Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

"Good Girls" - Stan Could Roll on Ruby, FBI Rat Noah (claims he is) in Love with Annie

The genius in the writing of "Good Girls" is that the action is brought to what seems the point of no return.

Then, somehow, the three newbie criminals manage to buy time for themselves - and put distance between themselves and FBI Jim.

Tonight their problems deepened when it's discovered that the money paid to Stan's prominent lawyer is counterfeit.

Not only is the lawyer in trouble and will be deposed.

Stan sees himself as having no option but returning to be represented by the court-appointed attorney. That lawyer wants him to take a guilty plea. That's what Stan intends to do. He could get out of prison in five years and be around to teach his two children to drive.

Coldly, Stan informs Ruby that he will take her down with him.

But, as usual with the plotting, not all may be lost. The girls might figure something out to prevent Stan from taking a guilty plea.

As we knew from last week, Annie is aware that her lover and manager at the grocery store Noah is an FBI agent. She confronts him with that.

He slumps to the floor and admits he loves her. He could help her, of course.

Or, this could be yet another ploy to get Annie to incriminate Beth. The FBI considers Beth the big fish to reel in. Annie has to be careful. We fear for her. Of the three, she is the most naïve. Noah could rise in the ranks of the FBI if he is the one to close down this crime syndicate. Along with the three women could be GangBanger and his team.

Meanwhile, the trio realize they have been played by Mary Pat. The body they disposed of was not Boomer's. It was that of her first husband who had dropped dead of natural causes on the lawn. To keep the checks coming in from his military service, she never reported that death. She had stored the body in the freezer. Boomer is alive. He remains a witness for the FBI.

The Bolands tell the children they are divorcing. The scene is cute. They connect the dots as being able to receive two sets of presents for their birthday.

But Dean's work situation isn't cute. He can't adjust to working for another car dealer and is fired. He will have to figure out how he will support his four children.

GangBanger treats Beth just as an employee. Not his treasured lover. Something shifts in her. There's no telling what move she will make next.

This dark comedy keeps getting darker. We in the audience are caught up in the action per se. We are unable to "feel" for the characters since everything is so crazy.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

CEO Power - No "Hero's Farewell"

Power is heady.

The misfit Puritans made business one of the most powerful institutions in the new land. Actually it became the nation's shadow religion.

The economy they put together from scratch become the world's top dog. 

So, from the get-go, the leaders in business - often called "chief executive officers" - found it difficult to let go of that power when the job ended.

They still do.

Aging media tycoon Rupert Murdoch and investment genius Warren Buffett are not putting out there any signs of leaving.

Also, former head of legal media site Abovethelaw - David Lat - still has at least one foot in that sandbox. Maybe more.

Lat is now an employee at legal executive search firm Lateral Link.  The title is "managing director" but that's not being the number-one any more. 

The transition from number-one to an employee, by its very nature, represents a tricky crossroads.  Here is my analysis of some of that. 

"The Hero's Farewell, by management expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, captures that struggle. If former leaders don't navigate the shift just right, the implications are grim.

Their overall career could blow up.

More to the point, the business could flounder.

One has to wonder if Jack Welch had inflicted that darkness on himself and GE. He seemed to be unable to let go. GE has been in severe distress. The legacy of both is in play.

Constituencies with interests invested in those businesses in which the number-one departs might create a five-year rule.

That is, even though the former leaders might own stock (and a lot of it) they are banned from all official input for 60 months.

That includes no seat on the board.

Speaking to the media about the company is forbidden.

And, no organizing a stockholder movement to regain power.

As the platitude screams: We live in interesting times. How former business leaders manage their farewell is at the top of the list of fascinations. 

Full Disclosure: Recently I had a negative experience with Lateral Link.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Personal Branding - A Useful Concept Gone Berserk

Some recall when management consultant introduced the concept of Personal Brand. 

That was how we were to differentiate ourselves from all the competition for jobs, bonuses, promotions and other professional goodies. 

Mmmmm. Seemed like a good idea, didn't it.

Maybe too good.

That's why in America, where success is the unofficial religion, personal branding evolved into a must-do. In all facets of life. Toddlers are pushed into the box. There are the Mandarin lessons by the native speaker. The elite nursery school. Then there are the resume builders such as volunteering in the nursing home.

By time those offspring are in college they become part of the most mentally ill generation in America.

The book "The Stressed Years" documents that. The authors, Janet Hibbs and Anthony Rostain, explain how Millennials and then iGens got it that their brand is everything. Any dings to it, such as a "D" in a composition during Freshman year could elicit, at the least, suicidal ideation. At the worst, an actual suicide.

The mindset of current youth operates much like that of the head of marketing at P&G or Google. There is a rigid measurement of all behavior. The issue is: Did that help the brand or hurt the brand? 

