Does your organization encourage risk-taking? If not, how can you create a risk-friendly culture, especially in these tough times?

If you’re looking to accelerate growth and innovation, you need to encourage risk-taking. Risk-taking enables creativity, which drives innovation. As Edwin Land, the co-founder of Polaroid Corporation, once observed, “The essential part of creativity is not being afraid to fail.” Founded during the Great Depression on his belief that consumer markets should be created around scientific research, his company was once the world leader in instant photography – largely due to the commercial success of ground-breaking innovations like the Polaroid SX-70 camera, which was introduced in 1972. The camera was an instant success, garnering year-over-year sales growth of 20% within the first few years of its commercial launch.

If you’re looking to accelerate growth, you need to find ways to innovate – your products, your services and even your customer experience. Encourage the risk-taking needed to enable creativity in your organization. Let your employees know it’s ok to fail once in a while. After all, as The Chief Storyteller®, Ira Koretsky, once told me, “You’re not going to hit a home run every time.”

Here are some ways you can encourage a culture of risk-taking, creativity and innovation in your organization:
1. Embrace a perspective that views mistakes as opportunities for learning, rather than failures.
2. Encourage your employees to follow their passions and to think outside the box.
3. Tell your employees what you want, not how to do it…and recognize there are many “right” ways to achieve the desired result.
4. Encourage collaboration through the open sharing of others’ ideas.
5. Recognize and reward your employees for doing something right.

And finally, on a personal note, I would be remiss if I neglected to mention the Polaroid SX-70 camera my dad had when I was growing up. That camera (and the big square case it came in) was an endearing presence during Bailey family holidays and vacations for many years.  Thank you, Mr. Land, for providing us with an innovation that allowed us to preserve our fondest memories...in an instant.   

I met Colin, the CEO of E Group at a regional government contractors conference. After a great conversation, we exchanged business cards. As per my norm, I looked at the card front and then back.

Lo and behold, I was compelled to read the back. I discovered Colin's personal statement (see images below).

I excitedly peppered him with all sorts of messaging-related questions. As the CEO, Colin shared everyone in the company has his/her own customized card (as a second example, see Frank's card below).  

In all of my 25 plus years of professional networking and personal events attended...in meeting thousands and thousands of people, I can without hesitation say this is truly a unique card. The other unique card comes from Superhero cards (read Mere Mortal or Superhero? and I Love Being a Superhero).

What are you doing to stand out and be unforgettable?

I just stumbled upon Volkswagen's contest initiative called TheFunTheory.com, established around 2009. The "site is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better."

There are four videos available, including the winner, "Speed Camera Lottery."

The video I first found was called "Piano Stairs," filmed in Odenplan, Stockholm. Its theme is "Can we get more people to choose the stairs by making it fun to do?"

Talk about creative ideas!

Unlike the other looking-for-money-scams that I typically delete, I was duped and read this one even though the subject line clearly read ***SPAM***. The reason, it was from SGT Perry. I have a soft spot for the military as I served in the US Army on active duty for five years.

Beware of yet another. And this one is getting a little bit more sophisticated. Here we have the scam artists preying on our loyalties and decency in regard to the military. Unlike trying to make a connection with a person from a foreign country, this one strikes a chord at home.

From: SGT PERRY 
Sent: Thursday, April 07, 2009 10:23 AM
Cc: recipient list not shown:
Subject: ***SPAM***

Hello friend,

I hope my email meets you well. I am in need of your assistance. My name is Sgt Perry Rice. I am in the Engineering military unit here in Ba'qubah in Iraq,we have some amount of funds that we want to move out of the country.

My partners and I need a good partner someone we can trust. It is oil money and legal.Basically since we are working for the government we cannot keep these funds, but we want to transfer and move the funds to you, so that you can keep it for us in your safe account or an offshore account. But we are moving it through Diplomatic means, to send it to your house directly or a bank of your choice using Diplomatic Courier Service.

