From the monthly archives:

December 2009

Resolutions Are Horse Feathers

December 30, 2009

Last week, Michael Long, aka The Red Recruiter posted this very interesting tweet: Everywhere you turn, especially at this time of year, there are a million posts about making and keeping New Year’s resolutions. Personally, I think most of it is a bunch of hooey like “visualize your success” and “strive for goal congruity.” What [...]

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Beach Houses And Business Planning

December 28, 2009

When you started your business, did you do it because you wanted to work 80 hours a week? When you took the plunge, was it your hope that you would never see your family? Did you want to lose sleep, lose hair and make Tums your own personal food group? Of course not. Most small [...]

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It’s Easy To Be Extraordinary

December 21, 2009

I went to a Christmas bazaar and there was a table full of jewelry goodies. In fact, there were a couple of tables with jewelry goodies. But I stopped at this one because of the woman’s smile. She was engaging without being sales-y:  she asked about me, whether or not I was ready for Christmas [...]

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Choices And Lessons

December 16, 2009

As most of you know, there was a bit of drama yesterday regarding one of my blog posts. To those of you who reached out to me via blog comments, on Twitter and in direct messages I thank you! As I write this, I’m  feeling deeply appreciative of my friends and colleagues. And so, I’d [...]

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My First Ever Blog Rant

December 15, 2009

Update 12-16-09 I had a conversation with this person. Here is the link to the update. So this is a blog post unlike any other I’ve written so far because something happened to me that has never happened before. And I’m angry, really angry. I was hardly online yesterday, so I was up early this [...]

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Purple Cow Prospecting

December 14, 2009

In case you have not read “Purple Cow” by Seth Godin, go get it – today. It’s about being remarkable, how to exceptionally market yourself, your products and your services. The idea is that in a field full of cows, if you’re purple, you’re going to stand out. Long-term business success requires more than purple [...]

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How To Create An Irrelevant Brand

December 9, 2009

None of us ever wakes up, looks in the mirror and says, “Today, my goal is to be irrelevant.” When you go to a networking event or a Tweetup you don’t introduce yourself by saying “Hi. My name is Rose Pineda. I’m a mortgage lender with Mortgages Are Us and I’m irrelevant.” Of course not! [...]

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Charlie Brown Business Sense

December 7, 2009

Forget business for a moment. Let’s talk Christmas trees. Have you ever been to a tree lot with a perfectionist? That one’s too big. That one’s scrawny. That one has a gap on the left side where a bird had a nest. Too small. Too short. Too green. Too pine-y. Too spruce-y. And after hours [...]

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The Gossip Grapevine Part 3 – Yellow-Bellied Cowards

December 4, 2009

In the Old West, the ultimate insult to any man was to call him a coward. Being “yellow” meant you were less than a man and you didn’t have the guts to do the right thing. One of the most infamous cowards of the American old west is Robert Ford, known as “The Coward Who [...]

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Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein And Sheryl Crow

December 2, 2009

If you want to succeed, you better commit this quote to memory: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Now, you can decide if you want to be on “Team Ben” or “Team Al,” because no one seems to be quite sure if Benjamin Franklin [...]

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