact Stephen D. Clouse, I'd be honored to make the introduction.

To communicate well will require practice. And practice. For your big show biz break read these 10 Tips. And remember...

Ronald Reagan had six years of voice lessons.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

This is an unpaid endorsement for Clouse.

Posted at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The business of radio is driven by ratings and revenue. I'd like to add a third driver: Running. R-cubed.

Your Business Blogger
multi-tasking
credit: The Dude We North Americans pride ourselves on productivity -- getting things done -- winning. We work while being entertained and are entertained while working.

We fully integrate business and pleasure. And the work/family balance may be moot because our waking hours are consumed with work/play.

So now business podcasts are being enjoyed by multi-tasking over-achievers. That would be you, Gentle Reader, yes? Be honest: I can hear Dave Matthews in the background, this screen is running next to a spread sheet, your boss is on line three, and your girl friend just IM'ed. And what's that pizza doing in your inbox?

Product and service providers (the pizza maker and that pizza deliverer) and advertisers love you. Which funds radio podcasts. For the six million listeners who downloaded podcasts.

But these days rating are easier to measure. Everyone can now know exactly how many podcasts are downloaded: Ratings.

Advertisers can now target messages with the Holy Grail of one-to-one marketing for greater efficiency and effectiveness: Revenue.

Podcasting News reports that,

Forrester projects that 700,000 households in the US in 2006 will use podcasts, and that this number will grow to 12.3 million households in the US by 2010.

[Charlene] Li suggests that companies focus their podcast efforts on repurposing existing content.

"Content that already exists -- such as earning calls, training updates, and executive presentations are all excellent fodder for podcasts," writes LI. "Think of us poor analysts who must listen to streamed quarterly calls while chained to our laptops! My caution is that companies shouldn't be dashing out to create expensive original content for a small audience -- unless they gain value from being seen as innovative."

And I'm looking, as we all are, for innovation.

Like multi-taskers everywhere, I look for time for multiple tasks. I combine running and business.

The 26.2 mile marathon is a long distance to run. Goodness, it's a long distance to drive. In my training, I would sometimes run for hours. Years ago it was with a WalkMan and cassettes by Earl Nightingale.

Today, it's an iPod with Podcasts. And Anita Campbell. Getting business done on the run.

And it's not just listening to the business of running, as in SteveRunner.com Or entertainment and music. Runners are listening to podcasts on small businesses, doing business. I'm learning Mandarin while the miles go by. Brad Feld, venture capitalist, is a regular runner with headphones piping in podcasts, and not just when he's a guest.

For your next workout run, take a podcast. With the kids and your cell phone.

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Posted at 10:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Diva
and Dancer at the
Air Force Academy Not long ago Your Business Blogger was advising a boss on a product roll out. His team had never done anything quite as large. I suggested a 'FireDrill.'

It consists of three parts:

1) FireDrill; The plan

2) The Drill, and

3) The Fire

The Plan is a checklist, The Fire is the execution, But The Drill, the practice is the toughest. Because teams need dry runs to learn because things will always, always go wrong. Your team will gain wisdom and judgment through simulation. And learn. Today, permit me to be Your Drill Instructor. And learn how I was surprised by a pilot project.

The F-14 Tomcat

Your (Army) Business Blogger had no business in the cockpit. My instructor was a Vietnam vet with MigKlr license plates on his truck.

He said the F-14 was a "Man's Plane." He sounded sexist. He explained that the old-generation hydraulics required real strength -- after a couple of hours, even the manliest studs needed two hands on the stick.

No place for girls.

Or so I thought.

But I was wrong, again.

I bring the Five-kid Penta-Posse to Oceana Naval Air Station to show them how macho military men (like their father) defeated Communism.

We get invited to some F-14 training. I climb in the simulator. No photography is permitted. And a good thing, too.

The instructor guides me through the take- off and some maneuvers. The room spins. The world spins.

And nobody was shooting at me. Although lots of people were yelling at me...