The most important thing is that can we trust you? Once the funds get to you, you take your 30% out and keep our own 70%. Your own part of this deal is to find a safe place where the funds can be sent to. Our own part is sending it to you.If you are interested i will furnish you with more details.

But the whole process is simple and we must keep a low profile at all times.

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

This business is risk free.

Best Regards,

Sgt Perry Rice

As I was walking from the train station (metro/subway) to last night's presentation (American Marketing Association Mentor Program), three different people attempted to grab my attention. Here are the three attempts, in order, with some observations about why they were unsuccessful.

1. The I'm Way Too Cool:  Here was this young hip looking guy with a goatee walking up and down the sidewalk. He was carrying a bag of magazines over his shoulder with one magazine in his hand. The cover had graffiti-type on the covers. What was his enticing opening
line, "Check it out."

2. The Lurker: You know the type–you can see them a block a way. There was a woman with a clip board inside the doorway watching for her mark–the mark is a person who physically meets her survey profile demographics. What was her enticing opening line: "Excuse me, we are in your area conducting surveys. Would you be interested in…" by this time I already smiled the knowing "no-thank-you smile" and passed her by. I felt like prey for the survey hunter.

3. The Indiscriminate: Flyers here, flyers everywhere, just please take my flyer so that I can get paid. He didn't care whom he gave the flyer to just as long as he gave them away. Single focus, single purpose. In fact he was so good that while he was talking to one person, he was thrusting flyers at passerby's.

About a year ago, I blogged about a similar experience: Excuse Me, Do You Have a Quick Moment for the Environment? Here are the suggestions that I made then:

1. Tell us that you are looking to have a survey completed
2. Tell us the number of questions
3. Tell us how long it will take. The survey should be three to five minutes or seven to 10 multiple choice questions
4. Offer us a clear benefit (e.g., the results will help get us more funding to save wetlands, to clean up xyz area, and to offer a grant)
5. Ensure that your "ask" takes 20 to 30 seconds in total
6. Smile
7. Thank us even if we do not fill out your survey

An example: "Hello, we are looking for your opinion on how to help [blank]. The survey has 15 questions and will take less than 3 minutes. Can you help?"

In one of my LinkedIn groups, a person posted a question, "Consult: Speaking with an Interpreter…I have a keynote in Peru next week and learned all my Spanish on Dora the Explorer. Any tips regarding successful partnership with an interpreter?"

Several people gave advice of never use humor. I VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE.

People worldwide want to laugh, to be entertained, to smile, to feel good. A keynote presenter has the responsibility to inspire, entertain, then educate. And I would emphasize, so do any presenters. For educational sessions, the priorities are reversed.

The key is doing your homework. And if you think that you are not funny, use other people's humor. How about quotes and cartoons (The New Yorker licenses them for as little as $20 through CartoonBank)? And the best source of humor is you–your personal stories about family, work, and friends.  Just be sure that your humor is relevant to the topic. Whenever possible, test your use of humor on friends, colleagues, and in rehearsal sessions.

Here's what I suggested to the the keynote presenter who is presenting in Peru:

I disagree with anyone and everyone that says do not use humor. The advice comes from well-intended people. And the advice is given because most people do not know how to incorporate humor.

I performed over 1,000 improvisational humor shows live on stage and have been publicly speaking for nearly 30 years. The key to successful humor is do your homework. Like all of your messages, stories, supporting points, etc. ensure that your humor translates. For example, use a quote that says something funny in its learning message–particularly one that is Peruvian. Or a personal story that has appropriate humor in it. Be sure to wait for the audience to "get it" — that's the pausing part.

You are not looking for a gigantic belly laugh. You are looking to entertain (that’s what keynoters do – smile)

I love looking at magazines, newspapers, television, billboards, packaging–anything that I can see and hear how words and images are used.

So when we left the Kyiv Boryspil International Airport I snapped the first picture below from inside our van. As you can from all of the pictures, advertising and its usage of words and images is the same as it is in the United States. Same is true with my visits to several other countries. All in all, powerful images with short sentences.

I probably took about 50 pictures of advertisements, banners, and signs. Mind you, not all were good (smile).

