Morada Musings

I’m in awe.  Really.  Watching the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, I’m amazed by the level of human strength, perseverance, finesse.  Those who have spent hour upon hour honing their bodies to endure the arduous pounding of moguls and pipes, the strain of  maintaining an awkward, unnatural position while skating as fast as humanly possible or gliding, jumping, spinning and flying through the air non-stop for long minutes while remaining graceful.  It is truly astounding what one can do when one puts one’s mind to it!

Then there are those who lose it – lose their focus, their determination, their timing.  Some, it would appear, just didn’t train long or hard enough.  Others have obviously done the physical training but somehow haven’t been able to bring their minds to the same level of preparedness.  I applaud each, winners and losers, for pursuing their dreams over the long haul.

Like Shen and Zhau, Chinese pairs skaters who left their homes as children to live in segregated dormitories with other athletes in training, even while they have been married, and after 18 years of skating together, won gold.

And Seth Westcott, who overcame injury, weather and being well behind the leader to dig deep, play smart and grab the lead late in the run to win gold, for the second time.

And I cringed with sympathy when Jeremy Abbott let his nerves get the better of him, losing his focus early in his short program with missed jumps that put him too far back to have any hope.  Cried when I read that luger Nodar Kumaritashvili of Georgia had expressed fear of the track that took his life but stepped into the gate nonetheless because it was his dream, what he had trained for.

And I’ve been thinking how these situations are not much different than what we entrepreneurs experience – years of training in the trenches of corporate life to bring our dreams to fruition, reaching some critical juncture where we must put in our best effort to attain the prize we’ve been pursuing.  And sometimes failing because we didn’t work hard enough, or missed the depth of training in a particular skill, or simply lost our focus.    So, what have I been learning while watching these tremendous athletes?

Prepare as much as possible.  Stay calm.  Be focused on your goal yet balanced in your life.  Get back up when you fall.  Be gracious in defeat.  Applaud the superb performances of others.  It’s not over until it’s over, and for many, there’ll be another try next time.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of
getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks
into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”

– Mark Twain

Sometimes the most exciting, scariest, hardest thing in the world to do is start – school, friendships, dating, driving, work, marriage, parenthood… It doesn’t matter what the endeavor, when it’s new, and big, it can be daunting to take that first step.  Working with children and adults with ADHD over the past two decades, I’ve learned that one of the things they struggle with most is sequencing – seeing the pattern of things, connecting the dots.  They see the big picture – that’s what makes them great entrepreneurs, artists, and visionaries – but they have trouble with myriad parts.  Or maybe they just don’t have the patience to decipher them.    Either way, many people function in a similar way, excited by the grand idea but unable to figure out how to get started.  They are overwhelmed, stymied, spinning their wheels looking for a way in.  Or a way out!

To help those children, I learned to break things down into small bites, usually single steps.  I could not say “Go get ready for bed.”  They wouldn’t know what steps were involved, even if they’ve done it every night.  Nor could I say “Go brush your teeth, wash your face, get into your pj’s and get into bed and I’ll read you a story” and expect the whole routine to be done.  By the time they’d finish brushing their teeth, they’d have forgotten what came next.  It would take months of single steps being connected for them before they were able to remember “what comes next.”

Over the years, they eventually learn to do that kind of thing for themselves, with varying levels of success.  Those who go on to become entrepreneurs often bypass the struggle and hire highly organized, detail-oriented assistants (some are Virtual Assistants like me).  Others keep struggling, trying to put structure in place, even going so far as to make lists or use elaborate planner systems.  They become adept at capturing and recording information but never get any further than that.  They remain stuck, victims of “paralysis by analysis.”  Even when they know what needs to be done, often they can’t decide what the first step should be.  They could start here…but then again, maybe there would be better.  Unless…  This could go on for days, weeks, even months or years if what needs to be done is large or significant.

