Last week I spoke at the Fastbreak Breakfast hosted by the Canton Chamber and Aultcare. The topic was social media strategy and as part of my speech I have the participants think about their 30 second commerical in terms of the 140 character restriction of most social sites. You have to be focused. People don’t [...]

Hangers Cleaners in Kansas City was featured on Cool Runnings for taking a different approach to a pretty boring business segment – dry cleaners. Joe Runyon, the owner of Hangers Cleaners shares his thoughts on making a business successful. And in his case – being successful in an industry that is declining.  Watch the video, [...]

When you look at the company budget – do you spend equal dollars on marketing for new customers as you do servicing your existing customers? When the economy started to tank, one of the first things companies pulled was training. The focus on customer service shifted from having importance to a “nice to have.” I [...]

Once again Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton have corraled a couple hundred writers, marketers, and entrepreneurs and asked them to provide their valuable insights into connecting with the customer through social media.  The book is currently at the publisher and is expected to hit the book stores (print and Kindle/iPad versions) in April!  I’m humbled [...]

Jean Gianfagna, marketing strategiest and business owner of Gianfagna Marketing recently started a blog entitled:  Smart Marketing Strategy.  Great name and as it turns out – great information. I just took a visit and found an interesting blog post on connecting the customer data gathered with the marketing message delivered. In the post, Why Customer Data is [...]

I can remember sitting around the executive table at Pearle Vision with the competition ads in front of us.  We would scour over their wording and product focus and even their color scheme to see how we could position our message to stand out. Then one time and gosh I wish I could remember who [...]

Have you heard of the new pop band opening for the Jonas Bros?  Honor Society. While in Phoenix I heard them interviewed on the wildly popular morning talk show John Jay and Rich and they were fun, quick and talented.  But the thing I took away the most from their interview was that they “got” [...]

Drew McLellan of Drew’s Marketing Minute is at it again!  For the third time he’s bringing together marketing and business professionals from around the world to share their thoughts, tips and techniques and profits benefit a charity. I had the pleasure of joining in the Conversation last time. This time Drew has invited 300 authors [...]

I just returned back from a once in a life time trip to Italy with my Mom and daughter, Emily.  We began our adventure in Rome where we hooked up with 38 other Americans experiencing Italy with cross-generational family members.  Tauck tour groups has a series of tours called Bridges in which Grandparents and their Granchildren [...]