In August of 2006, I first blogged about Matt, "Where The Hell is Matt?" (visit the blog entry to get all of the background information).

While on YouTube, I discovered an interesting presentation by Matt. He was invited for a short presentation called an Ignite Talk for Gnomedex in August of 2008. He explained with visuals and humor how he was able to attract sponsors and dancing participants to his videos. It's just shy of six minutes.

Additional Resources:
- Where The Hell is Matt?
- Matt's website (with videos) 
- YouTube video from the Gnomedex presentation

Today I attended a conference that I would not normally attend. One of my colleagues was presenting at a conference on data called "Data Day." The conference was all about how to better capture and use data, especially client contact information. The data is used for business development, marketing, and sales activities.

He had asked that I attend so that I could provide some pointers afterward about his presentation. Generally I do not do this sort of thing. I thought to myself, "hey, I don't know much about data" and I'm helping a friend out.

I deliberately had a conversation with myself about keeping an open mind as data is not my thing. And I'm glad that I did. I learned a few important things about The Chief Storyteller's data and I generated a few ideas on how to improve some of our activities here.

It's important to remind ourselves and encourage others to allow for some creativity in our day-to-day activities. For me, external stimulus and different thinking paths are what leads to some of my ah-ha moments.

Additional Resources:
- A Very Different Way of Looking at the Words You Use (Do you Wordle?)
- Don't Let that Great Idea Get Away–Write it Down
- My Eyes and Ears are Idea Antennas

In late 2008, Google launched "Project 10 to the 100th." It is all about changing the world one idea at a time. Great idea! It follows the tenth anniversary of Google being founded in 1997. [Read all about Google's history and tenth birthday party here]

Google is committing $10 million dollars. They will invest in the best ideas to make a difference in the world.

From the website:

It is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible. Idea submissions were due on 20 October 2008. Over 100,000 ideas were submitted. Voting begins on 17 March 2009.

Here are the categories:

- Community: How can we help connect people, build communities and protect unique cultures?
- Opportunity: How can we help people better provide for themselves and their families?
- Energy: How can we help move the world toward safe, clean, inexpensive energy?
- Environment: How can we help promote a cleaner and more sustainable global ecosystem?
- Health: How can we help individuals lead longer, healthier lives?
- Education: How can we help more people get more access to better education?
- Shelter: How can we help ensure that everyone has a safe place to live?
- Everything else: Sometimes the best ideas don't fit into any category at all.

What kind of buzz are you creating?

* Thank you Dave for sending me the link

In television, the Super Bowl advertisements are the end all, be all. Most TV ads are 20 to 30 seconds whereas on the Super Bowl, they can be as long as 60 seconds. Cost, depending upon the year, can be several times a regular ad price. Why? Because so many people around the world watch the sporting event. And we have become accustomed to being entertained by the commercials.

Here are some links to a variety of web sites related to the Super Bowl television ads.

- Super Bowl Ads has an archive back to 1998.

- YouTube is running it's AdBlitz 2009 campaign where people can vote on their favorite ads from this year's SuperBowl

- ESPN's best Super Bowl picks

- Sports Illustrated's Best Super Bowl commercials of all-time

Additional Resources
- Consultants are Like Cat Herders–An Old Commercial from EDS (blog entry) [this is one of my all time favorite advertisements]

Last week I went to see Ron, my printer (Rockville Printing) about a couple of items. On the reception area counter top were writing pads–obviously free to the public (see below).

What a great idea. Both are timely, relevant, and functional. On the bottom in the footer area, they tastefully included their contact information.

Whether it's in difficult economic times or in a boom, what are you doing to differentiate yourself? It should not be on price. There's an old adage, win on price, lose on price.

Here are 10 Tips to Differentiate Yourself:
1. Offer Give-aways: Offer relevant, brand complementary give-aways like the writing pads below.

2. Make referrals: Make referrals from and to your clients/members and partners. Especially when you hear him/her mention a problem or challenge they are facing.