Of course, craziness will occur. (As we know, most organizations also go bonkers.)

If the sessions with the on-campus mental health counselors don't restore equilibrium, then what is becoming standard is dropping out. Degrees are not completed. There is dark shadow of supposed failure.

One solution suggested in "The Stressed Years of Their Lives" is, from the get-go, to redefine "success" more broadly, as it once had been.

Back in Baby Boomer times, the majority of parents had no business model for their children's lives. Sure, there were the pushy ones about having their children becoming medical doctors or lawyers. But in general "success" was growing up to be a responsible member of the community - and happy.

College was a rite of passage, but no big deal. 

Jobs eventually necessary but also no big deal. It would be good to land a secure one.

Failure could get covered up. A relative would hire us or say we were working for them until we could regroup. And that would be that.

Can parents collectively make it their mission to turn back the clock? Can they return to embracing the child-rearing mission of creating character and laying the ground work for a life of inner peace and contentment?

A midsize city can pilot that program.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Sexual-Abuse Victims: Labeled "Loser Types"

"Per a yearlong investigation conducted by Perkins Coie law firm, between the 1970s and 1990s, Ohio State doctor Richard H. Strauss targeted at least 177 male students ..." - Amanda Arnold, Crime Section of New York Magazine, May 17, 2019. Here is the article.

By now there have been many many Robert H. Strauss sagas of long-term sexual abuse of diverse kinds of victims. For instance, one recent investigation of the Boy Scouts of America found 12,254 cases of sexual abuse of members from 1944 through 2016. Here is that report from Fortune.

Obviously, what has to be blown up is the myth that only loser types become targets for sexual assault.

The reality is that in certain times in our lives or in certain contexts, we all could be vulnerable. 

The college kids probably just wanted to get through and get their degrees. They knew they needed the BA or BS. Because they were locked in the system, of course, they were targets. And most likely equal opportunity ones.

In the setting of an organization that society told you was wholesome, there is enormous vulnerability. Those boys didn't have to come from "broken homes" or be emotionally retarded to be preyed upon. They just had to be there, trusting.

Therefore, what's got to stop is saddling sexual-misconduct victims with some variation of the loser identification. 

Ronan Farrow's detailed exposes in The New Yorker of alleged sexual abuse by Harvey Weinstein and Les Moonves present myriad well-put together females who somehow got into the loop. Their vulnerability seems to be simply that they were in a glam industry. No surprise, those with powers would consider them prey.

Now we know that sexual abuse is widespread. 

It's been around a long time.

And it will remain a fixture in all parts of life until communities, organizations, and the legal system figure out how to deter it. That includes what goes on in families. By their very littleness, all children are vulnerable. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Influencer Marketing - Big (and getting bigger), Volatile, Smirks about F.T.C. Guidelines

Anna Wintour, watch out.

On Instagram, there are kid influencers in the fashion space who have greater reach and influence than establishment media players such as the Vogue crowd.

I first found out about their youth and power from a communications colleague who's an adjunct professor at Manhattan universities.

Some of his undergraduate students are well-compensated influencers on all kinds of social networks.

The irony, though, is that they remain part of the Anxious Generation, who fall into despair if they are not receiving all "A" grades.

In Vanity Fair, Hannah Freedman captures the essentials of influencer marketing.

It's big and getting bigger all the time.

The volatility is extreme, with the following vanishing immediately during a controversy.

And both the influencers and those paying for the influence frequently ignore F.T.C. guidelines. In many ways, the space remains the wild wild west.

Much of the influence marketing is happening in fashion and beauty. After all, even third-wave feminists might admit: The Beautiful People have an edge. Those who can't get a hang about being as attractive as possible can even be sidelined. The Look is everything.

There is less activity in other sectors.

Since 2005, when I was an blogging early adopter, I have been analyzing trends in the legal industry here. Public relations firms whose clients are in litigation and vendors to law firms pay me to post sponsored content. 

However, my presence online primarily serves as a tool for developing new business. Of course, those who want to survive and scale have to be there.

That's time consuming. It's ego deflating to observe who's receiving all the likes, shares, and comments. And it's necessary to pick up on changing digital stylistics and reimagine how we post. But that's the way it is. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

Strategic Forgetting - Neuroscience Is Already on That

Forgetting is what we victims of PTSD yearn for. Not fear, as with those who carry the Alzheimer's gene. Here and here are at the top of the list of what I hope to strategically forget.

On this front, Axios hammers there is good news from neuroscientists. Here is that special report, hot off the press an hour ago. In a nutshell, we stuck in past trauma can get the hang of bringing up memories and inputting new information that override the hardened memories.

Quanta Magazine is among the growing number of publications explaining what neuroscientists have been discovering about what's called "actively forgetting." Here it notes:

"One form of active forgetting that scientists formally identified in 2017 is called intrinsic forgetting. It involves a certain subset of cells in the brain ... that degrade the engrams in memory cells."