Time to bring the baby home. I turn. Lots more yelling. It might have been me.

The world freezes, the screen freezes. At a funny angle. In Real Life it would have been a $38 million mistake and DNA remains of Your Business Blogger.

My instructor: "Success. You did great!"

Me: ?

My instructor: "The seat is dry."

Me: ?

My instructor: "No puke, no p!ss."

Navy humor.

After my showing off, the Posse is not impressed. The Diva, age 6, female, issue-one-each slides into the (dry, thankyouverymuch) front seat sim. Confident. In control. And zooms. Flying circles around anything in the sky.

(I remember her as a little wee-one, who used to throw-up all the time. But not today, even on inverted rolls. Lord, where do the years go? Where did my baby girl go?) Practice is complete.

Perfect landing. "Just like PlayStation," the Diva says.

I expected a few more years to pass before they passed by the Old Man. She had practiced. I didn't.

The Diva
at a static display at
The Franklin Institute.
Entirely too comfortable
in the cockpit During the Drill no one is hurt. And we all process lessons and understand our capabilities.

And learn the limitations of the team.

And the boss. And the Dad.

A FireDrill will bring out the best in your people. And your managers.

Without the crash and burn.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Women are not permitted in land combat. Unfortunately, little girls (not much older than my Diva) are permitted to fly combat aircraft. The Air Force loses about 75 jets each year in routine accidents. The Navy budgets for the loss of two jets per carrier per deployment. The losses would be much higher, of course, absent intensive training, intensive practice.

Posted at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Steve Forbes
Washington Post A few years ago Your Business Blogger was privileged and honored to introduce Steve Forbes at a fundraising event with 950 of my closest friends. I was tempted to honor him with the most flattering, and shortest intro by saying, "Here's Steve Forbes, who needs no introduction..."

But most of us will.

Need an introduction.

So when your big break comes, that magic moment arrives -- how do you that know you'll get that classy intro, with just the right touch?

You know your introduction will be perfect. Because you will write it.

History was very good to Winston Churchill because Winston Churchill wrote it himself. Here's a brief history outline -- to write your own story:

1) Short. Two minutes, 250 words.

2) Welcome. Say hello as if to a single person. Forget the other 949.

3) Bio. The current gig, then what you are best known for. Credentials and qualifications.

4) Topic. The topic.

5) So What? Review the key questions of why we are all here and why we should care

6) Clap. Join me in welcoming and start clapping...

Remember, a good introduction serves as a stepping stone, bridge, a segue to the Keynoter to begin for a smooth and exciting transition.

Not a bad introduction. The worst introduction I've experienced was a joke. Literally. And I didn't like not being in on the joke -- it wasn't funny because I swallowed the bait whole.

I was working a trade show and sat in on some breakfast speechifying. The Headliner, a Hal Becker, Mr. Motivational Speaker, supplied -- later, we learned -- his own introductory remarks, as Your Business Blogger suggests here. However, Becker's "background" included a series of terminal degrees from Ivy League universities and instructing at medical schools. Very, very impressive. But I should have known that a Nobel Laureate would not be speaking to this group.

This group being any group in which I was a member.

But, I settled back to enjoy the speech. I know a bit about hospitals, my wife knows a bit about academia -- I thought I was going to get some learning.

Instead I got surprised. The speaker was only [gasp] an ordinary business guy. I was duped. Which is, well, nothing new.

My expectations were not managed with me not seeing the ol' switcheroo. Everyone else thought the guy was a hoot.

I didn't hear the speech, which I am told, was very good.

But this Keynoter Hal Becker forgot Rule One in public speaking: Only experts should use humor.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Hal Becker does have quite a resume, even with a poor sense of humor -- he was the number one salesman at one time in Xerox's 11,000 person sales force. He is well worth his $7,500 speaking fee. Just introduce him yourself.

