Diane Darling's Blog

Bob Kraft's motto

Who is wise? He who learns from all men. Who is rich? He who is happy with his portion. Who is strong? He who controls evil inclinations. Who is honored? He who honors all men.

- Boston Business Journal, March 1, 2012

Deceptive calls from Forbes targeting women business owners?

I actually like advertising .... after all, that's why many people watch the Super Bowl even if they don't like football.

But it's especially aggravating when people call and tell you they want to interview you for Forbes, ask you to send photos, want to hear your business story and .... then tell you have to pay for it.

Just tell me upfront, "I want to sell you adversting." Say that at the beginning of the call - not after I call back and schedule what I think is going to be an interview.

I'm not sure why a prestigious publication like Forbes would do this, but please warn the women business owners in your network. Advertising is advertising!

Be wary of any calls you get from EMI Network posing as Forbes.

Inviting you to join "the thank you project"

• Are you looking to differentiate yourself from your competitors?
• Trying to find a way to reach prospects, donors, or employees?
• Want to save money?

I'm inviting you to join "the thank you project."

According to a U.S. Postal Service survey, the average American receives a personal, handwritten piece of mail once every seven weeks. NBC's Brian Williams reports.

Here's the project ....

• Most of us have notecards somewhere in a drawer
• Find 4 of them - don't over think this. If it turns out you like this project, you can design cards later, get them printed or something else.
• For now ... think SIMPLE and SHORT
• We'll just send notes in January
• Find 4 stamps - again, you probably have them in a drawer. The best part is the USPS now has FOREVER stamps.
• Here are a few of my favorite FOREVER stamps
  • Indy 500
  • Jazz
  • Mark Twain
  • Neon Celebrate
• Use what you have - again, DON'T over think ......
• Now put the stamps on all 4 envelopes
• Write your return address on all 4 envelopes
• Put in your calendar to write a thank you note for the next 4 Fridays
• Each Thursday night I'll post on this blog some sample ideas of what you can write in your note
• Write a note to someone who has helped you that week or just say hello to someone who came to mind and you haven't talked to in awhile

Common mistakes:

• Overthinking
• Trying to say too much - 3-4 lines is plenty
• This simply should say thank you! Not explain anything about you or your business
• Blaming your bad handwriting - just print!
• Concerned you've waited too long - just send it

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Here are an idea for what to write this Friday, January 6th .......

Dear ______________,

Happy New Year! I hope you had a wonderful holiday season.

Just a quick note to say thank you for your business last year. I look forward to being a resource for you in 2012.

Look forward to crossing paths before too long soon.

Best ~ ___________________

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Voila! You're done! More next Friday! And yes, it will be Friday, the 13th

You're investment for this project is:

• Notecards - probably in your drawer
• Stamps - either in your drawer or 44 cents x 4 = a whopping $1.76
• 5 minutes each Friday

I look forward to hearing your results ... and yes, you can send me an email instead of a handwritten note. Just send it to: Diane at EffectiveNetworking dot com or you can send me a Tweet @DianeDarling.

Let's use the hashtag #FridayNotes .....

Need a chuckle?

Too funny ....

Just 13, Framingham boy is already a social media guru - The Boston Globe

CAMBRIDGE — Lane Sutton is tweeting from the second row of a social media conference at the Microsoft campus here in Kendall Square. He’s armed with an iPad and iPhone, and a consulting pitch he can deliver in a smooth minute.

via www.boston.com

I'm incredibly lucky to know Lane and his parents personally. It's great to see the creativity and curiosity of the up-and-coming generation.

Undercover boss

Never mind that I'm reeling from Super Bowl (congrats to New Orleans - how amazing), I just watched CBS's new show about executives that go undercover to learn what's REALLY happening at the office.

I call this internal networking ... what a better way to build teams and motivate employees by actually experiencing what they do each day.

Kudos to Waste Management!

When executives have a chance to hear what's really happening, the company will save money, time, and recruit/retain top talent.

While taking off a week with a TV crew might not be realistic, here are some lessons Larry shared with the viewers:

• Everything can't get fixed at once - start small
• Listen - Larry easily could have turned down a dinner invitation but he knew he would learn more by visiting with Janice's family (I think that's her name)
• Productivity can be measured in many ways. While talking to customers when you're picking up their trash may delay your route, retaining the employee (and obviously customer) increases loyalty and reduces costs.
• Everyone has a story. Who knew the special needs customer would touch Larry's heart and remind him of his daughter.
• Be willing to admit you've made some mistakes

Become a Facebook of the show.

