Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

"Breaking Bad" - Who's in worst shape?

Jesse has taken refuge in the world of aberrant behavior.  That's not only about group drug parties.  There is also the S&M scene, depicted in the usual "Breaking Bad" shocking manner.  How long can Jesse hang on emotionally before he does himself in?  The only thing he seems to have going for him is that he's not a rebel.  He makes no gestures to take on Gus - or the new security cameras installed in the lab.

Walter doesn't like those security cameras one bit and gives them the finger.  He also risks calling attention to himself by purchasing a $325 bottle of booze to celebrate buying the car wash.  His wife is aware of the danger but he blows it off.  Earlier the wife suggests, when she sees Walter's face swollen by Mike's beating, that they 'fess up and go into the Witness Protection Program.  Walter wants none of that.  To some of us it seems a good idea.

Marie is back to stealing.  She visits houses which are up for sale and preoccupies the real estate agent with her non-stop talking.  Then she takes something.  She got caught.  It was arranged that the home owners wouldn't press charges.  But we all sense this is a woman on the edge.

New drama is created by the police wanting to look into the murder of one of the lab workers.  Near the body was a packet of information about a meth lab.  Tim suspects something big.  Could Gus get fingered or will Walter and Gus go before him.

 

Obama & Social Media: When a strength mutates into liability

It's a fundamental of management philosophy: Our greatest strengths are the source of our later failure.   That seems to apply to President Obama's one-time brilliant use of social media.  Now, it could be mutating into what will do in Obama The Candidate for 2012.

 
This morning on Fox News, U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy [R-CA] threw a hard punch at Obama.  He mused that it will take more than tweeting to address and solve the nation's problems, including the debt.  Given the large audience for Fox, this image of The Tweeting President [Let 'em eat tweets] can resonate through the coming campaign.

WALL STREET JOURNAL Op-eds: Contrarian Nassir Ghaemi gets published

"How can we get our client's opinion-editorial [op-ed] published in THE WALL STREET JOURNAL?"

Public relations players have been asking that for decades.  When I was working at Gulf Oil, which became Chevron, during the second oil embargo, public affairs head William E. Moffet hired consultants to decode how line executives could break into major media.  Thanks to that insight, I penned an op-ed for president Jimmy Lee which had been published in NEWSWEEK.  We never did get the gold: WSJ.

With each decade, of course, the placement task becomes tougher. There are more leaders competing to be heard.  However, placement is always difficult.  That's mostly because those whose bylines appear on the op-ed tend to be risk-averse when it comes to discussing positions. They don't want to play even near the controversy sandbox.

Yet, as we bear witness today in the op-ed section of WSJ, contrarian researcher and thinker Nassir Ghaemi gets plenty of space.  Here is his piece. A psychiatrist and head of Tufts Mood Disorder Clinic, Ghaemi frames what is conventionally seen as "mental illness" in terms of an asset, at least during times of crisis.  In his book "A First-Rate Madness," Ghaemi takes this to the limit and speculates that George W. Bush might not have been a great leader because he was not mentally ill and his terms involved the crisis of war.  On the other hand, Abraham Lincoln, well-known for his mood fluctuations, made a first-rate leader during the turbulence of the Civil War.

The lessons here for getting the client space in top-tier media include:

Create value through provocative positioning.   This is not new.  Way back in the 1980s, late management consultant Peter Drucker had plenty of his op-eds published in WSJ.  That was at a time when corporate America was taking an incremental approach to cost efficiency.  There would be articles, for example, on reducing the expenses associated with the company mailroom.  The headline on one of Drucker's op-eds was: "Sell the Mailroom."  He advocated outsourcing.  On that platform, of course, came the focus on core competence.

What is new is that boilerplate doesn't have a prayer, not even in the myriad blogs out there hungry for content and a big name contributor.  Unless the client is willing to take the risk of stirring up controversy aka a conversation don't approach media.

Publish a book.  The book market is in disarray. 