Posted at 8:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Truth
Sculpture by
Gianlorenzo Bernini
1652 An ancient Jewish Proverb goes He that covers his sins shall not prosper. There seems to be a disturbing trend that hiring managers are facing: job candidates who lie.

Director Mitch, The Window Manager, one of the best business blogs in the business, had a reader in a job interview with a dilemma:

How should a job candidate handle embarrassing, possibly unethical questions from a hiring authority?

He gives three interesting options. "I see the hiring process as a battle with HR and will use any means, fair or unfair, to trip them up," says Mitch. That's because he views questions about why any employee who left a previous job as "unethical" to begin with. So Mitch asserts that an unethical question does not deserve an ethical answer.

Your Business Blogger is not so sure.

I once asked my favorite management guru, Bill Oncken, about the challenge of dealing with supervisors who cross ethical lines from right to wrong. His wise advice was to separate, or fire, or not hire, or run away from any hint of a lack of character.

Only deal with people with integrity, says Oncken; who is filthy rich and never married with no hungry kids who need shoes and private schools. (His hobby is skydiving -- out of boredom, I believe.)

But as the Window Manager outlines, sometimes you really, really need the job.

We've all been there. Sometimes we rationalize that ". . .the HR kumquat is a jerk who didn't ask a fair question, or a legal question, . . . and no one will ever find out if there's fudging on the job application. Evil deserves contempt. (Anti) Personnel departments don't actually add value to a company, anyway." Or so the thought goes.

When faced with an unethical boss or an unethical hiring manager, Bill Oncken, author of Managing Management Time, suggests leaving immediately. Even when the hit hurts your wallet.

"Sometimes," Oncken says, "You have to finance your integrity."

And this requires monetary as well as emotional maturity that not all of us possess.

I would not recommend lying as a response to any question, no matter how awful or illegal the interrogation. But Mitch does suggest humor or a superlative as a possible way out of troubling questions. As in "I took time off to train for my ascent of Everest." Or something like that.

Humor is a dodge that Your Business Blogger used to use. My heartfelt response to questions about my misspent youth is, I'm not responsible for anything that happened during the Nixon Administration.

If humor or deflection does not work -- that last sentence never worked for me -- brutal truth might be necessary.

Years ago, I was once fired by a company - twice - in the same month, both times by fax, the insulting medium of the day. I would always reveal this firing whenever asked. I would explain that it was the dangerous downside of working for thinly capitalized companies in trouble. And my explanation had the added benefit of being true.

I would always get the hard stuff out of the way soonest. I would put it all on the table. Just as sales pro's know: Whoever raises the objection, owns the objection. And get the "no's" out early.

On my hiring travels as interviewer and --ee, I've learned that there are two kinds of problems: big and small.

Many small problems perhaps can be side-stepped - without being untruthful, like my little incident deep in North Carolina. (Hint: Never throw drink bottles from a '57 Chevy at high speed.)

Early in my career, whenever that "Were you ever arrested?" silly question would come up, I would always write in NA. Drag racing on the interstate highway system was truly "Not Applicable" to the entry level sales job I was hunting. And if any explanation was required, I wanted to do it in person, rather than be eliminated by rote in HR. A face-to-face sales presentation has the highest close rate.

Fortunately, I don't have big problems, like a felony conviction, but the terminations come close. I have been fired more times than any single reader of this reputable blog. Goodness, I'll bet I've been fired more than ALL you readers combined, including Rush Limbaugh.

But there is hope for big problems on this side of eternity: Find a Friend. Any real position or client these days will be 1) A created position, 2) In high technology and 3) With someone you know.

Clients and projects and employment come these days through a network of friends and contacts. Who love you.

Like I do.

And that's no lie.

To thine own self be true,
and it must follow,
as the night the day,
thou canst not then be false to any man. Shakespeare.

So. When to lie? Let slip a little fib?

Never.

Don't bear false witness -- even about yourself.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

It is not known if Rush Limbaugh actually reads this blog.

