connect2collaborate

07/28/2025

Grand-er and amazing-er, you can do it too

07/22/2025

Our milestone ages mean something magical to us. I outlived my mother who died at 69, my silent goal surpassed (until now). I wish people “Happy BIG birthday” when they reach a new decade. On the flip-side, some of us try to beat the clock with new time records, shaving milliseconds off a previous accomplishment. We speed through a road trip, ever achieving “record time” until traffic or a police patrol foils that....

Our milestone ages mean something magical to us. I outlived my mother who died at 69, my silent goal surpassed (until now). I wish people “Happy BIG birthday” when they reach a new decade. On the flip-side, some of us try to beat the clock with new time records, shaving milliseconds off a previo...

07/15/2025

You have two speeds on LinkedIn: warp-speed “on” or stone-cold-dead “off.” You know my credo: you have to be in the LinkedIn game with consistently concise, cogent, and compelling content. Your profile portrays persona and perseverance positively and professionally. They want to know who posted that brilliant comment. You want them to know how you accumulated such wisdom. The two must converge....

You have two speeds on LinkedIn: warp-speed “on” or stone-cold-dead “off.” You know my credo: you have to be in the LinkedIn game with consistently concise, cogent, and compelling content. Your profile portrays persona and perseverance positively and professionally. They want to know who pos...

07/08/2025

I am proud enough to admit I sometimes “connect” in an emotional intelligent way with those I meet in business. It’s sporadic and not an all-the-time obligatory rule. We might bond over a topic, say gardening, or our shared marketing commitment to clients as coaches, or our firm adherence to serious, quality discussion/networking. Not “promiscuous linking” as I call it that so many others do, collecting people they do not know or ever intend to nurture....

I am proud enough to admit I sometimes “connect” in an emotional intelligent way with those I meet in business. It’s sporadic and not an all-the-time obligatory rule. We might bond over a topic, say gardening, or our shared marketing commitment to clients as coaches, or our firm adherence to s...

07/01/2025

Blogger’s note: Will Ferry, my guest blogger today, is a former client, who then became a friend, and now a frequent conversation partner, whom I have watched evolve into a coach in the 3 years I have known him. But not just any coach, one who is caring, urbane, really smart, and compassionate, a rare combination. I know many of you reading here will enjoy his POV! ...

Blogger’s note: Will Ferry, my guest blogger today, is a former client, who then became a friend, and now a frequent conversation partner, […]

06/24/2025

I attended an in-person talk by Seth Godin at a local library as part of its business intelligence series. Intelligence, indeed! In 20 minutes of prepared comments, he sprinkled wisdom like raindrops. Then in 40 minutes audience Q&A, he addressed the dramatic and furious rate of change in our economy with some gold nuggets about entrepreneurship. Notably, it was to pump his recent book, “...

I attended an in-person talk by Seth Godin at a local library as part of its business intelligence series. Intelligence, indeed! In 20 minutes of prepared comments, he sprinkled wisdom like raindrops. Then in 40 minutes audience Q&A, he addressed the dramatic and furious rate of change in our econom...

06/17/2025

I recorded a podcast with a colleague, at her invitation. No rules were laid out. No advance advisory, no agenda on either part, and at the end of the recording, I thought it came out pretty well. It will be posted on her blog in a few weeks, she advised. And then the waiting. No word. I messaged her on LinkedIn a couple of times, inquiring politely, so I could pump it ahead, upon publication, and after too....

I recorded a podcast with a colleague, at her invitation. No rules were laid out. No advance advisory, no agenda on either part, and at the end of the recording, I thought it came out pretty well. It will be posted on her blog in a few weeks, she advised. And then the waiting. No word. I messaged he...

06/10/2025

I collect picturesque word groupings that are meaningful in imagery as well as in practice. The title is one. “Makes my brain itch” is another, that I wrote about a few weeks ago. When I heard the scaffolding phrase, it made me itch to write this. Be your own scaffolding, on many levels: Able to support yourself during your “renovation,” as in your change of position, company, industry, lifestyle, financially, emotionally, and professionally....

I collect picturesque word groupings that are meaningful in imagery as well as in practice. The title is one. “Makes my brain itch” is another, that I wrote about a few weeks ago. When I heard the scaffolding phrase, it made me itch to write this. Be your own scaffolding, on many levels: Able to...

06/03/2025

Recently I’ve received recurring recognizable reaches to render me reports, rewards, reviews, recognition, resources: un-requested, un-required. Repetitious! Rattled, I rage, remove, and refer to my recycling bin. Resolved, right? Wrong. Reappearing, reaching out to reconcile why I resisted or reneged to respond. Reoffering, repeating, then re-removed. I resolutely resist. Rinse, repeat. They rebound and resurface. I reconcile to rebel, writing this: …...

Recently I’ve received recurring recognizable reaches to render me reports, rewards, reviews, recognition, resources: un-requested, un-required. Repetitious! Rattled, I rage, remove, and refer to my recycling bin. Resolved, right? Wrong. Reappearing, reaching out to reconcile why I resisted or ren...

05/27/2025

Call me vulnerable. Because I am. I will call you vulnerable too. It’s clear to me that somehow, in some way(s), we all display being vulnerable, all the time or some of the time. My spouse has always called single friends and relatives to check that they arrived home safe and sound. The recipients tell her they appreciate this. But, in a new twist, some men are calling each other to say, “good night,” in a good old-fashioned phone call, as documented in…...

Call me vulnerable. Because I am. I will call you vulnerable too. It’s clear to me that somehow, in some way(s), we all display being vulnerable, all the time or some of the time. My spouse has always called single friends and relatives to check that they arrived home safe and sound. The recipient...

05/20/2025

A quote on NPR this morning from a student at a two-year technical college in Texas preparing for his career in factory maintenance, highly technical and manual work. The undercurrent of the story is that most college students use screens to do their work, and the loss of hands-on repair and adjustments in an industrial setting has led to the demand to surge and the supply cannot keep up....

A quote on NPR this morning from a student at a two-year technical college in Texas preparing for his career in factory maintenance, highly technical and manual work. The undercurrent of the story is that most college students use screens to do their work, and the loss of hands-on repair and adjustm...

05/13/2025

I am back from a 17-day self-imposed social media withdrawal (with some selected self-assigned exceptions) and hereby enter the LinkedIn rumble once again. It was refreshing and stimulating to "get out of town," way out of town--to tour the idyllic countries of Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and Bosnia--to celebrate 2 big work anniversaries (25 years an entrepreneur, of which 15 years as a LinkedIn coach) and several weeks back's big birthday (IYKYN) and to boldly return to post-COVID international travel....

I am back from a 17-day self-imposed social media withdrawal (with some selected self-assigned exceptions) and hereby enter the LinkedIn rumble once again. It was refreshing and stimulating to “get out of town,” way out of town–to tour the idyllic countries of Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, an...