Karen Post

For years appearing in the Wall Street Journal has been a dream of mine. The Wall Street Journal is my all-time favorite publication to read. To me it is the “businessperson’s must read” to be in the know of what ’s going is in the world and in business.

The dream came true this week! I was quoted on a front page story in the Wall Street Journal about Naked Communities Seeking Corporate Sponsors and they mentioned my book title, Brand Turnaround: How Brands Gone Bad Returned to Glory and the 7 Game Changers that Made the Difference, too!

I have been fortunate, in the past 12 years of being a branding writer, speaker and consultant, I have appeared in over 300 news outlets around the world from the New York Times to Forbes to Bloomberg TV to Fox News, and now the Wall Street Journal. So does this media ink and exposure really impact the bottom line? And how can you get your “piece of the press mention pie“?

Does media exposure impact the bottom line?
For me it does. Publicity has aided me in earning thousands of dollars and many opportunities.  And it comes from these 5 distinct marketing objectives.

Credibility
Media exposure adds evidence of 3rd party credibility. This helps to position the brand, in this case me, The Branding Diva®, as an authority in my field.

Visibility
Media exposure puts the brand name in front of potential buyers. The Wall Street Journal alone has a global audience of over 3.5 million daily readers.

Long-term SER (search engine results)
Publicity is indexed in all of the major search engines. One great article has lasting positive influence on a brand’s organic results.

Product sales
Every time I’m featured in the news, and they mention one of my books, I get a sales bump.

Speech sales
Throughout the years, some of my biggest speaking gigs have come from buyers seeing me in the news.

How do you get your share of media exposure?
1) Position your brand as an authority.
You should have opinions, share success cases about your topics, write books, reports and articles.

2) Be easy to find.
Most reporters find their sources from internet searches around the subject they are covering. Invest in search engine results by optimizing your online content, having an active social media footprint and securing credible links back to your sites. For the past couple years, I’ve ranked on page one under branding expert and branding speaking. This is the result of strategic blog writing, content seeding and key word research.

3) When you get called, be an amazing resource.
When reporters or producers are working on a story they are usually on tight deadline. So, when they reach out, reply ASAP. I was in a conference when the WSJ reporter contacted me. Within minutes I acknowledged her email and made it fast and easy to schedule a time to chat. I also listened to her goals before I started ranting on about my views. In most cases, I’ll ask for questions before I do an interview so I can do my homework. Being helpful will build a long-term relationship with a reporter, so they will call you back for other stories. They will share your name with their colleagues. Beyond my commentary, I will also go out of my way to provide them with other resources to make their job easier. Think sound bites! Before I do an interview I prepare an index card with simple message points and short phrases.

4) Understand the game.
Publicity is not like paid advertising. You can not read it before it runs. You do not get to control the story. You may spend hours talking to a reporter then get cut out of the final piece or they may misquote you or even spell your name wrong. That’s show business. You can do to reduce your odds of these things happening by being a smart resource and by providing interesting commentary. Try to send your points in writing as this can reduce any misinterpretation and always provide an email of your preferred title. There is no guarantee here, but I have found providing clear information usually gets better results.

For a complete guide on how to earn press and publicity to help your brand, check out my Publicity Ta-Do List.

Brand on!

I’m putting the finishing the finishing touches on a presentation I’m giving this week in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA at the Terranea Oceanfront Resort for a large trade association. My talk is on Brand Turnarounds about how companies prepare for potholes and recover after a brand hit.

As I conducted my pre speech research for the engagement I discovered several of the large and respected companies scheduled to attend had some not so favorable search results when I Googled them.  Claims of scams and questionable business practices populated the front page search results. Many of these negative results were old, but still they were prominent on the front page.  It was not a good first impression for anyone checking out a brand.

Grant it some companies deserve the dark comments, but many times it is a few sour grapes venting their opinions resulting a brand black eye for an innocent brand.

All companies and brands need to regularly audit their search engine results look when someone types in their brand name. This audit should include all of the major search engines, Bing, Yahoo, Ask.com, AOL not just Google.  And, if the first or second pages are showing a slew of negative posts, you need to clean this up.

If they are legit, you need to reach out to the posting party and try to correct the situation. If they are not, and are just some pesty, cranky pants people venting their “hate the world everyday attitude”, you need to bury this bad rap with positive search results.