Posted at 3:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

The wife of
Your Business Blogger
at an impromptu
press conference.In your business promotion, you the boss, will someday be called to speak before a handheld microphone or a bank of microphones to talk about your particular expertise.

If you deign to be interviewed by a reporter, or instead will speak at a planned, orchestrated press conference, here are 7 tips to remember for the handheld or externally fixed microphone.

1) The microphone comes to you. When speaking to a reporter who is holding the microphone, she will move the mic to you. Or there will be a boom mic floating near-by. You do not move to the mic or bob around speaking here or there. Be still. Remember, you are the expert. The center of the Universe. The pro has measured movements.

2) Remain in the frame. Your mouth should be a spread-hand's width from the mic, just below your mouth. This is to allow cameras to get a better show of your fab face. And to prevent 'popping' into the mic -- 'd's,' 't's,' or 'p's' are explosives if directed straight into the microphone. If there is a bank or cluster of microphones, any cameras or the reporters will be centered directly in front of the of the mic stands. Do not move around. Don't make the camera guys or sounds guys work too much.

3) Watch your back. If the presser is planned by your PR flacks, your backdrop will have your company logo behind you. If not, see what's over your shoulder. Look for naked statues behind you.

4) Start with your name, rank and the mundane. Practice your FireDrill, your pitch. And like any good lawyer you already know all the answers, but more important, you know and have heard all the questions. Stating the obvious gets your mouth a-motoring and helps the sound guys start to fiddling with the knobs if needed -- your self intro will probably get edited out, but it will serve as sound check until you say something important. Assume they can hear you; don't ask.

5) Don't handle the microphones. Unless you are giving a 45 minute key noter and the mic belongs to you -- leave the equipment alone. There are apt to be a number of speakers coming to the mics. Handling the machinery might create noise picked up by the other mics. But if you must touch them, do it while talking in some connective or redundant phrase in case of noise. That will get edited out.

6) Bend your knees to get in range of an extremely short mic. This is, of course, the trick of tall teenage girls when dancing with short guys. Bending over at the waist gives an ungainly, slouching appearance. You, Gentle Reader, are no slouch. Stand tall. Bow to no man.

7) Lower your voice. Lower your pitch. Your voice may get high pitched as you get nervous. And you better be nervous. If you do not have any adrenaline flowing when speaking publicly, you are too complacent.

The successful small business owner is a successful promoter and leader and speaker. The microphone is now another tool in your professional hands.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Be sure to review Management: 10 Tips

And visit k-log On Speaking: Being Heard

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The Pentagon circa 9.11.06. Lit by 184 lights to commemorate each life lost there on 9.11.01
Credit: Unknown

Posted at 8:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

And gets down to business by lowercase stingfellow.

While visiting First Carnival be sure to check out Creativity: Throwing out the box by Wayne Hurlbert,

Think in terms of strange questions. I'm not only talking about the overworked tree falling in the forest here. Of course, thinking about whether or not there is indeed a sound can help trigger new ways of looking at the world. The point is to move far away from your routine framework of thought. New worlds await discovery. It may as well be you who plants the first flag. Right?

Wayne reminds Your Business Blogger of my favorite creative question:

What would you never do?

It usually makes the staff and clients uncomfortable or even angry. But it makes them get off the dime.

And out of the Box. Read Wayne now.

Posted at 7:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Your (very young) Business Blogger
and Lily Tomlin Big Shows always start small. Lily Tomlin would test her acts, not on an off-Broadway hide-a-way in New York City -- not even another country, like say, New Jersey.

No, Lily would test her lines and the script in another world: Branson, Missouri.

A few decades ago, Your Business Blogger -- that's me, the dork on the left -- caught up with Tomlin backstage at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. During the run of her solo -- one woman performance in The Search For Signs Of Intelligent Life In The Universe.

It was no secret that Tomlin is the consumate professional whose presentations seemed effortless. Yes, she and her team practiced with military precision.

