Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Your Next Meeting: Kate Sirignano makes food preparation part of the process

In SUCCESSFUL MEETINGS, Alex Palmer describes how William B. Meyer employees pitched in and helped prepare the food at a company retreat. 

That was the genius idea of Kate Sirignano, Managing Partner at Image Marketing Consultants.  The objective wasn't to save money.  The purpose was to illustrate William B. Meyer's organizational values. 

The shock of having to actually participate in that special event did, in itself, get the full attention of the employees.  We speechwriters know the usual drill of preparing remarks for the kinds of retreats in which talking heads dominate and the audience struggles to look interested.

Kate is reporting a surge in the number of special events.  When I met with her at a coffee house in Hartford County, Connecticut, she told me that, so far, most of the assignments Image Marketing Consultants has lined up for the first quarter of 2013 is special events.  Weary of digital communication, people want to get back together.  Also, thanks to the recovery, the budget is there to do that.  What's frequently the focus is the reset from a recessionary economy to growth.

In terms of the scripting, I recommend interactive addresses which continually reach into the audience for input.  No, that shouldn't be staged.  Let the attendees know that process is being put together in real time.  Also small panels, including guest experts, can be workhorses for triggering fresh thinking.  Ideas are the currency of this global economy disrupted by technology.

Full disclosure: Now and then I subcontract for Image Marketing Consultants.  You can reach Kate at kate@imagemarketingconsultants.com. 

Freelancing: Damn right, things are good

The eLance survey, reports CNN MONEY, confirms what we freelancers have suspected.  That's that being an independent agent has worked out just fine.  We are having a good 2012. 

Not only are we making more money. We are also able to choose our clients.  When one of those whack jobs who advertises on Craigslist approaches us with an offer of a penny for six hours work we don't even get annoyed any more.  That's because we are fully aware that we can ignore that kind of prospect.

Not that things have been easy.  The tough part was adjusting to the new realities.  For example, I have accepted that I will not be charging what I had at the end of the 1990s.  At least for the next few years.  In addition, I have to remain more aggressive about going after assignments.  I used to consider that degree of obvious hunger in bad taste.  Now, you bet, it's the norm.  And, even though I am an aging Baby Boomer I still have to put in all-nighters.  The last one was on Friday to get out a proposal for a client.  No, there was no special thank-you.  The check was considered enough.

It's funny.  We old are supposed to be at the mercy of the volatile economy.  Yet I am the one receiving calls from laid off Millennial executive communications pros.  They have no desire to become free agents.  

That Whatever Didn't Work: Now, it's time to get clever

Former journalist Lori Gottlieb did what so many confident professionals do.  She decided to leave a career path that was earning her a living to follow her dream.  That was to become a psychotherapist.  Unfortunately, as she chronicles in THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, the market for that expertise collapsed during the six years she was in graduate school and living off student loans. 

First, there's denial, of course.  Then, as so often happens when professionals bottom out, they get clever.  Gottlieb fused her former background in communications with her newly acquired expertise in assisting people with walking out of the valley of darkness.  The result was hitting gold by being published in the influential TIMES about the pickle she was in.  Sure, she might attract more business for her psychotherapy practice.  But that's small potatoes.

Much more promising, she has positioned herself for all kinds of fresh opportunities.  They could range from being sought after to do articles for helping-profession publications like PSYCHOLOGY TODAY to workshops, books, and even documentaries on the business of selling anything, including soft services.  This woman is hot and will continue to be hot, if she plays her cards right.

The message here might be that in seeming defeat are the seeds of big and unexpected success.  The trick is not to turn inward with self blame and self pity.  After Hillary Clinton lost the run for the White House she partnered with her opponent and landed a position which has been the platform for just about anything she wants next.  

 

NJ's Governor Race: Two unique acts

In New Jersey, Chris Christie has filed the paperwork to run for re-election for governor, reports Maggie Haberman of POLITICO.

Christie is known for his unique performance art.  After Sandy, he was able to orchestrate what has now gone down in history as the iconic walk around the state with President Barack Obama to survey the damage.

Some contend those photo ops helped Obama sprint ahead of the GOP candidate Mitt Romney and win the election.  Also, that one pragmatic move pulled Christie away from the losing conservatives and established his own space. 

If another master performer Newark mayor Cory Booker decides to also run for NJ governor the theatrics could be over the top. In the beginning of next month, Booker will demonstrate how difficult living in poverty is by going on food stamps and living on $5 a day. 

However, Christie's actions during Sandy give him the advantage, at least right now.  The Rutgers-Eagleton poll found he has a 59% approval rate.  