Here’s how you do it.
1) Conduct keyword research monthly so you know what words are most popular with online users looking for brands like yours.

2) Post educating, positive content on your site and other high traffic sites. Move from hard selling tactics to helpful, useful and “on brand” related consumer relevant information.

3) Earn honest links from other online channels and use services like PR newswires to send out news about your brand. These PR service can earn 1000 links or more in minutes, depending on what size list it is blitzed to.

4) Tag content, images, video, both on your main website, and on social media channels.

5) Update your content often; spiders will have more confidence in your expertise.

6) Buy and use your brand name in as many URLs as possible and related ones. This means to use different combinations of your name with .com, .net, .org, etc.

7) Be social. This means have a strong presence with all of the top social media sites. Social media sites invest a lot of resources to make sure they show up in results. This is an easy, low lost effort. Don’t underestimate the power of social media results in search.

8) Become viral.  I recently watched a great video from the head of YouTube’s content department. It is a great video, you should see it. He claims the top three ways to become viral with a video are: Post content where large communities will participate and share the clip, expose Taste-makers to your work. Taste-makers are anyone with big influence like celebs, bloggers and news venue reporters. Lastly, create content that is unexpected, shocking or just plain amazing.

9) Maintain a killer blog; post every 30 days and seed in the right rivers (high traffic channels), not low traffic creeks.

10) Request deletion from search engines or party that posted negative comment. This is not an easy task, but all search engines have a contact department where you can request they remove a result if you can prove it is malicious and or false.

Negative results always stink. But with the right efforts you can bury the bad news and push forward your brand story.

Brand on!

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My friends and business colleagues often ask me, “How do you constantly produce so much stuff, ideas, stories, images, books, products and speeches?!”. The answer is simple. I consume this delicious cocktail, straight up daily, which let’s me get more done and have more fun!

Start with ample sleep, for me it’s 8 hours.
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Eat often, at least five small meals with protein daily.
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Set accountable goals, daily (one or two is fine).
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Meditate and do deep breathing, even if it’s 5 minutes.
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Pay attention to what you experience.
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Hang out with people smarter than you.
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Exercise, for me it’s tennis.
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Read, books, labels, faces, bumper stickers, the WSJ.
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Find patterns.
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Connect dots.
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Journal good ideas.
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Goof off.
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Ask questions that feel stupid.
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Whip through magazines, daily (notice headlines, photos and ads).
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Limit hard problem solving to two-hour sessions at a time, break for food, fun or exploring.
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Act goofy.
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Watch spectacular performances.
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Observe super successful people.
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Push yourself 20% more than your comfort zone welcomes.
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Enjoy the fruits of your production.

Time to reinvent? Jumpstart your business or your career with this simple, easy to follow Reinventing you Ta-Do list.

Recently I’ve been forgetting things. Last Friday I headed to Chicago. When I got to the ticket counter at the airport I had a flash, did I remember to pack my Apple power cord for my laptop?

No, I didn’t. And because I’ve bought so many of those silly $100 replacement cables and lost them too, I was not about to hit the road without it. So I quickly phoned up my driver to see if he could run back to my place, get it and bring it to me before my flight left. Like a champ, he said no problem.

So how does a list-obsessed traveler like me forget stuff like this? By moving too fast.

My trip to Chicago was fabulous. I spent three days at the restaurant show, did a lot of marketing for my new restaurant product, filmed a 6-minute live segment for FOX News that aired nationally, attended a series of excellent focus studies for one of my Chicago clients, met a bunch of great new business contacts and experienced a city that I adore.

Wednesday morning I’m up early to catch a flight back to Tampa. I’m showered and dressed and looking for my make-up and hair care stuff. It is nowhere in the room. I call the desk and ask if they have a gift shop where I can buy the basics, the store does not open until 8AM, my driver is picking me up at 7AM.

(To my guy readers, not having make-up is equivalent to not having pants on and going to a meeting.)

I have no make-up, no hair brush and no patience. I also have a business meeting as soon as I get off the plane in Tampa. I’m starting to stress.

I improvise. I find a fork in the kitchenette and do the best I can with my hair, thinking I’ll get to the airport and they will have a store to buy a brush and make-up.