But she knew to do a bit more. One of her secrets was to practice in front of a live crowd. To test her timing. For the laughs and special effects. Practice and pace. To hit the marks and watch the sparks.

Her testing would require stops and starts and direct interaction with her Branson audience -- which was a test market for her new show; her new product her new production. She would be a wizard alchemist reformulating as she observed and assessed her focus group's response. And the laughs.

Comedy is hard work.

The challenge of conducting the practice, the dry runs, was that the critical, cynical New Yorker would not sit still through trial run. Tomlin as magician perfected her act behind the curtain, away from the show-bizzie chattering classes. So Lily would go to 'fly-over country' where normal people live, to hone her act.

To Branson, Missouri, the Show Me state where over 100 shows play in over 40 theaters. Branson is called "The Live Music Show Capital of the World."

Lily Tomlin and her crew would then take her perfected, polished performance back to the Big Apple and the rest of civilization.

Her business lesson from show business was to quietly introduce a pilot show, a pilot project. Gauge reaction and launch a high percentage deal. And practice to a small sample size.

Because you will screw it up. And it is best to screw up on the farm team than before the big league crowd.

Do you have a pitch to practice? Find a small group who loves you.

Practice your sales pitch to a live audience. And ask for feedback.

Looking to flog your product on national television, the cables and network? Start with small radio wattage. Then take your show on the road.

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Following is background from Your Business Blogger in an article published just after 9.11. Things have changed since then. A little.

Booby traps at the Pentagon: Charmaine and Jack Yoest introduce you to the Pentagon's babes in arms. What do they want? An "open dialogue" on breastfeeding. (Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services)

Originally published in The Women's Quarterly; January 01, 2002;


Pentagon attack
ON SEPTEMBER 10TH, [2001] the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services, the group most responsible for promoting women in combat, gathered in Pentagon Conference Room 5C1042. This civilian advisory committee, whose members have the protocol status of three-star generals, monitors the concerns of women in uniform. And what was the topic on the eve of the worst attack in U.S. history?

After briefings from representatives of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard, DACOWITS, as the committee is known, issued a formal request for more information on what they deemed a matter of paramount military significance:

breast-feeding.

As the terrorists prepared to hit the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon itself, our military leaders were directed "to engage in open dialogue" on lactation tactics.

The Defense Advisory Committee on Women celebrated its fiftieth anniversary last April. At the birthday party, President Bush's deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz, a man well regarded for his level-headed and conservative approach to military issues, lauded DACOWITS in his address as an outstanding organization" and told the assembly of earnest women that he "looked forward to [their] advice."

Read the article.

California Conservative has Open Post 9.11

Posted at 9:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Dad & The Dude
prepared for war
September 11, 2001
photo credit:
Charmaine Yoest, Ph.D. Just after 9am on 9.11, I was doing what all business owners were doing: selling something. I was on the phone with a client. Making a pitch to attend a series of seminars, with CNN on in the background. I was a bit distracted by the live feed of a burning building.

While making 'the ask,' it was clear that my customer was not aware that we had just been attacked. I wanted to say something, like, Turn on your TV and stare at real pain. It just didn't look real. I continued instead with the conversation. Your Business Blogger is not normally so focused. In denial, perhaps. Disasters are not normally good for business.

There was work to be done. My next class was on September 19.

And I didn't want the customer on the other end of the phone distracted until the sale was closed. Then we could go to war.

The deal done, I noticed my boy, The Dude, was concerned that the attacks would continue down to us in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We got to get ready!" he shouts and scampers around digging up my old uniform, boots, saber and his grandfather's bayonet. (Old soldiers never die, they just file away. Apologies to MacArthur.)

The Dude spent the rest of the morning marching outside our front door. Looking out for terrorists. It must have worked.

Charlottesville was not attacked.

But we were affected. Everyone was. But I wasn't sure that the bank was going to delay getting their money over a pesky act of war. I still had to earn a living.

How would the war affect business? Not the macro, but mine? I had a seminar and clients coming into town in little over a week and the world was on fire. Would anyone show up? Would anyone care?

