Anyone who knows me well knows that I plan my life around my meals.  Yesterday I started getting hungry at 10:30, but I knew I’d eaten breakfast so I forced myself to wait to eat lunch until noon.  At 11:45 a reminder popped up that I had a webinar at noon.

So I logged onto the webinar to make sure that it was working, then I ran upstairs, tossed some leftovers in the microwave, feed the dog, grabbed a plate and silverware, snatched some crackers …

One of my friends sent some of her blogging friends this email today…

It does seem like a bit of overkill don’t you think?  I replied back to my friend that I hoped this person was a social media expert with a tag line like that!

My friend’s email got me to thinking about speakers that I’ve seen who spend an inordinate amount of time talking about their own accomplishments within a presentation.  It’s kind of like the social media icon overkill in the email.  …

This past weekend, I went to my 30-year high school reunion in my hometown of Jefferson, Iowa (if you’re trying to do the math, yes, that means I’m 48 years old).  The class reunions are always held the same weekend as the town’s annual Bell Tower Festival – a festival that honors the huge Bell Tower near the courthouse in the town square.  When the town has other occasions to celebrate besides class reunions, they are often scheduled the events on the …

It started with my first iPhone.  I’d had it for a week or so, and I turned to my husband and said, “Have you heard me complain once about this phone?”

Every other time I’d had to get a new cell phone, I threw a major hissy fit within 24 hours – usually in my husband Rich’s direction.  I whined about not being able to figure out how to do what I wanted to do on my new phone.  That was, until I got …

I was preparing for a presentation for the Atlanta Chapter of the Society for Technical Communications.  The name of the presentation was “How NOT to Give a Boring Technical Presentation.”  (Brief side note – what was I thinking with that title! It’s like presuming that I was NOT going to be boring!  Talk about a higher standard!  …But I digress.)

I tweeted the question, “What makes a presentation boring.”  @Mitch_Willis replied, “PowerPoint presentations!  As soon as I see powerpoint, my eyes start to …

It’s a clique, right?  The entrepreneur who talks about getting his start even as a child selling lemonade or cutting lawns.

Yeah, that wasn’t me.  I’m not a natural born sales person.  I don’t come from a long line of sales people.  None of my people are sales people.  I didn’t marry a sales person.  None of my children grew up to be sales people.  Sales is not a language spoken at my dinner table.

So the last thing I want to do is “sell” …