With my sunglasses on, I race to O’Hare, get to my gate and look for a store. There are none other than food and magazine shops. I calmly walk to the plane quietly thinking I need to be rich enough to afford a make-up artist to travel with me, then this would never be a problem. I also thought having my own jet would be a lot better than standing in line with a bunch of screaming kids. I definitely need to work smarter or start buying more lottery tickets.

I find my seat and I’m now really concerned that if I show up to my 2:30 meeting looking like this, (no make-up on) my client will not only not recognize me, but they will be frightened.

My seatmate looks like a million bucks. She’s well dressed, her make-up is perfect and she’s relaxed. I compliment her and tell her my story of the missing make-up bag.

Then like an angel from the sky, my new friend Denise Sowder tells me she’s a beauty consultant and works for Mary Kay. She also said she had a suit case full of make-up products and samples. OMG. As soon as we landed, she saved the day. We found the nearest ladies room, I got a make-up lesson and all the products I needed.

What are the odds of that happening? A million to one.

 Lessons here.

• Slow down. Speed will not necessarily get you to the goal faster.
• Always carry toiletries in your carry-on bags. Not in a separate bag that you can leave somewhere. Turns out I left it at a research facility.
• Keep an extra set of power cords in your suitcase.
• Pay it forward. Keep your Karma bank account full. I’m placing a Mary Kay order with my new friend Denise. That plane trip and her kindness will not soon be forgotten.

For more on trips to Chicago, view:
5 inspirational ideas and 2 revelations from an adventure to Chicago

Confidence is a condition you manifest when you do things with competence. Self-esteem is a belief level you buy into about yourself, when you’re not doing anything at all. To enjoy a great life and a rich business or career, they are both needed to be mastered.

I consider myself an emotionally healthy person. I also know that I can always improve myself. I’m interested in learning things that can make me more effective with my business, my personal relationships and things that provide me with a more fulfilled life.

Back in January Alan Weiss, a coach and mentor of mine for the past decade, offered a one-day workshop on self-esteem. Alan is known as the million dollar consultant. He’s authored over 40 books, works all over the world and has guided me on many business projects. His Self-Esteem Workshop was $2,500 and limited to 6 people in every workshop, it was sold out until April.

There’s no debate here, lower than peak self-esteem is bad for business. If you are a start-up, it can make the difference in you raising needed funds. If you are a growing business it can cost you new clients. If you are employed it can stump your advancement. In all cases, low self-esteem enables price, valuation, compensation discounting and costly over-giving of goods and services too.

I attended Alan’s workshop this past week in Warwick, RI to help take my business to a higher level. It was an excellent investment in time and money.

Consistent with Alan’s tough-love style of coaching, the workshop wasn’t hoo-rah-rah at all. There was no flood of compliments or achievement praised. There were a lot of open and candid discussions about where human doubt and questionable self-worth comes from and how to dump the debris that brings down anyone’s esteem level.

Before the workshop, I knew the root of many of my green monster issues, but after spending the day with Alan and a great group of other highly-accomplished consultants, I better understood how to re-frame the past, dump the garage and power forward with a stronger direction and intent. I also learned a lot about how to sustain high self-worth in the most challenging of situations.

The three biggest take-a-ways for me were:
1) The perfect self-esteem cocktail is 1-part listen to others (that you request, unsolicited feedback is useless) and 3-parts listen to yourself.
This means accept feedback from qualified givers, not others who have some axe to grind or bigger issues than yourself.

2) Having an accurate feedback grading system is key.
Many of the most damaging and negative beliefs that imprint adult self-doubt comes from our parents because as children, they were our primary authoritative figures. This dominating influence can apply to professional settings too. This does not make either of them right. Use realistic measures to evaluate criticism.

3) Positive reinforcing environments and relationships are critical, not optional.
Birds of a feather flock together. A scrappy nest is not where you want to be. Hang with other highly-esteemed people and make sure your work space is empowering and inspirational. If it’s not, change it.

Alan Weiss is not for everyone. He’s not inexpensive, his content is not sappy and sugar-coated. If you are serious about taking your business to the next level, I’d look at some of his offerings. If nothing else, sign up for his weekly newsletter, it’s free and one of the best things I read and enjoy every week.