We North Americans do business like we do war. We win. Donald Trump becomes Victor Davis Hanson. At 8 am on 19 September 2001, 86 professionals showed up and got down to business. A packed room.

The free lunch helped.

Even my business partner, Faisal Alam, came down from New York City to join us. He is Muslim.

The country was mourning, but on the move.

I started with a minute of silence in remembrance of those lost in the World Trade Towers.

Then we all got back to work. Each making the world a better place. Even with a war on.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Basil's Blog has open trackbacks.

California Conservative has Open Post 9.11.

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Your Business Blogger unjustly suggested that John Aravosis at AmericaBlog had deliberately, with malice aforethought, deleted a photo of Charmaine he took during the G-8 and blow up of 7.7 in London last year. I was looking for that particular shot of Charmaine, but I lost my copy. (I'm looking for a way to blame the kids.)

John, in an email exchange, becomes unhinged, as liberals are known to do and calls me a "goof." The slander! The hate! l'insulte!

And then he asks me for the photo when I find it. John smugly assumed that I had it stored in some hidden folder and that I would eventually uncover it.

So.

I found it.

John, here's your copy.

I goofed.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

John was right about the picture location; he's right that it's a great shot. But he's wrong on everything else.

Posted at 11:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Antonin Scalia I lean over to Charmaine and say, "Hey, that guy looks like Scalia."

Antonin Scalia was sitting in the seminar like any other nobody at a American Political Science Association convention a few years ago in Your Nation's Capital. He even asked questions, deferring, as befitting an academic setting, to the august panel of experts. The room hushed as he spoke: We were in the presence of a gentleman.

We chatted him up after the panel. He had a firm handshake, direct eye contact, direct language. We love him.

Not everyone does.

Seth Godin Seth, the Master Marketing Guru doesn't care for Scalia. Him being all that is wrong with America. Scalia or Godin, your pick depending on your world view of politics.

But this is not a problem for Your Business Blogger: I am on all three sides of the debate. The country has no better Supreme Court justice than Antonin, no better marketer than Seth. And now no better elliptical trainer than Smooth Fitness.

On this, Seth and I would agree, I think.

Smooth Fitness I bought a Smooth Fitness piece of hardware last month. Recently, I received a follow-up phone call from the Smooth Fitness Director of Customer Experience, Keith Menear. We talk about the terrific Smooth Fitness CE 3.2 Elliptical Trainer machinery, my smooth on-line purchasing experience, the constant follow-up and Smooth Fitness touches. Actually, Keith let me do all the talking, which is how I prefer to do business anyway. I subtly let on how I am a world famous, very influential blogger.

Keith brightens audibly, I could see the light coming through the cell phone, "Are you the Purple Cow guy?"

I tense up, "What?"

"You know," says Keith, smiling. "The blogger who wrote Purple Cow?"

"Who?"

Keith is excited, "Yes, the staff let me know this author..."

"--Never heard of him--"

"...who just bought one of our ellipticals."

Time to surrender. "Oh, I guess you mean that struggling marketer, Seth Godin."

"Yes, that's him! The staff is psyched -- Seth Godin just placed an order."

"Well, I suppose he has some name recognition...would be great for your business, huh?"

Keith is floating off his Aeron, "Right, I hear he's quite a superstar."

"I suppose...well, this is nice Keith. Now, what can I do for you?"

"What was your name again...?"

[sigh]

Smooth Fitness
Some Assembly Required In any event, customer service was outstanding. The Dude, a pre-teen in my Penta-Posse, read the directions (something I've never done before), followed the directions (something I've never asked for) and completed the assembly and had me working out in an hour. Silent and smooth as silk.

Smooth Fitness
Under Construction by
The Diva & The Dude Your Business Blogger has very simple tastes -- the best in everything. I have noticed, however, a near fatal flaw in the Smooth Fitness product. Shared unfortunately, with my old Mercedes: no place for my coffee cup. (The only thing that ever had a cupholder was my computer...)

