When I was in my early teens, raising as much hell as I could without getting into SERIOUS trouble, my mom gave me a framed copy of the poem “If” by Rudyard Kipling. I guess I really didn’t think much of it, but I hung it on my bedroom wall in the basement anyway. At 17 I ‘ran away’ to the Air Force and left it hanging there on the wall, guarding the rest of my childhood stuff.

Two years later, while home on leave, mom summoned me to my basement hideaway and lifted Rudyard from the wall. “I know this doesn’t mean much to you,” she said. “But I’d like you to take it with you, because in my eyes you’ve really turned out to be a man.”

Those were the most memorable words ever spoken to me. I wanted to apologize for all of the trouble I’d caused growing up, but you know how moms are. The look in her eyes said no apology was necessary.

Thanks mom. I still have that print. It’s followed me throughout my travels.It’s been through several frames – after being broken in several moves or swapped out to match the decor – but it’s always wherever I am.

While placing it in a new frame recently, this memory came flooding back and prompted this blog post.

“If” by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you.
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat these two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings – nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Thanks again, mom. That’s a tall order, but I’m doing the best I can.

PEACE.
Rick

In looking through some of my past writings I stumbled upon this column I wrote years ago. It seems appropriate during this disappointing year for teh Steelers and the NFL playoffs in general. For those who know I’m a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, I’m reproducing it word-for-word to let you know that I am a fan – not a fanatic. It’s just hard to tell the difference when my team is on top. (which they weren’t this year!)

This column originally appeared in the Pensacola News Journal, back in 1999. It was a not-so-glorious period for my glorious Steelers, but as the season winds down, my words from then reflect some of what I get from the NFL and “…the human drama of athletic competition.” Read the rest of this entry »

Viral Marketing…. I hear it all the time, basically know what it is, but the former journalist in me made me want to look it up anyway. Below are a few of the official definitions I found. In a nutshell, what it means to me is that you don’t have to have Coca Cola’s Super Bowl commercial budget anymore to successfully get the word out.

1. Marketing techniques that use pre-existing social networks to produce increases in brand awareness.

2. A marketing technique aiming at reproducing “word of mouth,” usually on the Internet or by e-mail, for humorous, political or marketing purposes.

3. Any marketing technique that induces Web sites or users to pass on a marketing message to other sites or users.

4. A technique that is based on the assumption that people will share interesting and entertaining content.

5. A nontraditional promotional effort designed to quickly spread enthusiasm about a product or service, usually conducted through word-of-mouth.

Back in the days before the Internet, blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a host of other keyboard connections, we just called this ‘word-of-mouth’ advertising or ‘marketing on a shoestring budget.’

Hey! Small business people, speakers, information marketers THIS MEANS YOU! Stop whining about social media taking up too much of your time. Stop complaining that you don’t know what to blog about. The Internet is the great equalizer – IT’S FREE. Maybe not scott-free, but compared to the traditional advertising venues – newspapers, magazines, TV, radio – it couldn’t be a better deal.

From my 20+ years working in and around small business, marketing, advertising, public relations, etc. I take away these three things. 1) You gotta advertise – build it and they WILL NOT come, 2) Advertising, marketing and PR all break down to simply getting the word out – by hook or crook, and 3) The Internet makes it so easy I don’t have to pull out my wallet, pawn my first-born or even leave the comfort of my keyboard. I just have to be willing to invest the time and the energy. Oh yea… and then there’s that learning curve thing!

Whenever my friend Peggy Duncan, the consummate shameless promoter, sends an email about her latest business service she ends it with a simple request… “Tell some people!” Viral marketing actually is just that simple.

PEACE.
Rick

PS. You’re welcome to tell some people about this blog!

You really can’t quote me on this one because I didn’t write it. However, I’ve had it memorized since  junior high and it has served this optimist well.

I never knew who the author was by until I looked it up recently. Now, in my head, it’s a JEOPARDY! question…

“I’ll take LITTLE KNOWN POETS for $2,000, Alex.”

“His poem ’The Man Who Thinks He Can’ appeared in a 1965 collection titled,  ’Poems That Live Forever.’”

BEEP-BEEP… “Rick?”

“Who is Walter D. Wintle, Alex?”

“Yes! and… oh, the sound you just heard signals the end of the Double JEAPARDY! round. You can put down your signaling buttons.”

OKAY! WAKE UP!… Of course this visualization ends with me having a runaway lead and breaking the all-time JEOPARDY! record for consecutive wins. I’m seriously thinking about trying out one day. In the mean time, I’m the reigning JEOPARDY! champion in my living room.

This poem; the Boy Scout motto, oath and law and a bunch of songs from Mary Poppins and Ray Charles are a few of my lasting memories from childhood. Just thought I’d share.

The Man Who Thinks He Can

If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t
It’s almost a cinch you won’t

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a fellow’s will;
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But soon or late the man who wins
Is the one who thinks he can.

Walter D. Wintle, “The Man Who Thinks He Can.” – Poems That Live Forever, comp. Hazel Feldman 1965.