 
As THE NEW YORK TIMES executive editor Bill Keller pointed out, the market in terms of revenues peaked around 2005.  What that means is that authors shouldn't expect to earn major money from publishing a book.  However, a book still provides the platform for gaining traction for an idea, enhancing a brandname, developing new business, and reaching media.

The trick is to convince the client to invest the resources for making that book create new value.  Again, boilerplate is verboten. 

Here is my review of Ghaemi's "A First-Rate Madness." It was published on http://lawandmore.typepad.com which is housed on the Library of Congress [Download LibraryofCongress].

Hire communications talent. It sounds self-serving to recommend hiring communications professionals to carry the ball on the promotion end, which includes placements in top media.  However, the evidence is there that amateur hour rarely gets the results needed.  Sure, those adept in social media marketing [Download Socialmediamarketing] can accomplish much.  Just consider the Mommy Bloggers. They have the tone, graphics, content, and timing of posts down cold.

"Talent" does not necessary mean a brandname expensive Manhattah public relations firm.  There are plenty of unknows who are affordable.  Run help-wanted ads on Craigslist.  Invest the time to interview the vendors about methodology, track record, and unique approaches.

 

Suicide: Don't tell a story without it

Would "A First-Rate Madness" be selling so well had the author Nassir Ghaemi not thrown in some juicy tales of suicide?  Today, it ranks 5230 on Amazon.com.  Part of that popularity might be due to the word of mouth coming from people who are shocked when they read that those profiled in the book were not only emotional messes but had tried suicide, sometimes more than once.

For example, Martin Luther King jumped out of a window twice.  Both times he somehow survived.  Mahatma Gandhi tried it once in his teenage years.  JFK might have attempted it passively since he was, Ghaemi tells us, a classic biopolar.  Often JFK felt that longing for death.  He might have tried to accomplish it through his wild risk-taking. 

Suicide also turns an audience for a talk into all ears.  This week at a 12-step meeting, a speaker told the group that first his father, then his brother checked out.  They used shot guns.  One day, after his wife had left him, he himself sat with a shot gun.  He noticed the dog shaking.  Funny, what provides suicide prevention. The room was silent, during and after the talk.  It was a while before the audience got up from their chairs.

Crazy Times: Hire, give venture capital to, elect crazy people

GDP growth is at 1.3%.  So? 

 
There are plenty of people making a ton of money and getting lots of media attention.  In less crazy times those employees, entrepreneurs, and political leaders would be derided as "crazy," or at least "mentally unstable."  Not now.  That's because the times call for the creativity, resilience, empathy, and realism of these kinds of folks.  That's what Dr. Nassir Ghaemi says in his new book "A First-Rate Madness: Uncovering the Link Between Leadership and Mental Illness."

Head of the Tufts University Medical Center Mood Disorder Program, Ghaemi digs under the cliches about so-called "mental illness" and turns up its assets.   It was exactly those traits which are hard-wired into the DNA of those perceived as "mentally unstable" which equipped them to reframe what was into what could be. 

A stunning example Ghaemi gives is William Sherman.  A serial failure, he blossomed in the chaos of the Civil War.  He noticed that the traditional way of war was to fight soldier-against-soldier until one side gave up.  How inefficient, Sherman decided.  He decided that the way to win more efficiently was to destroy the South's economy and its high morale.  He did that by burning Atlanta and other cities. The rest is history.

Creativity, hammers Ghaemi, is not solving a familiar problem in a novel way.  Rather it's the ability to pick up on that nobody else sees what the real problem - or opportunity - is.  

Breakthrough thinkers in the paranormal [who by the nature of the work are usually classified as a little crazy] understood that mainstream acceptance was blocked by the population's veneration of the scientific research.  Therefore, reframers such as Jon Nowinski, head of Connecticut's Smoking Gun Research Agency[SGRA], embedded methodical investigation into paranormal work.  Discussions, lectures, group processes, and documentaries at SGRA focus on separating fact from folklore, and how that has been done, including with technology. Here is a typical Nowinski presentation.