3. Give before you get: Think about providing something of value first, before expecting to get your back washed.

4. Remember important dates: Don't you smile when someone remembers your birthday? anniversary? spouse's birthday? child's birthday? and so on. Send a card, e-card, or email.

5. Remember important information: We have a list called The Chief Storyteller 18. There are 18 key fields of interest that we try to collect on our client's and partners. Examples: hobbies, family, taboos, hot buttons, and education.

6. Send a hand-written [blank] card: Birthday, anniversary, thank you.

7. Mail a book: Everyone loves books. Make sure that you have read it, love it, and it is appropriate to the receiver. It can be professional or social–depends upon your relationship.

8. Let Them Know You are Thinking About Them: Send/email an article, website, blog, idea/suggestion personalized to something you know about him/her (See #5).

9. Treat Them: Treat them to breakfast, lunch, brunch, coffee, tea, hot chocolate, drinks, social events (e.g., baseball, football, tennis, and amusement park), and professional events (e.g., networking, educational, professional, and trade).

10. Send Gifts: There are tons of companies offering inexpensive gift baskets and food items. I've seen items as little as $25 to several hundred. Or you can create your own (I did this for the 2007 holiday gift season). Remember to personalize it. Some examples include Mauna Loa, Hersheys, Neiman Marcus, Harry & David, Godiva, Ghiradelli, Hickory Farms, and Wolfermans.

Email me and I'd be happy to send you our tip guide The Chief Storyteller 18.

I’m quite selective about who I accept into my LinkedIn connections. For me, LinkedIn should be a go-to source of people whom I know and trust. I receive the standard request much too often from people whom I have never met. I simply archive the request. Now, if I have never met you and you write a short, personal, and targeted invitation, I’m almost certainly sure to accept.

A recent invitation from Judy had me laughing, out loud. Here’s the email that I received. It is both personal and targeted AND it made me laugh. I immediately accepted her invite.

Our short-term memory is very short. Experts vary in their opinions from 20 to 30 seconds. To me, 10 seconds does not make any difference.

Anytime you have an idea, remove all judgment, desire to analyze, need to evaluate, etc. WRITE IT DOWN! Use a sticky, a napkin, a text message to yourself, email yourself the idea, call yourself and leave a message…you get the idea.

Confucius, a very famous Chinese philosopher (c. 551-c. 479 BC), said, "The palest ink is better than the most retentive memory." As such, "If you think it, write it."

I recently attended The National Speakers Association annual conference in New York City. I reconnected with some old friends including Christine from ComedySportz Richmond that I have not seen in over 10 years (Christine and I used to perform improvisational humor with the Washington, DC team in the mid 1990s.  And of course I made some new friends (smile).

I wanted to share one sentence out of an email note from Diane (name changed). I met Diane through Christine. We chatted over the course of the few days about a variety of topics.

In her email back to me where we exchanged a follow up note, she wrote "It was great to meet you too. You have a great brain!" I laughed and smiled at the same time. What a nice thing to say. It was genuine, heartfelt, and different.

During my workshops and keynotes, I emphasize and re-emphasize the importance of tailoring and personalizing messages. In five short words, Diane made a difference in my life.

What kind of difference are you making in the lives of your staff, members, partners, prospects, clients, government agencies, etc.?

The article shares, "Tough economic times and the perpetual threat of layoffs are gnawing away at our collective funny bone. That on top of years of ballooning political correctness in workplaces have clamped down on laughter. And that’s bad news for productivity, creativity and the general well-being of workers, say HR and humor experts."

“It’s a natural tendency for some folks to tighten up during tough times, but we need to lighten up,” warns Joel Goodman, founder of The Humor Project Inc. (I subscribe to the newsletter).

Clearly, a good mood in the workplace translates into good news for a company. Scott Christopher, humor columnist for Workplace HR & Safety Magazine, says year after year the companies that have the highest propensity to succeed and outperform their competitors are those that encourage fun at work.

The article has some other good suggestions on having more fun at work.