PEACE.
Rick

Every day, I work to match college campus speakers to the needs of student activities/affairs professionals. In doing the work I’ve learned a lot from my SA friends and try to share that with my speaker friends. The more they know, the easier we can create a win-win for the speaker and the school.

I’ve run into a lot of speakers who think college students should want to hear whatever they have to say. Just because it’s a topic that interests them, they think it should interest everybody… or worse, that they can MAKE it interesting to everybody.

I don’t claim to be a guru, but If I tell them their topic won’t fly, or needs some adjusting to really impact today’s college student, they don’t agree, think I’m an idiot and wonder why they can’t get themselves booked. They’re in love with their topic and just don’t seem to get it.

Like I said, I’m no guru – and whether I’m an idiot or not is up for debate. But here are 13 speaking topic categories (I was born on a Friday the 13th and LOVE the number 13) I think work on college campuses TODAY.

1. Academic Achievement, Study Skills and Success in College

2. Alcohol and Drug Awareness

3. Campus Violence and Safety

4. Careers, Career Planning, Getting a Job After College

5. Cultural and Ethnic Diversity Issues, Cultural Celebrations

6. Dating and Relationships, Sex Education, Date Rape, Sexual Assault

7. Health, Nutrition, Weight Loss, Fitness

8. Leadership Skills, Student Leadership, Teambuilding

9. Money and Finance Related Issues

10. Social Media, Technology the Internet

11. Stress and College Students, Stress Reduction, Stress Management, Conflict Resolution, Life Balance

12. Veterans returning to college after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan

13. Volunteerism and Community Service

These are just one man’s opinion formed after taking a good look at the matter. If you’re in Student Affairs/Activities, help me out. I need to either confirm or deny my idiot status to my speaking friends. Can you add something I’ve missed? Delete something I’m delusional about? Tell me where the best chicken wings are in your neck of the woods? Any help is appreciated.

PEACE.
Rick

I always start these entries with the disclaimer: “I am NOT a social media guru.” There are plenty of people out there making that claim and I do not want my name added to the list. I am however, attempting to make social media “pay off” for me just like everyone else is – however they might define payoff. I’m just hanging on for the wild ride I call ‘learning curve!”

Whether your tweeting something of importance or not is a matter of finding tweeters that share your agenda in some way or another. If you have a strategy, good followers and people to follow are really not that hard to find. And if you’re tweetin’ good stuff, a lot of them will find you.

But even if your tweets aren’t worth a crap, the twitter spammers, mass marketers and other people who only want to extract your wallet for their next get rich quick scheme will find you. You’ll recognize them because they have 49,165 followers and will be following 52,304 other people – or some other equally ridiculous number! (No, the numbers have not been changed to protect the innocent) I see a lot of these, they can follow me all they want but I REFUSE to become a member of their gullible herd.

Read the rest of this entry »

I am not a social media guru. But in working with speakers, entrepreneurs and information marketers I hear that statement a lot. For them, social media is usually not working very well, which ought to tell you something. 

I’m still learning the ins and outs of social media myself, but one of the speakers I work with asked me for some feedback on a recent newsletter/blog post on Jane Atkinson’s blog, The Speaker Launcher. In a nutshell, Jane asks, “Did you with jump on the social bandwagon with a strategy?”

Read the rest of this entry »

Rush Limbaugh wants to own a National Football League team – and I LOVE the NFL. I saw this breaking news on the tube last week (about Rush, not about my love). I though to myself, “Hmmm. If I played in the NFL, I don’t think I’d want to play for Rush Limbaugh.” After that I let it go, didn’t give it a second thought. I don’t do politics or waste a lot of my time bumping up against people’s opinions. We’re all entitled to them and someone’s opinion just ain’t worth arguing over to me.

Then a friend of mine (and YES, she’s still my friend) posted this comment on Facebook… Read the rest of this entry »

What is your product anyway? Motivational talks, workshops, seminars and teleclasses? Informative articles, e-books blog entries? Published books, audio and video programs on CD and DVD? Coaching programs, mentoring and teleclasses? Blog radio programs, video blogs and podcasts?

How about: NONE OF THE ABOVE!!??

That’s my answer to the speakers, trainers, authors, coaches and information marketers I work with. That may sound like a confusing answer, but the answer actually clears up the confusion that inevitably exists around their frustration with developing and selling their ‘product.’

Read the rest of this entry »

I am an eternal optimist. I see the glass as half full. I am always doing great. And it’s always a beautiful day… And I find that’s a bit much for some people. It’s especially annoying to those who like to complain, point out the negative, gossip, see the glass as half empty and are forever having a bad day.

Recently, I felt the need to explain my sunny attitude to someone (who shall remain nameless) after telling them in no uncertain terms to “shut up and get the bleep out of my face with all the negative already, jeez!” Obviously I had reached a breaking point despite my efforts to deal with it in a more Zen-like manner.

Read the rest of this entry »