Follow the show on Twitter.

Next week should be interesting when the CEO of Hooter's goes undercover .... well who knows if that's literal or not!

Networking tips for techies

Thank you Mass High Tech ....

Dear General Mills: Why not put some smart people on Wheaties Box?

Here's an interesting idea from Scott Kirsner

Two things are happening this week: those of us with kids are sending them back to school, and General Mills is introducing a new variety of Wheaties cereal called Wheaties Fuel, aimed at men.

What do those two things have to do with one another?

Ever since the 1930s, the front of the Wheaties box has featured a parade of notable athletes, from Lou Gehrig to Jesse Owens to Mary Lou Retton to Michael Jordan. Over the decades, the Breakfast of Champions has exclusively celebrated achievement on the baseball diamond or in the stadium.

But given that Wheaties sales have been slipping (they've declined 14 percent over the past year), here's what I wonder: could Wheaties as a brand be reinvigorated if those bright orange boxes started celebrating achievements of the brain, as well as the body? Would parents feel better about buying a breakfast cereal that inspired their children to become rocket scientists, disease-battling chemists, life-saving biomedical engineers, or billionaire software designers?

And could we use the Internet and Twitter to persuade General Mills to give this a try?

Here's what I'm thinking:

Wheaties, invented in 1922, occupy a significant spot in American culture. Accomplishing something meaningful in the world of sports, we all know, is likely to land you on the front of the Wheaties box.

It is of course important to encourage our kids to participate in sports. But the career goal of making a living as a professional athlete is statistically improbable for most of them. Why not present them with other kinds of champions as role models?

I'd like to see a Wheaties box featuring Sally Ride, the first American woman in space (who also happened to be an astrophysicist and Stanford PhD); Internet pioneers Tim Berners-Lee and Vint Cerf; the great primatologist Jane Goodall; cognitive scientist Steven Pinker; Regina Benjamin, a physician who works in rural Alabama (and who last year won a MacArthur "genius" grant); Tesla Motors engineer JB Straubel; Grameen Bank founder Muhammad Yunus; robotics pioneer and entrepreneur Helen Greiner; Herbert Boyer, who co-founded Genentech and helped bring the first biotech drug to market; Dean Kamen, a prolific inventor of medical devices and technologies for the developing world (not to mention the Segway scooter); or Kim Ung-young, a Korean who has the highest recorded IQ of any living person.

And what about younger smarties, like the winner of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, the Intel Science Talent Search, or the Lemelson-MIT Prize, or the top student teams in the FIRST Robotics Competition or the Global Green Challenge?

The back of these boxes might explain a little bit about the accomplishments of the person (or people) featured on the front.

Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers, the founders of the FIRST Robotics Competition, like to talk about "changing the culture" of this country, so that we honor achievements in science, engineering, and technology as often as we honor achievements in sports.

Why not start in the cereal aisle?

Rather than simply launching a brand extension like Wheaties Fuel, I'm suggesting that Wheaties could reach an entirely new customer base: kids who enjoy intellectual challenges as much as sports -- and parents who want to get their kids thinking about doing something for a living other than dunking a basketball.

Are you with me? If so, here are a couple things you can do:

- Post a comment below in support of the idea. Perhaps you'll mention an intellectual champion or two you'd like to see on the front of a Wheaties box.

- Share your support of this idea on Twitter, along with a link to this blog post... and use the tag #wheaties in your tweet.

- Spread the idea any other way you can think of.

- Send General Mills an e-mail, perhaps with a link to this blog post (let's dub this a "Product Issue.")

And if you disagree with me, feel free to post a comment about that too.

If we succeed with this project, perhaps next we can persuade a certain theme park operator to start awarding free trips to Nobel Prize winners, not just athletes: "Professor Shimomura: You've just won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. What are you going to do next?"

"I'm going to Disney World!"

Seven deadly sins of social networking security - from Forbes.com

Here's some worthwhile info .....

Seven Deadly Sins of Social Networking Security

Honored to receive award from the Center for Women & Enterprise

Wow - It was quite an amazing evening last week. Here's a quick video clip.

Thank you! ~ Diane

p.s. If you have 10 minutes, please get in touch! I'd love to hear from you .... Diane@EffectiveNetworking.com. So far I've heard from ONE person. Is that the only person in Boston I can help and vice versa? :-(