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Forty-three years later, a guy I met briefly in Nova Scotia found me on Facebook… His memory was flawless, while mine drew a blank (ah, the joys of fun in the 1970s!).
The timing was fortuitous because in my continuing journey towards minimalism, I’m looking at and re-evaluating relationships and connections professionally and personally. Having thousands of connections /‘friends,’ means nothing if we don’t know each other even in just the smallest of ways.
Imagine this, and it’s a true story… a gym where a trainer gave out pot brownies to people working out without telling them they were laced.
Imagine this too, and it’s also a true story… a gym where a trainer had sex with a member at the gym.
How your staff acts and behaves is a direct result of your brand culture and has a ripple effect that can be used for good or evil.
Pyramid and multi-level marketing companies and I crossed paths several times. Despite how attractive these opportunities always sounded because of the massive amounts of potential income to be had, it always sparked an allergic reaction. Now, in the age of digital marketing and sales funnels, I’m having the same allergic reaction to the methodology.
With having such a common name, when an Inc. 500-ranked company that does clinical trials for medical devices reached out in search of a writer and rebrand strategist to help humanize their brand, I assumed they found the wrong Susan Jacobs because of my complete lack of knowledge or experience in the medical and scientific fields. But alas, they wanted me exactly for that reason - to bring a ‘fresh outsider’ perspective. This wasn’t a ‘fake it til you make it’ situation… Here's what happened.
It’s a hot July Sunday. There’s no shortage of fun things to do, especially in the concrete jungle of New York City. Some friends are salsa dancing at the beach and others are having backyard BBQ’s.
Me? I decide to stay home and update my resume for no reason other than it’s one of those things ingrained in me that one should always have a current resume because you never know. It led to a few Exorcist-like head spins but then some cool revelations.
Last September, I spent 48 hours bathed in the ether of Bob Dylan’s talent - working as production advisor to a Dylan tribute at Town Hall. An original medicine man, master poet, and spokesman for the times, Dylan, like Mother Nature today, was crying loud to get the world woke.
Earth Day is forever etched into my being. The first Earth Day, April 22, 1970, was celebrated half a block from where I grew up in downtown Manhattan. It’s also the day my parents serendipitously opened their new company, Earth Shoes, those odd looking shoes with the heel lower than the toe. The shoe was immediately adopted by the flower children and went on to make shoe business history.
Life is a story; business is a story. Here are tips on how to tell a kick-ass story about your brand, company, organization, products, or services whether you’re B2B or B2C. Wow them…
Why I almost ran out of a facial spa treatment with only half of my face done even though they pulled the 'bring a hot guy into the room' tactic. Always a sucker for a good looking guy, what was supposed to be a peaceful free facial turned into a head-spinning, pretty hilarious experience!
When aha hits, you must listen. This particular aha lead me to Ghana, West Africa. I walked away from a fancy career and paycheck, needing to get as far away as possible to reconnect with myself, recharge, and gain clarity about my life while participating in a Kundalini yoga teacher training program. During the almost two months in Ghana I learned many-a-thing including how to haggle and negotiate. Check it out…
There's a method to my procrastination madness - it's part of the four stages of my creative process. After seeing the same thing over and over again, I was able to understand the pattern and now factor it into all timelines for client projects or my own, and let anyone I'm working with know what's going to happen. Unconscious procrastination became conscious procrastination. Perhaps the insights will help you!
Drop me in East New York, Haiti, or Africa, no problem. But walking alone on a country road, or worse, alone in a country house at night. Hell no!! This tough ass New York City kid is a big old scaredy-cat! And it all ties neatly together back to storytelling. See how...
There's nothing better than a fabulous kiss. Agreed? And great writing can make you feel like anything is possible, you get lost in the story, transported to another time and place, even if it's a self-help book. Arriving at a website that doesn't assault your senses visually or intellectually and conveys the who, what, when, where, and why with ease, well, is a like a perfect first date. You want to come back for more.
My love affair with New York clock towers... Once upon a time, we used pay phones, not cell phones; listened to records, not iTunes; ran home hoping to find an answering machine message, not having instant access; we drank coffee from bodegas, not Starbucks; and the city was dirty, gritty, dangerous, artistic, energized, individualistic, and so much more...
If you were more engaged with your cell phone than your mama's tit when you were a tot, then skip this post! Baby boomers, read on, I promise you're not alone in trying to learn, adapt, catch up, incorporate all this technology stuff. There's nothing wrong with you. As my mom says, "it's generational!"
Step away from your electronic devices, put down that mocca frocca iced matte latte cup of joe from Starbucks, and take a moment to pause, breath, drink in the love, and find your own inner peace... Are you searching, frustrated, knowing there's more meaning than what you're experiencing, believing you have a greater purpose, want to have a positive impact in the world, want to be in movement of action not reaction...
What's up with all these Uggs and coaches anyway? I've seen upwards of ten women on one block wearing Uggs, and every day meet a new type of coach. This is actually about delivering on your brand promise... but I think you'll laugh along the way as well:)
Never had planned on starting my own company but did it twice, each time with a business partner. The first partnership came about when I was looking to exit a job and thought, 'why not, do this for a couple of months until I decided what's next.' Seven years later we parted ways. The second time was another leap of faith and 'why not' attitude. In hindsight, there's a lot more than faith needed to ensure successful partnerships.
Ten years ago, a homeless beggar on the subway opened my eyes to a new perspective. Words are powerful yet people are lazy with words. We use them without thinking. Spending a lot of time in developing countries raised my awareness about how I use words -- sometimes that consciousness sticks, othertimes not. But this subway experience was an eye-opener.
People have the attention span of a gnat and get confused easily so your brand messaging must hit it out of the park, and quickly. Be true to you, but with detachment -- everything isn't interesting or of value to everyone. Read, reread, cut, and cut again, then run it by objective others -- not your loved ones!
I write because I don't know how to not write. It's where I find peace, answers, inspiration. It's always amazing the reaction people have when I say I'm a writer -- what is the mystique or stigma that surrounds it? Sometimes it's as though they're in awe, other times, it's more like, 'oh you poor thing, that means a life of struggle, drugs, alcohol, early death...' As the young kids say, WTF is up with that?!
Hugging the president of a country doesn't feel like a normal hug, but it was one great hug! To see a friend in Haiti transition from being a huge musician to the president of this complicated, complex, and beautiful country was an experience. Needless to say, all means of contact are cut off when someone becomes a president so a chance visit a New York club was a happy reunion.
A brief interlude as a groupie from a free $592 third row seat reminded me to just let go... Growing up in a family of huggers, to this day, I hug everyone. If you read my Haiti post, you'll see I hugged the country's president, and with this experience I got to hug one of my favorite dancers from Dancing with the Stars. But this story is about so much more!
I’m chiming in on the Nike controversy around their latest ad with Colin Kaepernick and sharing my thoughts on protesting, hypocrisy, facing one’s truth, and what taking a stand for what you believe really means and looks like. Check it out…