In a recent press release, "Officials from the International UFO Museum and Research Center stated this year’s ‘Roswalien Experience‘ was a success as attendance jumped more than 25 percent."

Last year the festival goers exceeded 35,000 in honor of the 60th anniversary of the crash landing in 1947.

According to the festival website, "In early July, 1947, a mysterious object crashed on a ranch 30 miles north of Roswell.  The Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) issued a statement claiming to have recovered a crashed ‘flying disk.  An article ran on the front page of the Roswell Daily Record and the next day, RAAF changed its statement to say that the object was a weather balloon, not a flying disk as they previously reported.  This revised statement sparked immediate controversy and has continued to be a topic of debate more than 60 years later."

Events like these like comic book events, movie festivals (e.g., Rocky Horror Picture Show), game playing (e.g., Magic The Gathering, Chess, and Pokémon) create mini communities. No doubt, there is some serious bonding going on when people share their personal stories.

How are your fans? Level of loyalty, support, volunteering, etc.? How strong is your community?

- Festival website
- Pictures from 2007
- CBS 2007 News Article
- Fox 2007 News article
- CBS onsite video interview, 2008

Blendtec is using humor and creativity to promote its line of home and commercial blenders. On its site, Will-It-Blend?, BlendMaster Tom Dickson rips to pieces products in the Total Blender. For example, he recently "blended" an iPhone 3G, Mario Kart video game, can of pork & beans, and many more. Short video demonstrations show you the power of the Total Blender.

Each video starts with Tom saying, "Will it blend? That is the question." The music throws you back to the 1970s and 1980s. The ads garnered them awards including one for the best viral ads in 2007.

Humor and creativity as a competitive advantage…will it work for you?

Craig and Eric, my friends at Apex Home Loans, offered members of their newsletter list a free ice cream courtesy of National Ice Cream Day for Sunday July 20.

It was a smart move on two fronts: (1) Used national recognition to promote their brand locally, which made good business sense and (2) Increased their brand equity with clients, prospects, and partners.

What small things can you do to promote your brand and community good will?

- International Ice Cream Association (IICA) press release
- Visit Gifford’s Ice Cream
- History of the ice cream cone from Wikipedia

I am a big fan of Dilbert. Scott Adams is clever, creative, and insightful. And somehow he got the idea of allowing visitors to change the text of the last panel in his cartoons.

If you want to try your creativity, visit Dilbert.com and then select .

Visitors can read and rate your creativity. Some of the recent postings are quite funny.

Here is another example of what using a little creativity and brainstorming can do. It can give you ideas for identifying new opportunities to change products and services, to add features, to identify new benefits, to attract new members, etc.

On my United Airlines flight to London, Heathrow on Saturday, I met Hope, one of the nicest flight attendants. I was leaving for my upcoming training workshops in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan with the U.S. Civilian Research & Development Foundation (CRDF) (future blog entries coming). As I was skimming the magazines, one of the flight attendants said "just one." I looked up, she smiled, and said, "just kidding, take what you want." She introduced herself as Hope.

For some reason I shared with her my on-going study of advertising in magazines–how advertisers use images and words to spur action by prospective consumers. After a few minutes, she asked "what do you do?" After hearing this, Hope insisted that I help her come up with a new answer for her response to what do you do. I asked quizzically, "why?"

Because when she tells people that she is a flight attendant one of three things generally occur: a) people share their most memorable unpleasant experience; b) offer unsolicited views on the airline industry; and c) share their complaints about the state of flying.  To avoid this situation, Hope tells people that she is a teacher.

She said that she wasn’t very creative. After a few minutes of asking her a few questions, we brainstormed and came up with several new answers for her to try. With the right questions, encouragement, and state of mind, anyone can be at least a little bit creative.

Hope’s favorites were:

- I’m a 37,000 foot happiness consultant
- I’m a cloud rider
- I’m a turbulence terminator

So I clicked.

I then I found the plush toys page. On here, you will find a variety of internal organ-shaped plushies such as a heart, brain, pancreas, kidney, and liver.