In closing, here’s another good article on the subject on of self-worth. It’s written by one of my favorite tweeters @yourpocketguru, follow him and me @brandingdiva on Twitter for some short gems of insight on a all kinds of topics.

Have you called yourself recently? On all of your phones? If not, it’s a fast find and fix to improving your brand impression.

How do I know this? Because I was grossly guilty of phone message neglect.

Fortunately, I have good friends who tell me the truth.  Here’s a recent call I received.

“Hey Karen, Ms. Branding Diva your phone message stinks. It’s too long, you sound like you are in a tunnel under ground and teetering on having a bad day.”

She was right. This was a big disconnect from who I am and what my brand stands for. Here’s the really sad part, it’s been like that for a year, YIKES!

Five simple tips to a better telephone branded signal.
1) Be clear – Always state your full name.
2) Be brief – In our fast paced and busy world, short and to the point are best.
2) Have tone – Include some branded attitude, for me it’s energy and confidence.
3) Be current and relevant – Keep things fresh, consider changing your message with the seasons, the months or for no reason at all.
4) Provide a clear call to action – What do you want the caller to do? Leave their name and what they need? Or even better their American Express number?
5) Manage expectations – If you can’t check messages for along period of time, provide a timely route to you, request a text message or email from the caller.

Don’t ever, ever use the default, computer message. That clearly communicates nothing except you are unprofessional or so unorganized you can’t find the time to set up.

Bottom line, your phone message is often the first impression a new contact has with you. Make it a great one. And it does not hurt to make sure your visible phone and accessories are on board with your brand too. It’s all part of the personal branding package.

Still don’t have a smart phone? It’s 2012. Plus, being a tech dinosaur is no marketing edge.

And if bold styling is part of your image, consider a retro hand set (like pictured above) to plug into your iPad, iPhone or other smart phones and a cool, matching phone protector. I’ve usually sport the Branding Diva® red set —phone case, handset and fire engine hot lipstick.  It’s an excellent conversation starter at coffee shops and airport lounges, after all that’s where new business often starts.

Got to go catch a call! Talk soon! Brand on!

Last week I had drinks with a retired colonel from MacDill Air Force Base. This guy had been to 2 wars zones, Iraq and Afghanistan, three times. He had been inches away from grenades exploding and been literally shot at from 10 feet away. Fortunately, the bullets missed him. Many in his platoon were not that lucky.

He knew I was an entrepreneur. He’d been to my websites. This is what he said to me.

“Karen, you are so brave and courageous. I admire that so much. I don’t know that I could do that, be a front line entrepreneur like you. You’ve got to hustle business every day, be such a self-starter and operate with so much uncertainty”.

WOW, here’s a soldier who risked his life for our country, thinking I’m the tough one. At first I thought he was just flirting, but then I thought about it, and I suppose to many being an entrepreneur is pretty darn scary.

I’ve never seen it that way. Because of the way I’m wired and because of the values I formed from my life experiences.

The fact is we are both warriors, the military and the troops of entrepreneurs all across the world.

This was the theme of my program I presented today to Southeastern Entrepreneurship Conference. It was my second year to participate and like last year the energy I got from the young entrepreneurs was amazing and inspirational.

My message to the audience was direct. There is no place like entrepreneur land. Owning your own business and being your own boss. Sure it’s tough, risky and uncertain, but then again so is walking down the street.

My bigger point to the group was, it’s not what hits you, but what you do next that counts.

My life as an entrepreneur has been an exciting and scary as hell roller coaster ride for nearly 30 years. Would I trade those experiences in for a 9-5 gig? No way. Cause at the end of the day, I’m driving the car. To me that’s the best way to go through life.

Bad and challenging stuff happens to the best of us. And if you’ve got your eye on a big prize, I guarantee you, your share will not be small. Most highly successful people actually encounter more bumps than those who achieve average results. There is a correlation between the volume of failure and magnitude of success.

And then comes my favorite saying: “What does not kill you, makes you stronger”.

Now for any of you who think I just write about this stuff and maybe have not had actual bouts with big boy challenges, here are just a few of my most memorable high stress, danger zones I’ve experienced first hand.