And please understand that Smooth Fitness products are frightfully expensive. And worth every dime.

And that's no lie.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

This is an unpaid endorsement. So far. Smooth Fitness has a referral program -- drop my name (if you can remember it) (no one else does) when you order and I get a few bucks from Smooth Fitness. To buy a coffee cup holder for my ellipitcal trainer.

Posted at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Love. Every Tuesday and Friday I am honored to have a column published over on Small Business Trends and Small Business Trends Radio

Following are recent titles:

Job Interviews: When To Lie

Practice for Small Business Managers

3 Questions for Mentors and Advisors in Small Business

Hiring? The Best Question To Ask a Job Candidate

Mastering the Mic for Sound Management

Test Your Business Idea On A Critical Audience

How To Guarantee Your Best Show Business Introduction

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Anita Campbell, my Editrix at Small Business Trends also hosts a live call-in radio show.

60-minute audio interviews with small business experts -- the podcast home of Small Business Trends Radio, broadcast Tuesdays at 1:00 pm Eastern time.

Host: Anita Campbell
Exec. Producer: Steve Rucinski

Please tune in for the best in business education and entertainment.

Posted at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

An investment in knowledge always pays the best interest said Ben Franklin. And sometimes learning a skill will pay off in ways unintended and unanticipated.

My favorite interview question is to ask candidates what their high school dream was. What did they want to do, what did they want to be. The best candidates -- by that I mean the most contented candidates, have a thread in their lives of what they wanted to do back then and what they are doing today.

An expert interviewer, like Your humble Business Blogger, can discern the contentment and the fire in the belly of the job candidate, by analyzing any gap between high school plans and the current stage in life -- I find that the larger this gap, the more unhappy the candidate. Unhappy candidates make for unhappy employees.

Critics of this crazy question accurately say that technology, markets, the world have changed since we were in high school, back in the day. And they are right: the material world changes. Less so people. And what people love to do, and how each individual candidate would like to make a difference.

Here is my favorite example.

She was a competitive swimmer in her youth. And wanted to be a life guard. Her dream job that would make a difference. She trained, studied and was certified.

She found her calling; her vocation but she never found that job.

A disappointed teenager, she took a position as an Assistant Cashier in the athletic center at Camp of the Woods in Adirondack Park of upstate New York in June of 1982. She didn't get what she wanted, but at least she was near the water.

One afternoon while ringing up a sale, the young girl heard a commotion from the pool behind her across the hall.

A woman was just pulled from the pool. Limp, on her back turning blue. Not breathing. Stunned on-looking bystanders frozen. Inaction.

The teenage girl darted to the woman. Started mouth-to-mouth. The woman moved, struggled, gagged, puked and breathed.

Our teenager never got exactly the job she wanted; that job she trained for.

But her education did pay off. Expecially for one swimmer visiting Adirondack Park.

Training is never wasted.

Today that teenage girl, now a mature woman, lives out her high school dream making a difference in a big, dramatic vocation before an on-looking crowd of millions. She wanted to make a difference in a unique way. And does so today.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

The management at the resort was concerned that the near death by drowning would cause adverse publicity, I suppose. The life-saving event was never reported. Bad for business, you see. Our young heroine was never thanked.

And she doesn't want to be thanked now. And really doesn't want this blogged. (But that's what husbands do.)

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John DiIulio, Ph.D. Looking for answers, Your Business Blogger packed up kith and kin and headed to Philly.

To sit at the feet of John DiIulio, Ph.D., Harvard. Teaching now at the University of Pennsylvania, a former aide to President Bush.

John began by positing the central question for any political scientist visiting the home city of Ben Franklin:

Who has the best Philadelphia cheesesteak?

John was addressing a packed ball room at the American Political Science Association annual meeting this past weekend (yes, Labor Day, every year).

