My husband and I decided to take a computer class together. We were going to learn Excel so we could Excel-erate our business. Together, we own a public relations agency and a printing business.  We wanted to create beautiful spreadsheets with forecasts and reports. Continue Reading »

I had a nice chat with Anne Ravana last week at Maine Public Broadcasting in Lewiston. The occasion was a meeting where Kristin Majeska of Common Good Ventures was giving a presentation about her organization to a group of local business people. Continue Reading »

I recently heard from an old friend, Bob Mohlin, who owns an engineering firm in Saco, Maine.  I met Bob and his wife Pam at Sugarloaf in the mid-80’s when I was working in the communications department of the ski resort.   Continue Reading »

I’ve been using LinkedIn for several months now to increase my social network.  As a matter of fact, if you’re reading this blog and you’re not part of my network, I invite you to ‘link‘ with me. Just go to LinkedIn, create an identity for yourself, then invite me to join your network. It’s amazing to see who is connected to whom, and how many people we are connected to, in so many facets of our lives. We are connected to people through our home towns, through our schools, through our kids’ schools, through our clients, our professions and our past jobs. Continue Reading »

I’ve been listening to the worldwide ‘webcasts’ by Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle called “A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose.”   It’s a 10-part series on Monday nights that broadcasted its final segment this past week. I downloaded the whole series on my iPod and have listened and watched attentively….usually while doing something else like driving my car, riding the stationary bike or traveling across country in a plane.  It’s been fascinating. Continue Reading »

I had the pleasure yesterday of speaking to a group of women State Farm agents from around the state of Maine. We met at their offices in South Portland. 

I talked about Conversational Marketing which refers to the way today’s consumers want us to communicate with them. Social media provides us with a method of carrying on an open and online dialogue about our businesses or our lives in general. That’s the way the world is going. No longer do consumers want us to talk ‘at’ them, they want us to talk ‘with’ them in an equal, two-way dialogue. Continue Reading »

Seems that everyone I know who has an iPhone is fanatical about it. I don’t have one because I use U.S. Cellular and they don’t offer them (note to self: ask my friend Jim Holmes at U.S. Cellular if and when they will offer iPhones.)

This is a photo of my friend Michael Stumpf who owns Stumpf and Associates from Doylestown, Pennsylvania taking a photo last Friday night on Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey before we went in to have dinner at Domenico’s on the Wharf. The calamari appetizer there was unbelievable, as were the fresh California artichokes. Continue Reading »

I took these photos along the shoreline near Pebble Beach last Thursday before my bike ‘encounter’ with the door of a Mercedes Benz. Not sure how the door fared, but I was pretty shook up and bruised (and still am!)  I was in too much of a daze after it happened to see if the door was damaged or not. At least that’s replaceable but my head is not!

Regardless, Monterey is a beautiful part of the country and it was a beautiful setting to learn about social media from Brett Giles and Andrew Bagley out of Sitewire in Tempe, Arizona.  They work on all aspects of search marketing for national clients like Olive Garden and Red Lobster. This field of social media and search marketing is evolving so quickly and there are so many different ways of getting involved with it that I find it extremely stimulating and fun. Continue Reading »

I spent five days in California this past week. It was a combination of business and fun.  Sometimes fun isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I had flown into Monterey on Wednesday and stayed with a good friend, Betsy Shea, in Carmel Valley. She owns Shea Campbell, a marketing communications agency which is part of my national agency network, called the Alliance of Marketing Communication Agencies. Continue Reading »