“When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion.” – Dale Carnegie. When you close a deal, what’s your next step? When you sign the contract, shake the hand and file the paperwork – what comes next? Is there a next? Or simply a next customer? Businesses talk a lot about ROI, or return on investment. They look at the man hours, financial costs, ad spend and more to get a customer…

There’s a lot of talk about relationships in business, and how to make business more human. There’s also a lot of talk about how businesses need to be more like friends, and treat people the way you would your friends if you want to succeed. Add in the view that businesses and their clients should be friends as well, and you could be forgiven for thinking you need to be either Ross or Rachel and sipping coffee in Central Perk…

We get easily distracted by shiny new things. We see something that gives us the “Oooh” ripple of excitement, and we buy into the premise. For a while, everything is good. We see only positives, and ignore the (in hindsight) questionable. But then the cracks appear. Faults that had always been present start to become clearer. Actions and non-actions reveal a side that we had previously ignored, but now can’t be ignored any longer. We start to ask the questions…

In business (and life) we have to fight. Fight for our clients. Fight for our beliefs. Fight for our ideas to be heard and understood why we’re presenting them. Fight for our value and worth. Choosing when to fight, though, isn’t easy. Even though there are times when we know we are so right, no matter what we say it’s going to be viewed as wrong. It takes a lot to walk away at times like these. You put in…

The best doctors are successful because they have immaculate bedside manners. Some of the traits of great bedside manners include: Being a good listener. Using easy-to-understand terminology. Caring about their patient’s concerns. Being non-judgmental. Respectful of their patient’s time. These traits are second nature to good doctors. Maybe more business owners should go to medical school.

There have been a lot of new definitions and suggestions coming to the fore over the last 12-18 months about what PR stands for. The traditional version is Public Relations, and has been since as long as anyone can remember. However, solid PR folks like David Mullen suggest it should be People Relations, as does online marketer and social media guy Ari Herzog in a post from earlier this year. Often it’s called Press Relations or Print Relations. I had…

Community is a big thing for me. I talk about it a lot. I show my clients the value of community and social equity. My 12for12k project is all about bringing the global community together for one overreaching goal. Heck, my blog tagline is “Community; Connection; Conversation”. So, yes, community is a big thing for me. Why? Why do I concentrate on community, as opposed to other “magical” words like ROI, returns, end percentages, profit margins and endless other affiliations…