The Dude & Diva
at APSA The question got a laugh, but I think Professor DiIulio was on to a smaller truth.

After the conference, Charmaine and I loaded up the Suburban and decided to load up with Philly cheesesteaks. And to teach a basic political lesson and business lesson to the Penta Posse. We drove to South Philly to the famous eatery where John Kerry lost the election.

Pat's King of Steaks open 24 hours. Where we joined the queue snaking around the old joint built in 1930 and not upgraded since. And no one cares.

We avoided the 3 errors John Kerry committed at Pat's: Parking, Table, Cheese.

The Dude at Pat's Error #1) Parking. Pat's is located on a busy intersection with some five odd parking spaces. We did not find a space. No one does. But when John Kerry came to chow down, his able advance staff staked out a spot for the limo to glid into. The Very Important Presidential candidate got a parking spot.

John Kerry ties on
the feed bag Error #2) Table. There are about 5 tables for the dozens and dozens of customers. We couldn't get a table. And no one cares. But the Kerry Advance Team, on that fateful day, nailed down a table. Even the reporters were beginning to wonder. There was no standing around for the Elite. No slopping steak grease in the car, no sitting on the low brick wall next to the basketball courts across the street. Nosiree. The sitting Senator had a seat saved. And didn't have to wait on no man.

The WhizError #3) Cheese. The Philadelphia Cheese Steak from Pat's is ordered, as everyone knows, Wiz Wit. Every one knows but Kerry, that is, who is not Everyman. Translated, this means Chees Whiz With onions, if you please. John Kerry ordered his steak sandwich with Swiss cheese. Swiss. I didn't know Pat's would inventory Swiss: Why bother with slow moving sku's? Even the lapdog liberal reporters snorted. Ordering is simple and fast -- making my offer of queue management consulting moot. A business process needing nothing more than processed cheese.

Just like politics.

Even the Penta Posse understood this.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine and I talked with John D. after his presentation. He tells us that the best cheesesteak in Philly is from Tony Luke's. Most Democrats, like John, know cheesesteaks and politics.

This is an unpaid endorsement.

I cite has more on the APSA experience.

Posted at 9:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Charmaine on C-SPAN Charmaine is looking for an executive assistant, here in Your Nation's Capital. See the job listing here.

Executive Assistant to VP for Communications:

Provide administrative support, advice, and assistance to the Vice President for Communications and facilitate the daily activities of the Communications Department.

August 28, 2006 - Monday

High proficiency in Windows environment (Microsoft Word 6.0, Excel 5.0 and database). Productive, competent and dependable individual with team spirit. Ability to carry out multiple tasks in a busy environment. Keyboard speed of 35 cwpm. Experience in maintaining files. Must have a professional telephone manner. Organized, focused, detail and task oriented. Requires BA degree and a minimum of 3 years experience in providing administrative support for


Debating on Bloomberg senior staff or an equivalent combination of training and experience. Must be productive, competent and dependable with team spirit, able to direct and carry out multiple tasks in a busy office environment. Must have strong organizational, administrative and budget management skills and ability to adapt quickly to changes while executing solid professional judgment.

Charmaine from FRC on
NBC Nightly News

Charmaine runs a busy shop.

Hint: Her last four hires read/write blogs. Hint.

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Charmaine blogs at Reasoned Audacity and FRCBlog, and is the wife of Your Business Blogger.

Posted at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Mark your calendar and plan to attend the Center for Military Readiness Annual Briefing on 12 October in Your Nation's Capital.

Women in Combat
Dr. Charmaine Yoest and
Elaine Donnelly, President of CMR We are at war. In this time of struggle we must defend our way of life, our institutions, and our system of law.

We also face an unexpected controversy. Who controls our institutions? In particular, who controls our Armed Forces -- bureaucrats or elected officials? Can we afford to let political correctness takes precedence over policy and law?

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Thank you (foot)notes:

Your Business Blogger proudly serves as the Vice President for the Center for Military Readiness.

Continue Reading »

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