Archive for November, 2009

Today was the United Way 2009 Fall Campaign celebration luncheon, where they announced how much they had raised through the generous support of thousands of people working at companies across the region.

These types of awards and recognition banquets can be hard on the audience – tons of clapping for people you don’t know, sitting in uncomfortable chairs for long stretches at a time, eating high fat foods. You know what I’m talking about.

The United Way team WOW’d their audience with an unexpected skit that definitely proved to be “high engagement.”

Find out just how they engaged their audience with a creative presentation and a well-rehearsed spoof off the popular Deal-No Deal television game show.

Congratulations to the United Way, its staff, volunteers, community leaders and fans who believe in the value of making our community and world a better place for all. Yes – it’s true. Everybody has something to give.

You don’t want to give or receive the Wet Fish handshake – one of the 8 world’s worst handshakes. Ditto goes for the Vise or the Bone Crusher, or my personal pet peeve, the Finger Tip Grab. Yuck!

Whether you are going on an interview, meeting someone for the first time, or welcoming your colleagues to a meeting, your handshake will be among the first things that people judge you by. Your handshake will either build your credibility and reputation or it will create a moment of doubt and discomfort for other people.

What kind of first impression do you want to make?

Click through to read about the eight world’s worst handshakes and why you should avoid giving them. Kathy McAfee shares the elements of professional handshakes that help to build your credibility and signal confidence and trust.

Click through to watch the video and learn more about handshake do’s and don’t’s – how to make a good first and last impression with a professional, confident handshake.

Do you like money? Does it motivate you? Want to make more, keep more, and live more richly? If so, you need to spend some time listening to Michelle Singletary, the sassy, no nonsense personal finance expert. Michelle was the keynote speaker at this year’s Money Conference for Women, hosted by the YWCA of the Hartford Region, CT, as part of its effort to increase financial literacy for women.

Michelle Singletary shared 5 steps to financial freedom with over 350 women (and a few good men) this weekend in Hartford, CT.

This year was my fourth time attending the Money Conference for Women. It the kind of professional and personal development that should be required for all women. The price is right (it’s FREE) and the energy, information, and networking connections are off the charts!

I listened to Michelle from two vantage points:

1. From the perspective of a woman who wants to and needs to get smarter about money;
2. From the perspective of an executive presentation coach who works with professionals to present themselves and their ideas to others more powerfully. Click through to my assessment of what Michelle Singletary  did well as a speaker and whaty you can learn from her to become better presenter yourselves.

5 Steps to Your Financial Freedom from Michelle Singletary

S = Save automatically. Pay yourself first by setting aside Read the rest of this entry »

Today, I renewed my driver’s license, not at the DMV, but at my local AAA office. The experience blew my socks off. I am compelled to tell all of you about it. Here’s why…

I had been dreading renewing my license, procrastinating until just days before my birthday. I remember how in the past I had to stand in line for what seemed like hours only to be greeted by a drone-like civil servant employee of the DMV.  Granted, it had been six years or so since I went through this experience, but it has stuck in my mind. A negative brand impression is hard to displace!

I went on line to find out if I could make an appointment and where I needed to go. I quickly found the link for “renewing your license” and found that I could do it at an AAA office.

Marketing tip for the DMV – you should include mention of the AAA option in the renewal notifications that you mail out to your customers. Some customers need to be hit over the head that there’s an exciting new way of doing things. You know who you are!

In disbelief, I called the AAA office to understand what/how/when it works, and they said come on down, bring a check for $66 to the DMV and a $2 surcharge to AAA; take your photo, sign the paperwork and you’ll have your new license.

This sounded too good to be true and it turned out to be BETTER than true. It was fantastic. I was in and out of there in less than five minutes! I wanted to hug the AAA representative and let her know how much time, money and angst she had saved me. She did a good job of offering me additional AAA products/services and letting me know about AAA membership benefits that might be helpful in the future. I appreciated that too.

Can you believe that they only charged $2 for this AAA service? That’s less than some ATMs charge you for taking cash out.  I would have happily paid $50 to avoid going through DMV hell.

It got me to thinking on the drive home…

1. Who else could help you distribute your product/service in a way that would delight your customers?
2. How could you make getting your product/service more convenient and pleasurable for your clients?
3. What could you “take away” or remove from your service delivery that would please your customers?
4. What incremental value would you create (and could you charge for) for this extra “love” with your customers?

This experience reminds me of something I read from marketing guru, Seth Godin’s book, Free Prize Inside: the next big marketing idea. Seth presents the idea of “soft innovation” as the best way to grow a business, instead of relying on big ads or big innovation. He says that anyone can think up clever, useful, and small ideas to make a product or service remarkable, that is, worth talking about. He calls this kind of innovation a free prize because it generates much more revenue than it costs to implement.

I can’t believe that I would ever say this, but perhaps we need to be thinking more like the DMV and AAA. Congratulations to both organizations for a creating such a sensible, logical and appreciated way in which we can renew our driver’s licenses.

If the DMV can do it, so can the rest of us!

photo credit: www.flickr.com/photos/shimone/2714644676/