The new normal is to not expect the old normal.  Ghaemi's book "First-Rate Madness" is well-timed for guiding companies, investors, and voters to consider developing fresh criteria for the kinds of folks they need.

1.3% GDP Growth 2Q: Build Platform for Long Term

The Commerce Department confirmed today that the growth in GDP during 2Q was horrific, at least for the U.S.  It is 1.3%, reports THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Those of us hustling intuitively felt this slow-down.  Yet, the extreme buying caution in the current marketplace has nothing to do with what future demand could be.  In fact, in talking with those in a broad spectrum of professional services, ranging from law to public affairs, I am finding that this period is being leveraged as an opportunity to build platforms for the longer term.  That future probably will include doing business globally.  More of us are migrating out of a primary focus on the U.S. market to explore the emerging nations where GDP is growing at up to 8%.

Jeff Kindler: Extreme example, perhaps, of low emotional intelligence

At Pfizer, chief executive officer Jeff Kindler couldn't sell the organization on what it would take to get unstuck and moving again in the direction of being a pharmaceutical powerhouse again.  In 2010, reports FORTUNE, he was pressured to resign.  The way FORTUNE tells the story of the fall of this player provides insight on the need for high emotional intelligence [EI] in an economy disrupted by globalization and technology.

"The Social Animal" by David Brooks might be such a best-seller because more and more of us are recognizing our professional survival depends on our ability to read a situation quickly and accurately and then configure and execute the best, at least for the time, response.  By trial and error I acquired or re-acquired it after the executive-communications niche shrunk in the early 21st century [Download CUsersjasneDocumentsjg].  Not only am I now able to make a good living.  I can determine what assignments to accept.  After all, as we know from the 80/20 rule, not all accounts are created equal.

What might have created the deficit in Kindler's EI? From my experience covering the legal sector - http://lawandmore.typepad.com- I have found that lawyers have an unusually difficult time in career transition.  Kindler started out as a successful trial attorney [Williams & Connolly] and corporate general counsel [McDonald's].  Successful lawyers tend to have a mindset, persona, and methodologies unique to that line of work.  Those don't only not transfer well.  They become an obstacle.  For instance, much of traditional law is built on the adversarial model.  Organizational life, though, demands intense cooperation, including continuous compromise.

How do we boost our EI?  Reverse engineer every professional encounter, positive and negative, about what worked, what didn't, and what might have worked.  Stay willing to keep fine-tuning, as well as overhauling.  Current U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is a prime example of high EI.

 

Paranormal: CT's Smoking Gun Research Agency goes beyond fright factor

There is a science of the paranormal. 

 
Actually, as the front-lines researchers will hammer, their mission is to take beliefs and values beyond the "fright factor."  Through painstaking investigations, they uncover often mundane causes for so-called other-worldly events.

Last night I attended a two-hour discussion by paranormal investigator Jon Nowinski at Connecticut's Smoking Gun Research Agency [SGRA], based in Orange.  I was not the first media source to check it all out.  SGRA has been featured on AOL, "Nightline," THE NEW YORK TIMES, Fox, and myriad state newspapers. Here is the AOL coverage.

Nowinski, who started nonprofit SGRA back in the 1990s, picked haunted places to separate the facts from what has come down in folklore, thanks to the fright factor.   One fact we learned right away was the settings with paranormal legacies often have iron in the soil which can leach into crops, water, and whatever.  In excess that iron can trigger delusions, including visions of ghosts.  Salem, Massachusetts had plenty of iron in its soil at the time of those odd activities which finally resulted in witch-burnings.

There had also been iron in enclaves in Connecticut with reputations for being haunted, Nowinski explained. However, other factors could also have played a part in why residents and visitors to places like Dudleytown, Connecticut reported strange experiences.  Those include malevolent creatures bringing in negative energy.  Also, human beings living there in secret at the time might have wanted to scare off intruders.  In addition, the volume of human traffic in itself might have upset the local equilibrium.