Christmas: Average holiday spending @$749.51 v stepped-up evictions

The holiday shopping season began off strong.  Retail stocks are up.  That consumer confidence can be catchy.

If this continues, American shoppers will spend an average of $749.51 on gifts, estimates the National Retail Federation, reports DAILY FINANCE.  They will have a lot of fun doing that. Those receiving the gifts will enjoy that magic feeling of Christmas.

That's one part of America.  The other part continues to lose ground.  The 1400 unit rental complex I live in has, for the first time since I moved here six years ago, stepped up its eviction proceedings. 

Today, under our doors was the notice of "Important Changes Effective December 2012."  The rent is due on the first and should be handed over no later than the 10th.  Should that not happen, then tenants must request a payment arrangement before the 10th.  Otherwise, they "will be served with a legal notice to vacate on the 11th of each month."

I had heard through the grapevine that a growing number of tenants, both at this and other complexes, simply don't have "next month's rent."  An acquaintance employed as a psychiatric technician in an urban medical center told me he hears the same story from those newly admitted.  The tipping point, usually accomplished with booze, is financial stress.

It's cold here in New Haven, Connecticut and tomorrow snow is expected.  Fortunately, the city, activists have told me, has more than the average number of shelter beds.  Like last year, which was a relatively mild winter, there will be probably be men sleeping on the stairwells in our complex.  As far as I know, no one has ratted them out. 

Perhaps we can pass along some of that $749.51 to those down on their economic luck this holiday season. That could mean asking the children in our lives to sacrifice receiving one, only one, gift.

Craigslist Help-wanted: MASHABLE tells job searchers to beware

Influential MASHABLE has issued a detailed warning for those searching for jobs and assignments to beware of Craigslist help-wanted ads.  So, what else is new!

The good news, though, is that in many niches in communications the market has picked up for both full-time and contract work.  Just look at the long list on Mediabistro.com today.  And, as any seasoned hunter knows, the most opportunity comes from unsolicited short pitches to public relations agencies, corporations, trade associations, brandname individuals, and lobbying firms.

However, despite the problems with Craigslist - and there are many - the site still provides both opportunities and insight into the marketplace.  One might think of it as the space to find experience in a new niche.  By answering ads on Craigslist I obtained enough assignments in personal finance to test out if that's a special area of expertise I wanted to develop.  Once I had the confidence, knowledge base, and writing samples, then I could switch over to pitching to a better class of prospect on sites like Mediabistro.  As the street cliche goes: Ya gotta start somewhere.

Not that I haven't been a victim of Craigslist scams - or more accurately - an almost victim.  Because of a background in loss prevention Download Geezerguts I jumped at the supposed opportunity to do part-time store detective work right in my neighborhood.  This turned out to be the more sophisticated version of the Nigerian con.  Instead of my sending money, money was sent to me.  Priority mail (which, along with the email, makes it a federal crime) I received a money order (Bank of America hasn't told me if it's counterfeit or not) for $930.  The transmittal note mandated my contacting an email address pronto.  At that point I got nervous, after being told to send a money order to Poland, and told the email folks this wasn't for me and I was checking out things with the FBI.  The latter was amused. It directed me how to file a complaint.

However, other sites are not problem-free.  The difference is that when job searchers run into trouble with an ad on Mediabistro.com, they can bring that to the attention of the appropriate people and usually get appropriate action.  That's usually not allowing the placer of the ad to place any ads in the future.

UPDATE

Bank of America confirmed that the money order was a fraud.

 

The Aging of Oprah Winfrey: Public struggle Baby Boomers having in private

Despite the findings that aging finally brings inner peace, thanks to self acceptance, it's not a welcome process in America.  Baby Boomers, who were cultural and political pioneers, struggle with that state of being socially and professionally.  Therefore, one Baby Boomer who made it really big - Oprah Winfrey - is being closely watched in how she navigates getting older. 

As THE NEW YORK TIMES reports, since Oprah left her iconic talk show she has had a number of professional setbacks.  Those range from her new television venture OWN having problems in ratings to the decline in newsstand sales of her magazine "O."  At age 58, she might assume that she has to reach Generations X and Y but seems to be wondering how.  Are Baby Boomers doomed to being only to accomplish things among their own kind?

However, there might be another option.  Should Oprah accept that she could do well enough creating fresh content for the 76 million Baby Boomers?  This generation is taking on new challenges such as not retiring, at least not on schedule, and remaining healthy as possible.  In addition, this demographic is global.  Aging has become an issue in both developed economies like France and emerging ones such as Japan and China.