Over the years I must’ve said “Don’t worry about the end; just start!”  thousands of times.  I give you the same urging – figure out what needs to be done, map it out with whatever organizational product or tool that works for you but then start.  You can usually correct course, change directions even, at any number of steps along the way.   The end may be meaningful,  the destination important, but you’ll never get there if you don’t take the first, and then next, step.  So, get started!  And if you find you need help with the doing, give me a call.

Did you know that today, besides being Groundhog Day here in the U.S., is the anniversary of All Even Day? The first All Even day in over 1,000 years occurred on February 2, 2000 (where all the digits are even numbers).  The last All Even day was on August 28, 888.

Love these little things!

In October 2009, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced new regulations which went into effect in early December.  The following is my understanding of them from reading articles and attending a webinar.  For specific questions and concerns, please contact your attorney.

The intent of these regulations is to further protect consumers from deceptive or misleading advertising.   What it means for anyone with a business, and particularly a web site or blog, is that a greater level of transparency is now required.  Not only must you tell the truth, you must disclose what you define the truth to be.

For example, if you use testimonials on your web site, which are commonly considered aspirational, it’s no longer enough to add the disclaimer “Results not typical.”  Now you must state what the typical results would be.  If you are using quantifiable data (i.e. “I lost 30 pounds” or “Using these methods I made $1000″), you must have data to support that the average user can expect to do/achieve the same results.   Does this mean you shouldn’t use testimonials?  No, it just means that your most outstanding ones can’t be touted. This isn’t necessarily as bad as it seems.  If you do the research to determine the results your clients get, re-framing it can be just as, or even more, powerful.  Perhaps you’ll be able to say something like, “95% of our clients are pleased with their results” or “over 70% of users report a loss of 5% of their body weight.”

Another key point is material connection – you must clearly indicate if you have a connection to/with the product, service or person you are promoting.  Are you an affiliate and the links in your review are your affiliate links?  Say so up front.  Did you receive free product for your review?  State that.  Are you in any kind of business relationship or joint venture with the other person on your call/webinar?  Let your audience know in a clear manner.  This need not be delivered in a banner declaration but can be done in a more conversational manner (i.e. John and I work together in…)

The third key point is somewhat related and can be called engagement.  If you are providing a review of a product or service, you must be (or have been at the time) an active user of that product or service.  If you aren’t, you must say so and not be providing quantifiable type results.  Again, this needs to be made clear but doesn’t need to be shouted.  As an example, I do a lot of research for my clients so I may be in a position to share with someone else what I’ve learned about a product.  If I’m not using, I can preface my sharing with “I haven’t used it myself but here’s what I found in researching it…”

Lastly is the issue of continuity.  You must make a reasonable effort to ensure that anyone who gave you a testimonial still feels that way.  There are no clear guidelines as yet to how often this needs to be done but common sense would dictate that you need to do so before you create new materials, update your web site significantly, or want to quote it in an auditory venue such as a teleseminar, webinar or live event.

If you use affiliates to market your products or services, or you are an affiliate for others, you need to be aware that these regulations allow recourse against both of you.  Is your affiliate using quantifiable claims on their site?  Even if you are not, you can be held liable, and vice-versa.  Again, this doesn’t mean that such relationships should be discontinued but does provide an opportunity for partnership discussions around marketing approaches and clarifying parameters.

There are tools and resources available to help you understand and work within these new guidelines.   The following sites can get you started; and no, they are not affiliate links nor have I used their products. 

• FTC official site
• SiteCompliant FTC Toolkit
• DemonstrateMyResults
• NY Times article

The following is an excerpt from an ezine by internet marketing expert Bob Jenkins (a/k/a Bob The Teacher), which I share with you just for the geeky fun of it!

and I never hide that.

nothing.

Seems just when you’ve finally figured something out, they go and change it on you!  Yes, it’s been done again in both Facebook and Twitter.  Until I’ve worked with both of them a bit more, I can’t say that either of these applications have been improved through the changes but my initial sense is it’s a mixed bag for both.