A 4 month tax audit, an investment in a venture that crashed and burned, an employee with a drinking problem, loss of a big client, three key employees quitting at once, a big company filed a trademark infringement that cost over $50,000 and me filing a time and money sucking law suit against an international celebrity to collect owed money. This is the short list. My point is any of these situations could have sent me to the 9-5 world, but they did not and I won the battle.

Here are 5 moves that keep me and my entrepreneurial dream alive.

1) Work from a plan. Even if it’s one page long.
I support this move by writing daily goals before I go to sleep at night for the next day.
I also track my time. This puts light on my waste so I can focus on result producing tasks..
I do daily rituals, every single day.

2) Master mental resiliency.
This is a work in progress, but I have gotten thicker skin through all of my life experiences.
Don’t hang on to screw ups, disappointments and failures. I shake things off like my black lab used to do when she got wet.
Learn the art of re-framing yucky situations into the good stepping stones that get you closer to what you want.
Know how to reboot and create your own momentum.
Be fit, mentally and physically.

3) Network up.
Hang out with people that are challenging you, not saying what you want to hear and sucking up to your mediocre bar.
Be a lifetime learner with folks that are smarter-than you.
Cut the dead wood off your growing dream. This means sometimes you’ll grow out of relationships.

5) Brand you and your business
They are both important and can contribute to your success.
Pick a lane. Decide what you are, do it well and in a unique fashion.
Resonate your identity on all of your touch points to your market (how you dress, act and communicate).

And in closing, I reminded the audience of the number one, most important thing an entrepreneur needs to succeed.

Full body confidence.
Stand tall, shoulders back and believe in yourself. You are your number one and most important fan! Breakthrough business stories have leveraged this powerful weapon for centuries. It is such a game changer.

Without a positive self image you may as well be burnt toast. So work on this daily. For me, I go for stuff that seems impossible. Walking on fire was a real booster for me. I also read my affirmations daily (you must write these before you can read them). I keep a victory folder (containing things that make me feel good, from notes, to press clips, to deposit receipts) and I monitor and read about people who inspire me and remind myself how human they are too.

You got the gear and the intelligence. Man up, even if you are a female.

My military friend may have had a valid point when he said that being an entrepreneur was such an admirable feat for the brave and courageous few.

I reminded him and the SEEC attendees that it’s all about the angle that you choose to look at the enemy and the prize.

Risk scares many, but to an entrepreneur it is the needed fuel for the greatest rewards.
Most think danger should be avoided, but to an entrepreneur it is a welcome and exciting adventure.
Being on your own appears to be such hard work and so difficult, not for an entrepreneur who chooses something they love to do.

As free Americans who live in a capitalist society the power to transform uncertainty into clarity is in our reach.

Entrepreneurs make your move.

When momentum showed up-I won!

The past few months I’ve really amped up my commitment to my tennis game. I play 4 or 5 times a week, take lessons and participate in cardio drills.

The results have been GREAT. I’ve lost 5 pounds and buffed up quite a bit. And I’ve had a surprising number of wins when I was really behind. I’m talking down by two sets, against a 26 year old or in a deep hole with scores like 5,0 and 5,1 and I’ve come back.

I’ve been thinking about this phenomenon, how it happens and how it applies to life and business too.

For me it’s about a few big emotions: frustration, annoyance, disappointment and how to manage them.

I know feeling frustrated is a big fat waste of energy. It keeps you in a spin, not moving anywhere. While I work on eliminating this emotion from my life, I’d be lying if I said I never feel it. I do, and many times it’s on the court, especially when I keep on losing the same points in the same way.

Lesson here. Do things differently. If you do things the way you’ve been doing them, you will likely get the same results.

Annoyance is another evil emotion. In my view it’s a weakness and it translates into letting the other person get to me over and over again. I often feel defeated even before the game is over. I get very annoyed when my opponent in tennis does something pesty, like continuous short drop shots, and return shots with an extreme spin that makes the ball go in totally weird places after it bounces.

Lesson here. Instead of using your energy to beat up yourself more, re-frame the emotion from annoyance to excitement, replace those annoying things your opponent is doing with actions to stop them and deliberate moves that activate excitement.