What Oprah is facing is the challenge of having to change to align with new realities but, as a public figure, doing that under a spotlight. Everyman and Everywoman Baby Boomers can experiment with that shift in persona in private.  

"The Good Wife" - Apple falls far from the tree, fortunately for Alicia

One of women's biggest fears is becoming their mothers.  When having  ton of psychotherapy was still a standard rite of passage this issue took center stage. 

Fortunately for Alicia she is not her mother Veronica, played last night on "The Good Wife" by Stockard Channing.  Veronica comes to visit Alicia for Thanksgiving in order to get some legal advice on how to secure the inheritance from her third husband.  This is a woman who only knows how to live through men.

There were shades of that in Alicia who used to be the good wife.  Now, Alicia is confident enough of a sense of self that she toys with the idea of returning to her marriage with Peter.  Part of this episode is pushing Peter into the bedroom and undressing him.

Meanwhile the tedious Kalinda-Nick-Cary plot line continues.  One wonders when the writers will drop it.

Holidays 2012: Pet grief, some things don't get better

During the holidays, at least with close friends, it's sort of okay to admit missing dead spouses, parents, and, of course, children.  Not that anyone really wants to hear that.  After all, most adults are barely holding on emotionally during this season of lights, joy, and socializing.  But what's still taboo is to confide that we desperately long for our animal companions which have passed over. 

By the Friday after Thanksgiving I had slid into a state of hopelessness about ever feeling whole without my dog Molly Mittens and cats Sarah and Carlotta.  Since I have been in 12-step programs for years, I knew I should have reached out to another member.  I should have said, without self consciousness, what I was feeling.  I should have kept doing that until my spirit lifted.  But I did none of that. 

Pet grief has come a long way from being a source of humor.  On "Mary Tyler Moore," a comic episode was about trying to cheer up a co-worker after his dog died.  Now there are greeting cards for pet grief and individual and group counseling at animal rescue centers.  But, there's a line that can't be crossed when emotionally push comes to shove during the holidays.  That's the line between what society dictates is okay to burden others with during this magical season and what it is forced to not allow.

Every year we do get through our pet grief.  But the amazing thing is that the awful feeling of loss doesn't get better.  I miss my three girls in 2012 as I did the day they died.

The American Dream: Finding it outside the U.S.

Part of The American Dream is not having to work ourselves to the bone until we drop dead.  As we aged, we were supposed to have choices about how much work we wanted to do.  Companies were introducing phased-in retirement.

I assumed I had that option until I blew through my retirement funds during the 9/11-triggered recession in my field of executive communications Download Geezerguts.  Today, I am grateful my communications boutique is thriving.  However, unlike Rupert Murdoch and Warren Buffett I do not want to put in the kinds of hours that I had in my youth.  To me 40 hours a week would be just right for the next 10 or 20 years that I remain a ghostwriter/scriptwriter serving clients and a blogger/journalist.  The writing life might not be as lucrative as being an investment banker but it's doable for decades and decades.  At age 80, Philip Roth just hung it up.  And some of us wonder if he will stay retired. 

But accomplishing a "reduced" work schedule like that might entail, as a growing number of alert ambitious Americans are doing, being an expatriot.  There is no romance involved in that decision. 

As Emily Matchar chronicles in THE WASHINGTON POST, there are both more opportunities available and a lower standard of living in locations outside the U.S.   The odds are high that, if I relocated, I could find the kind of work which paid enough and where the cost of living was lower than New Haven, Connecticut, so that I could be "semi retired," that is only putting in about 40 hours instead of up to 100 hours.  In addition, thanks to technology and the acceptance of telecommuting vendor relationships I could also service the accounts which are U.S.-based. Face to face contact is easily available through Skype and the iPhone. 

For me, this is not a new idea.  In my 20s, I lived and worked in Barcelona, Spain.  An overeducated Baby Boomer I took great pride that I was then dreaming in Spanish and reading the daily newspaper without translating the content.  What got my attention were all the migrant workers, be they language teachers or chefs, who followed economic opportunity.  Somehow I filed away in my memory bank that could be an option.  What had prevented it was that it used to be possible to make so much money so easily in the U.S.  Now it isn't. 

Help-wanted ads on Mediabistro.com, Journalismjobs.com, and Craigslist continually list openings in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and South America for executive communications experts, journalists, and even a few bloggers.  The training I am receiving in the eight-week online program provided by the International Center for Journalists and funded by McGraw-Hill equips me to parachute into any nation and cover any financial story.  Several weeks ago I got really lucky: I was awarded a seat in this program, right along side so many heavy-duty writers with global credentials.