Facebook:  They’ve changed the way you view what’s happening, and frankly, I don’t like it.  There is now a News Feed and a Live Feed.  My understanding of it is that the intent was to make it easier for you to see just the posts in the News Feed without the clutter of those notices that Jane is now connected to Bob.  Sounds good but the reality is quite different.  While the Live Feed is just that – immediate streaming of all the posts and notices connected with or by the people I’m connected to – it seems to only maintain one page’s worth at any given time with no way to see earlier ones.  The News Feed, on the other hand, is supposed to capture all of the posts by my connections and allow me to “page back” to see earlier ones; the problem is that only some of my people’s posts are showing up there.  I have to bounce between the two to really know what’s happening with all my tribes.  Hmmm…definitely more research needed to see if there’s a setting which needs to be tweaked.

The other area of change, which occurred this week, is greater customization in privacy settings.  We can now change the settings for parts of our About Me instead of the entire set of information in our profiles.  This is a welcome change!  Now I can let everyone see my work and education without having to share more personal information like my birthday, and there’s also more separation of who sees things like religious or political views, favorite books or movies, and contact info.  The more control we have over who sees what allows us to be open and authentic with those who are close while keeping our professional images intact.  I like that!

Twitter:  One thing that has long bugged me is when I would retweet someone’s post, often it exceeded the 140 characters once the poster’s ID was placed before the tweet.  Then I had to decide – do I remove the ID or try to edit the tweet to gain a few characters.  Here’s the rub: while the original poster will surely recognize the retweet as theirs, there’s nothing to tell anyone else.   Unless they are also a follower of the original poster, they won’t know and might think it’s my great quote, thought or link.  But editing what someone else has said to make it fit could also be problematic.  Does it still say or infer the same thing?  Is it even intelligible?

The new way of doing it is a huge improvement.  Now, instead of right-clicking to retweet and have the ID inserted, there’s a retweet link right in the lower right corner of the post (hover your mouse there to make it appear.)  Click on Retweet and the post is retweeted with an acknowledgment showing up underneath and a new gray icon of squared arrows next to it.  The post is intact and people know it was you who retweeted it so  if they wanted to follow up, they know who to contact.  Sweet!  And the original poster will know who to thank, which is always nice.  There’s no chance to add a comment, though, so if you want to do that, you’ll have to click Reply instead and edit.

Until next time, keep posting and twittering!

I am thankful for humor, for the ability to laugh and appreciate the absurdities of life.  It’s been said that my family members, myself included, have a laugh set on a hair trigger.  Over the years my husband has lovingly teased me about my “runaway giggle”, a phrase he picked up from a favorite comic strip.  Give me any excuse and I’ll run with it!  Life’s too short not to enjoy it at every possible opportunity.

Some of my most favorite memories are of sitting at the dinner table and laughing.  The whole family would be there.  One of my brothers would be doing an impersonation of Bill Cosby, or one of my sisters sharing a story or telling a joke she’d heard.  It wasn’t often me doing the telling, and even less often our eldest sister, but we deeply appreciated them and added to the merriment with our responses.  Sometimes we’d get laughing so hard we couldn’t breathe, let alone finish eating dinner.  Even as we’d begin to get ourselves under control, a sideways glance or whispered words would start us all over again.  (“Was he wearing yella boots?” could still set us to snickering years after our eldest sister told one of her rare jokes.)  We’d giggle or wheeze or snort until my father sternly forbade another sound.  Not that he didn’t enjoy a good laugh, too, but was a staunch advocate of “moderation in all things.”  We never laughed harder than the time my mother accidentally shot him in the face, all the way down the long table, with whipped cream as she struggled to get the cap off and her thumb landed on the nozzle!

After Dad passed suddenly at 42, there was a quiet time as we tried to make sense of our changed world.  But even in the midst of our sorrow, there was always something worthy of a laugh so it wasn’t too long before we started again, and once started, nothing has been able to stop us again.  When Mom passed a few years ago, we sat around that same dining room table – now in my sister’s house – and as we shared our memories, there were as many laughs as tears as we recalled those times and the many others over the years.  Tuesday nights had been bowling night for my mother, sister Deb and, eventually, me as well.   We were grown ups but you’d never know it!  The three of us, and sometimes one of the boys, would start by sharing some amusing anecdote from our day and before we knew it, we’d be gone!  We’d drum our hands on the table, “run” in our chairs, even occasionally one us – usually my mother – would jump up from the table to run to the bathroom!  And more than once the switchboard (Mom ran an answering service in our home) would buzz, and keep buzzing until one of us could stop laughing long enough to at least answer it even if not in a serious voice.  Fortunately for us, our clients and their callers always seemed to appreciate our levity and would ask to be let in on the joke. 