Some contend that disappointment is a legitimate feeling especially when expectations are set. I’m often torn with this concept, because I try very hard to practice an “in the moment” way of living. But I’m also very goal-focused and I believe one must have standards set to bench-mark stuff and know when to activate the delete button; when things just don’t meet your needs.

Lesson here. I acknowledge the state of disappointment like I do failure. Both are temporary events. Feel them in proportion to the big scheme of things, not for one second more.

Such as: minor disappointments like losing a non professional tennis match, or when some random person not even in your close world is being rude or mean or like when you buy a piece of fruit and it ends up bad and tart when you were craving a sweet plum. For me, I ask myself, does it really matter? Then I shake it off right away or in a few minutes.

Or a bigger disappointment like when a professional setback occurs that impacts many things, or a person I value who is not acting the way I want them to or when I make a bad investment that shows up as a big number on my balance sheet. For me- I try to find some good in the bad event, then I shake it off in a few hours or at the most a few days.

Hanging on to disappointments is no better than torching all your clothes, your car and yourself. Not only will it prevent future joy, it produces other negative effects like toxic pollution which touches others too.

The real key to this story is not the emotion, but the turning point. This is the point when the discomfort from frustration, annoyance and disappointment become unbearable. It’s the point that one must choose to change things because they’ve had enough. And when they are done right, theses changes result in a magical force called momentum.

Momentum is how I came back to win those games. Momentum can change your game too, in sports, business and in life. Whether you are vacillating in a bad relationship, in a stagnate career or struggling  to hit a home run with start-up.

Momentum has the power of a big wind storm. Momentum can set you free and produce many amazing rewards.

Finding your momentum is about choice.
You’ve got to want it.
And then you’ve got to create it.

Here’s how it happens – How to create your momentum.
Tony Robbins first taught me these ways to make momentum when I attended his “Unleash the Power within Workshop” a few years ago. Since then I practice it often and added some steps to make the process work for me. And it has. When I make momentum big stuff happens, stuff that seemed impossible manifests.

1) Get in a peak state. It creates momentum.
This means get your head, your heart and the physiology body in extreme focused, high-performance state. It helps me to remember another event when I was in a peak state. Like for me in tennis, I imagine a past comeback victory. I visualize that place and how it made me feel higher than high, an adrenaline rush, total bliss!! I go there again. Or in business, I remember a big new business score, a standing ovation or a time a client raved about my work.

2) Find your passion. It creates momentum.
This means reminding yourself of your values. What do you love? I love to compete!! What do you really want? For me, in tennis, it’s adding another win to my scorecard.

3) Decide, commit and resolve. It creates momentum.
This means no waffling, no tentativeness and no doubts. When I’m on the court I recite positive mantras too, OK some are sprinkled with a little snarkiness too.

Go after everything.
Nadal, Federer, Post
Ms. Opponent, you think you like steak, try chewing on this tennis ball.
Finish the shot.
Yes, I can!!!

4) Take urgent, immediate, consistent and massive action. It creates momentum.
It means as Nike says: Just do it!! And I say: Do it now!!
A sense of urgency has to kick in. A “take no prisoners” mindset has to be center stage.

5) Be flexible and honest with yourself.
Ask yourself: Are the changes working? Do I need to modify some more? Maybe take on a new action?

6) Celebrate.
Feel the emotion of your achievement, the big and small ones count. Remind yourself who led the movement, YOU! And remind yourself of the formula that was needed, so you can do it again.

In closing, the super cool thing about momentum is it’s a very present, powerful force, like a huge gust of wind. Your competitors will fear it, your team and peers will embrace it and it can serve as fuel in your tank for the next battle, on the courts, in the boardroom or in a life environment.

Go make some momentum!!

This past week one of my favorite guys and myself celebrated a birthday. I’m happy to report that I’m the younger one. In fact, Abe Lincoln is 203.

For those of you who know me well know I’m not a holiday girl. Don’t get me wrong, I love to celebrate, I just believe that everyday you are above ground is a celebration and special, instead of making a big deal about the traditional Hallmark days.

As I added another year to my timeline this week, I reflected on some of the most meaningful threads that make up my fabric. I put together 52, and yes there is a reason for that number, I hope you enjoy.

These are not in order of priority.

1.) I used to think the number one factor in success was cash flow, this is a myth, it is self-confidence.