I thought to myself, the wonders of the Internet. How serendipity can lead you to all sorts of interesting and fun places.

Wendy Bryan, a graphic designer for Editorial Emergency, founded I Heart Guts. I have no doubt that she has an interesting story to tell about how she came to start the business, what her first 
products were, how she came to add more, etc.

And when it comes to building relationships, the more you know about people, the more specific and tailored your communications, your gifts, your ideas, suggestions, interactions, etc. become.

Perhaps someone in your personal or professional network would enjoy one of these plushies?

On Friday I attended the Washington Business Journal’s Best Places to Work 2008 event. This is the annual event where organizations are objectively evaluated along 10 categories.

Alex Orfinger, Publisher, challenged each winner to share with the audience a song title that best represents the company. No other topics, speaking opportunities, self-promotion, etc….just a song title.

Brilliant idea! Do the math–50 awardees sharing a few minutes about themselves would make for a very long event. With this presentation rule, the organizations had to merge business with creative and sprinkle a little humor. Let’s see what the journal does for 2009.

Here are a few memorable song titles:
- "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," Crucial Security, Inc.
- "You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet," ViON Corporation
- "Another Brick in the Wall," BE&K Building Group
- "I like It, I Love It, I Want Some More of It" Aronson & Company
- "You Can’t Touch This," James G. Davis Construction Corporation
- "We Built This City," Gensler
- "Don’t Worry, Be Happy," Balfour Beatty Construction
- "Money, Money, Money," Howrey LLP
- "Shout," Price Waterhouse Coopers
- "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off," Turner Construction Co. & Tomkins Builders
- "Express Yourself," Kimpton Hotels (see earlier blog entry)

With the economy following a downturn, I have received lots of email asking about how to increase visibility, how to get more people introduced to a product or service, how to increase interest, etc.

Some suggestions:
- Go on the speaking circuit, locally and regionally
- Write articles for newspapers in your community, city, and regionally
- Write articles for magazines (niche and industry-leading)
- Attend networking events, meet people
- Offer an incentive on your website, something low cost or free, that has real value. Something like a try before you buy, an article, a one-time discount
- Self-publish a book
- Get a book published
- Purchase Internet search words such as with Google Adwords

Share some activities that are working for you...

She wants her business interactions to be short, high impact, and tasty (I added this one–it will make sense in five sentences).

How did I discover this you ask? We were discussing some of the services The Chief Storyteller offers. One in particular takes about three months to complete. She wanted it fast she said, just like a microwave.

Now I call her Ms. Microwave and she is okay with the new moniker…in fact, she likes it.

Donut Day was established in 1938 as a means to raise much-needed operating funds for The Salvation Army, and also as a tribute to Army ‘lassies’ who made and served donuts to thousands of soldiers during World War I. While the spelling of doughnut has shortened to "donut" over the years, the popular donut has been the trademark of The Salvation Army ever since WWI. While Donut Day was observed fairly extensively, especially following WWII, by The Salvation Army throughout the United States, the Army in Chicago has the longest continuous and most successful tradition.

Check your local donut shop and see if they are offering free donuts today. Many Krispy Kreme stores are participating.

Articles & Information
- The Salvation Army, "Founders" of National Donut Day provides a nice quick history
- Lamar’s Donuts & Coffee, Quick quiz of trivia and interesting facts
- The Salvation Army Chicago Division
- Krispy Kreme, Press Release about National Donut Day

I have been chatting with Tim (name changed to protect the guilty) since the Financial Executives International (FEI) Conference where I presented (see blog)

Tim is a great writer and in another life should be one. He has a knack for looking at things and seeing the interesting and the funny. Perhaps that’s why we connected.