I miss those days but carry their precious treasure in my heart.  I’m grateful for the equilibrium humor has brought into my life, enabling me to laugh easily and often, and at myself as much as anything or anyone else.  If there’s a chuckle or giggle to be found in any situation, I’ll look until I find it.

So, anyone know a good joke?

I am thankful for modern medicine, especially the technology portion.  Today my niece safely birthed her son into this world.  Recalling the difficulties and danger of her daughter’s birth, and two decades earlier my son’s, makes me aware and grateful again for the miracle of ultrasound and refined surgical techniques.  Our children are here and healthy; a century ago they probably would not be and my niece, my sister and me might very well not be either.

To be able to see into the body in such detail, to be able to recognize a problem, foresee dangers, has revolutionized childbirth as well as other life and death situations.  Yesterday’s news included an article about a man who was considered to be in a permanent vegetative state for the past 23 years but, through scanning with new technology, was discovered to be in a “minimally conscious” state – a significant difference.  He has not been unaware as previously thought.  The whole dynamic of his ongoing care will be much altered now, not only because of the realization of his sentience, but because of the advances in working with our human bodies that have occured in those 23 years.  This is truly amazing stuff!

I am also grateful for the plethora of pharmaceuticals we have in our arsenal.  I won’t go into the ramifications of misuse, overuse and other abuses of them by physician and patient alike – that’s a whole different article!  What I am talking about is the huge jump in longevity and quality of life we now enjoy because of the many drugs available to cure illnesses and manage chronic diseases which in the millenia leading up to this century would have been fatal or incapacitating.

From the huge transformation brought about with the discovery of penicillan to the simple relief of seasonal allergies, our modern society reaps the benefits of medical technology in ways both profound and subtle.  With our ever increasing understanding of botanicals and biochemistry, we have eradicated or subdued killers like smallpox and tetnus, manage diabetes and tuberculosus, cure cancers.  Thanks to epinephrine and steroids, my other sister and I survived life threatening allergic reactions.

For all of this awesome, astounding knowledge we’ve been given, these marvelous gifts, I am truly thankful!

I am thankful for technology.  No, really, I am!  And not just because it allows me to work from home, though that’s a really big part of it.  But I love the ways it enables me to do things that were previously hard, tedious or boring and to do them in much less time.  Like bookkeeping – how cool is it that with a few clicks here and there, all my transactions for the month are downloaded into software that remembers what category I consider each one to fall into and files everything just where it ought to be, redundantly so I can find it in any format I need?  Did I ever pay that bill?  A few clicks will tell me.  Tax prep takes a fraction of the time it used to and in a minute or less I can find out how much I spent on business expenses and tax-deductible utilities.  It could even reconcile itself if settings are tweaked just so.

Correspondence is likewise quicker, although sometimes that’s not such a great thing!  While I no longer have to dread making a mistake while typing in triplicate with carbon paper, there’s something to be said for the care it required.  No simple backspace, no highlight and delete.  In those days, a mistake meant several minutes and a few steps to correct it.  Either it involved rolling the sheets up enough to fold back the top sheet and each carbon to erase the error (without over-erasing which could tear the paper) or in later years, very carefully covering up the error with appropriately colored White-Out and waiting for it dry on the sheet before doing the next one.  Then you had to make sure everything was exactly lined up again as you rolled the sheets back down to the line you were on before continuing.  In this time of email, instant messaging and texting, we are in constant communication and do so at such a fast pace that we seldom take the time to edit ourselves.  We write too much, too often or things we shouldn’t, or wouldn’t if we’d stopped long enough to think about it.  So I’m very grateful for software that keeps up with my mind, not to mention a keyboard and mouse which give me three different ways to correct myself!