2.) Guilt, regret and worry are by far the most unproductive mind trips.

3.) More self-responsibility by everyone will improve the world. The government, your boss, your partner, your job, your clients and the next moron you encounter at the gas station can suck and impact a nice day. OK, what part of that situation can you control?

4.) Life is short. Live like it was your last day.

5.) I have over 10-deceased friend’s contact info in my iphone.

6.) Nobody or no thing can really make you happy.

7.) Peoples’ behavior, cash flow and things can definitely alter your mood.

8.) I can’t tolerate whiners, racists or people who don’t wear deodorant.

9.) Patience is not one of my virtues.

10.) Listening to music, playing tennis and winning are three of my top favorite past times.

11.) My all time favorite book is “ The Pocket Pema Chodrom”. 2nd favorite Brand Turnaround and a close tie StraightForward: Ways to live and lead.

12.) Hair color is by far one of the most important inventions in history.

13.) Unless you buy lottery tickets and win, delegation is a critical skill for success.

14.) If you give crappy instructions, you will get disappointing results.

15.) Awards are exciting, but the journey is where the riches are.

16.) Friends and relationships should add to your life. If they don’t, they are useless weights that should be dismissed.

17.) Design is really important. The elements of beauty, emotion and ease of experience make life better.

18.) If you don’t have a strong sense of humor, you won’t be strong in personal relationships.

19.) Spelling is important to many people. I’m not one of them.

20.) I wish dogs and other animals could talk.

21.) I wish some people would talk less.

22.) I hate mushrooms, phone trees (when you call for help hit #1 for this, hit #2 for that) and bureaucrats.

23.) Three of the biggest fashion crimes: men wearing too much jewelry, women wearing panty hose with sandals and long fingernails on both.

24.) There are way too many unproductive meetings held everyday.

25.) Thoughtful agendas and a meeting marshall can fix this.

26.) “Play up” in everything you do. This means hang with people and companies that are more accomplished than you and play sports with athletes who are better than you.

27.) Invest in you. Attend workshops, hire expert coaches and treat yourself often.

28.) Don’t always believe your mind. Sometimes it thinks up really stupid and damaging thoughts.

29.) Do follow your gut. It knows a lot more than you might expect.

30.) Appearance matters. Youthfulness, fitness, grooming, your teeth and wardrobe make a difference in business.

31.) Exercise is the best medication going. It sharpens your brain, provides more mental bandwidth and wards off evil stress.

32.) Self-promotion is not a bad thing. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is likely not too successful.

33.) The art of leverage is among the most important skills a successful person should master.

34.) No risk. No reward. Period.

35.) Bad fruit never gets better. You can fire clients, friends, spouses and brands. If they do not add to your happiness, get rid of them. NOW!

36.) Casting blame is often an action of a loser. Even train wrecks require willful passengers to pick the car, track and place it’s headed.

37.) Optimism is a virtue. I am an eternal optimist.

38.) The only person you can control or change is yourself.

39.) Don’t trust too soon. Don’t trust everybody and don’t harbor the past. But do file away any deceptive players in your experience cabinet.

40.) Market research has its place. However, it is not a crystal ball. Just ask Coke-Cola.

41.) You don’t have to like everyone. But you do need to respect everyone and their unique beliefs.

42.) When drinking wine or other adult libations cell phones, ipads and computers should not be present. In other words, communicating while under the influence of mind altering substances can come with risks.

43.) The past only matters if you choose to live there.

44.) Pole-vaulting to conclusions and writing the future can cause physical and mental anguish. Let life happen. Live in the present.

45.) Failure is the fastest way to success. And Failure is a temporary event.

46.) It’s never too late to start something, change something or be a better person.

47.) I like and enjoy breaking rules and I get annoyed by people who can’t go there.

48.) Often, I love acting my shoe size instead of my age. Playfulness, being spontaneous, independent and free to choose everything are a few of my driving values.

49.) I still don’t understand why our creators created cellulite, any moles or facial hair on women.

50.) My single greatest achievement: being a happy entrepreneur and controlling my destiny.

51.) You do not need to master everything. But what you do love doing—make it a masterpiece.

52.) Be the joy you want to experience everyday and life will never disappoint you.