What follows is a description of the email/story exchange. So it reads a bit choppy…

a) During one of our conversations, he suggested a variation on one of my business exercises when I ask participants to partner up and tell their short business introductory story, their elevator speech, the answer to "What Do You Do?" He suggested that I do the exercise in a manner like speed dating and speed networking. I call it Speed Elevator Speech.

b) I tried Tim’s suggestion and it worked well. I emailed him the next day telling him about the experience of using his idea.

c) Tim emailed me: "I’m glad that the circle idea worked well.  It has one big point in its favour, in that it gets everyone up and moving (rather than sitting in their chairs and simply swiveling to left or right) which should be a great ice breaker in your sessions.  Just leave the money in the usual place, OK?"

d) In the PS Line of my response, I wrote, "I left the money in the usual place." I thought this was the appropriate spot in the email and should provide a nice chuckle.

e) Tim wrote back nearly immediately, "Do you know, so many people have used that line about leaving the money in the usual place – and it never once occurred to me to tell them that I had done just that. You haven’t ever done any improvisational comedy, have you?"

f) I wrote back, "Funny thing, I always respond to things like what you wrote. It truly is in my psyche…never think twice about it."

After dragging this ever quick email exchange into a long blog entry, my point is that you never know what resonates with people. I suggest that you tell people–tell them good and tell them not so good. Give them constructive and positive feedback when it is the latter. And when it is good, thank them with praise, gifts, or even money, "in the usual place."

Did you know that today is Worldwide Good Deed Day? I should say "not" because I made it up today (smile).

On my way to an appointment this morning, I found this note on my windshield under the wiper blade. I just recently moved and I know very few people in the neighborhood. My first thought, "what a nice thing someone did!" And based on the condition of the note, I’d guess that the person had to look under the seat for this crumpled and coffee-stained paper.

As such, I do hereby declare today, "Worldwide Good Deed Day."

While filling the tire up with air, I also thought about other nice things people did for me over the years. It was really a moment for reflection. How about you? Think about all of the nice things you have done for others and what others have done for you…

I stumbled across this second-life website when I followed a promotional link. I am fascinated about how and what companies do to tie-in the web with traditional brick and mortar advertising and promotion.

Meez is a 2nd life website whose "mission is to make digital interactions more expressive. More visual. And more fun. That’s why we created a website that enables you to create your own 3D avatar – your Meez."

I went through the whole process of creating my own 3D animated avatar. As you build your own avatar, you pick clothes, physical features, accessories, and backgrounds. Meez has cleverly connected the development process to hot trends and products such as music CDs, food and beverages, movies, sports.

After creating your personal avatar, you can export it to your a) mobile telephone, b) a social community website such as MySpace, Facebook, AIM, MSN Messenger, c) a communication site such as Skype, Xanga, LiveJournal, Microsoft Outlook, Google Talk, Yahoo! Mail, d) blog communities such as Angelfire, Blogger, and Tripod, and e) your email signature. Visit Meez to view the exhaustive list of options (you have to these days with all of the sites competing for our time and money).

One of the hardest parts about networking is the social interaction side. It is especially difficult when you realize that after a few minutes you did not make a meaningful connection with someone and it is time to move on.

At the heart of the challenge of networking is overcoming and dealing with human behavior issues. Here are some of the frequently asked about topics:
- how do I break the ice
- how do I leave a conversation, both for good and bad reasons
- when does trust feel right
- what do I do when the other person is inappropriately flirting ("hitting on me")
- how do I network when I’m one woman among a sea of men
- how do I break into a conversation when there is someone I really want to meet
- (there are many, many more questions and topics)

I find that a really good way of addressing many of these questions is to view networking like social dating. Use all of your well-earned skills of positively communicating verbally and non verbally, being a generous listener, giving respect without demanding any, and so on.

Shift your mindset a little and view networking as business dating. There is a time and place for socializing and networking. Socializing is all about relaxing with friends. Networking is all about finding new business friends.

Use the same social dating skills as your foundation and watch your interactions become more enjoyable, fun, and profitable.

Here are a few blog postings to spur some thought:
- Leave Your But’s Behind
- Stop Asking People for Their Business Cards
- Keep Your Idea Antennae Up–You Will Be Surprised What You Can Learn
- Sure-Fire Ways to Be in a Super Terrific Fantastic Awesome Mood