I love being able to print almost anything in color, any time I want, in any quantity I desire.  Whether it be photographs, brochures or business cards, I can do it day or night on any kind of paper I want and can even do tests in gray scale draft to save on ink.  Combine this with being able to design collateral, cards, even t-shirts through this amazing thing called the world wide web.  We’re so accustomed to doing things “online” and “through the web” that we rarely stop to really think about how utterly astounding this all is!  There’s a video clip being circulated in which a comedian talks about how everything is amazing but no one is happy.  Sadly seems to be true.

I’m grateful to be old enough to remember when the IBM Selectric typewriter with its replaceable type balls was cutting edge because it gives me a deep appreciation for the gifts we have today.

I am thankful for simple pleasures.  Every November, for only a few weeks, cranberry english muffins hit the store shelves and I enjoy one every day until they’re gone from the shelves.  Then I ration the ones I’ve stashed in the freezer to enjoy throughout the winter.

I love being able to watch the birds as I prepare meals and they eat theirs at the feeders in my backyard.  A few weeks ago there were about a dozen wild turkeys scratching around for about an hour; amazing to have them visit after 19 years in this house considering that there’s less woods behind me now than before.  I especially enjoy the antics of the goldfinches as they jockey for position on the 3 foot long spiral thistle feeder.  They’ll “run the spiral” – moving from top to bottom, stopping at each feeding hole and pushing off any other bird perched there.  And it’s always fun to watch the woodpeckers upside down on the suet feeder.  Not only are they a lively show to watch, they remind me that “His eye is on the sparrow and I know He watches me” – one of my favorite hymns.

I have a passion for popcorn, Pop Secret Homestyle to be exact.  It’s been a lifelong love affair between me and popcorn, starting with the hot buttered kind we made as kids for a treat when we were allowed to watch a special show on TV.  Then we moved on to Jiffy Pop but there was never enough for the 5 of us so the novelty of it didn’t last long and we returned to popping it in a pan on the stove.  We experimented with different flavors – salt & pepper, cheeses, garlic, even trying to make the sweet caramel kind.  When microwave popcorn come on the scene, it was heaven on earth.  I could have it anytime with no clean up!  I could have it at work!  Alas, I could also get fat eating it so often and eventually developed hives every time I ate it.    These days, it’s an infrequent, very special treat I enjoy immensely.

There’s nothing as blissfully snuggly as down comforters on cold nights.  Growing up we each had a patchwork quilt made by our grandmother.  Beautiful but not real warm.  My bedroom in our old New England farmhouse colonial was the one with the door to the walk up attic as well as being the furthest from the furnace so it was cold, sometimes really cold.  I usually had two blankets underneath the quilt and loved the weight of them.  Now, I hate the weight and really appreciate how warm a lofty duvet can be.  We’ve tried several styles, from the traditional ring stitched to the contemporary-looking box stitched, lowest warmth rating to highest.  My vote goes to the modified box stitched version which allows for a good amount of loft without the major shifting you can get with the ring stitched.  Ahhhh…

Another little thing that makes my day – sticky notes.  Those ubiquitous little yellow squares have evolved into a plethora of shapes, sizes, colors and designs.  I use them for many things – color coding stacks of receipts or papers when I’m sorting them, a quick note to myself, instructions for my son, a cover note when I send something off to a client.  From the lovely florals to the bright neons, squares to arrows to funky shapes, I am always on the lookout for a new one to add to my stash.  There is one design I no longer use, though I did when I found them back in the late 70’s.  However, I keep as a reminder of that past life in the Cubicle Nation.  It features Garfield, that wonderfully sarcastic cat who loves lasagna and teasing his owner, Jon.  There are words across the bottom which, sadly, describe what many experience in corporate life:  “It’s your problem now.”  For better or for worse, as a solopreneur, it is my problem now and will remain that way until it’s resolved.