The conclusion?  Yes, areas could be embedded with paranormal entities.  However, the lion's share of those were likely existing more in the mindsets of folks who enjoyed becoming scared than in some soul-force.

Nowinski then moved into the larger subject of how negative energy becomes part of an entity and then how it can be released.  With the popularity of buying and selling used objects, be that on ebay, the thrift shop, or a flea market, people are finding themselves in the midst of negative energy in their homes. 

The typical situation, Nowinski explained, was the person who buys a Native American relic or a cool-looking military jacket.  A few days after their lives are turned upside down.  In a panic they might contact a paranormal investigator such as Nowinski or John Zaffis.  Likely, something about the person triggered the object to emit the energy.  The solution?  Frequently there is a "cleansing" ritual and the object is removed. 

Incidentally, objects are not the only triggers.  Human beings who are depleted spiritually or emotionally and/or haven't protected themselves against the mischief-doers out there can be invaded.  Groups like SGRA teach how to block those energy-drainers.

Several days every week there are discussions, films, lectures, and group processes at SGRA.  Members also have access to a lending library.  Here you can find out more, including the calender of events.

LA TIMES Cuts, including Stars: How writers can stay working

LA TIMES, owned by the Chicago Tribune Company, laid off yesterday.  The exact number of cuts is not known.  However, as Mediabistro.com reports, stars went.  They are said to include Sharon Bernstein, Tim Rutten, and Jerry Crowe. A few weeks ago, there was a layoff at the HARTFORD COURANT, another Chicago Tribune media property.

Obviously, in an industry that hasn't found its way to make it in a digital age, being at the top of your field matters less and less.  To save costs, newspapers are relying more and more on good-enough.  NEWSWEEK still has the budget to stick with maintaining first-class content.

So how does a writer continue to make a good living?  Many writers don't want to hear this.  However, this is what I have discovered during a rocky professional journey during the past two years.

Yes, keep our hands in journalism.  Having up-to-date clips in our portfolio is necessary to stay in any and all the communications games.  However, don't let that drain us.  Traditional journalistic clips are worth less than digital ones, at least in attracting the kinds of work available.

Overall, the closer to the point of sales we get the more marketable are the skills we use.  Through trial and error I have found my way into social media marketing [Download Socialmediamarketing].   Initially, I assumed there would be a demand for my social media skills themselves.  Wrong.  What was available in terms of assignments wasn't enough to pay the bills.  What prospects wanted to see was a resume and cover letter which demonstrated experience in social media marketing, everything from email blasts to the PR Web type release to building communities.  Get that experience.  That's what I did.

Another reality of making a buck in our time is to focus on the right fields to write about.  Not all are equal, at least in terms of marketability.  Technology, science, medicine, healthcare, finance/investment, and fashion are all good.  There is a glut in business per se, personal reflections, and legal.  Not having samples in hot fields means not getting assignments.

Also, as Henry Cloud hammers in "Necessary Endings," as we move along we should be pruning our networks.  That group of writers we hung with three years ago could be holding us back today.  Stick with those who have access to streams of revenue.  If someone is bemoaning the passing of the good old days, run.

Matt Drudge a happy man: AOLHuff stock at all-time low

Sometime political positions are more than positions.  Sometimes they are hooks in our soul.  So seems the situation with conservative Matt Drudge who invented the digital aggregate.  Soon enough liberal Arianna Huffington imitated it.  Tim Armstrong who heads AOL saw Huffington's site as useful to him and bought it and her services for millions.

Now Drudge gets to see the train derail.  On his own site he highlights that the AOL stock is at an all-time low.  That's 17.69.  It must delight him even more that this dive is even before the 2Q numbers come out next week. 

Another happy camper might be media critic Ken Auletta.  He was not optimistic in his THE NEW YORKER article last January about Armstrong's ability to turn the company around. 

Disclosure: I had been a contract blogger for AOL.