Essentially, this is a process. What neuroscientists speculate about it is that it could constitute the decay of the links among neurons which imprint the memory. 

Actually, this is not new.

In 2003, I began an amazing journey of cognitive therapy with Amy Karnilowicz in West Hartford, Connecticut. Our objective had been to reframe how I perceived the world and created ways of reimagining my behavior. Yes, together we were rewiring my brain. 

And, for centuries, Buddhist monks have been helping the suffering through meditation which also rewires the brain.

That ability of the brain to change, sometimes radically, is called "neuroplasticity."

Around mid 2012 I began training in mindfulness at the Zen Center in New Haven, Connecticut. I might or might have rewired my brain.

But by early 2014 I was on the I-95 ramp heading west out of the pricey New York Metro area. I had the insight and courage to start over again - both my business and my life when over-60. Aside from one speedbump, I have been thriving. 

Buddhist teachers also provide exercises such as "cutting the cord" to reduce the distraction of intrusive negative memories.

But there are those traumas I haven't been able to shake. My career coach wisely told me not to discuss them with others. So, that has stopped. However, the pain from the flashbacks is still disabling. 

Neuroscience is offering hope that we can parachute out of most of that into a more Hallmark type of daily thought processes. I am alert for notices of clinical trials in my area. The journalist still in me will find a way to report on them.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

Rainmaking - The Old-Fashioned Way

It's palpable: anticipating The Downturn.

The only issues are when and how severe.

That  could mean many growth niches could shift to becoming a zero-sum game. So, there is now an obsessive focus on developing new business - both increasing what we got and reaching those prospects we haven't succeeded with previously.

The slang term for that is "rainmaking."

As an experiment, I veered away from following the herd on marketing through social media. I got old-fashioned, again.

The results include one returned client and one new one. Four others requested my bidding on some assignments.

Here's the story. I had made all the right moves to land an account I wanted. After I signed the contract, I created a short narrative, with a graphic, to send on a customized one-on-one basis to both those on my networks and those who weren't. I leveraged all mediums, including snail mail.

To play it safe I referred to the client generically as in "the X industry." No, I didn't give the actual identity.

Yes, I explicitly said I had room in my schedule for their business. And business did come.

Another old-line tactic is asking upfront what we can do for ABC or XYZ. That used to be called Making Deposits in the Favor Bank. 

An example: An acquaintance had published a book. I offered to help promote it pro bono. That new author asked for the how-to. I briefed him. Ironically, he insisted on paying a fee and promptly did just that through Paypal.

A third old-fashioned way of rainmaking is to show up in person at something, anything. That requires lots of effort. We have to extricate ourselves from our screens. At an informal tenants' group I slipped in casual references to my recent business accomplishments. I picked up an appointment to present my services at a pet center. 

When social networks and social media were new, those of us who understood how to use them for marketing had an edge. Currently, it's a dog fight for attention. The big names are the ones with the edge.

That's why as hard times approach - and come they will - we all have to pilot other approaches to bring in new business.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

 

The Innovation Game & The Painful Next: From Ted Turner to David Lat

They build something that disrupts the media industry. 

The innovation works.

The experience is totally heady, with great influence. After all, it's said that media - not government, business or even technology - is the most powerful force in civilization. 

Then they sell that media outlet or simply move on to try out another role. What could play out next could be labeled The Media Innovator's Dilemma. 

For creator of 24/7 cable television news - Ted Turner - there was no next after he sold CNN.  He became just another businessperson whose former outsized presence went poof. Publicly, he indicated he regretted the sale. From then on, Turner seemed in mourning. And for a while, CNN's ratings plummeted. 

In the niche - legal media - the innovator had been creator of Abovehthelaw (ATL) David Lat. That began in 2006.

Officially he has left that role and become what is really a salesperson's job at headhunting firm Lateral Link. Its playing field is the legal sector.

Of course, that also constitutes a shift from being the boss to being an employee.

So far, Lat seems not to be able to totally let go of the legacy. He posts on ATL. It's in connection with his current headhunting  role, leveraging the aura of the innovation in hopes of developing new business. But, still, a clean break might have signaled amazing confidence in what is next.

As an employee, Lat won't be in charge. Instead he had to get the hang of fitting in to someone else's organizational culture. That's challenging.

In more rigid times in business, corporate employers hesitated hiring former entrepreneurs. They were wary that the transition might be impossible. That was the time of the Organizational Man (and Woman).

Since then, of course, careers paths have become less linear. More founders are parachuting into organizational functions. 

At best Lat could become a thought leader in the world of career strategies in the legal industry.

That's different than being a presence in media.

In his current role, his success depends on body count: How many placements he can make. Yeah, it's business, not mission of changing how news and commentary are positioned and packaged. The organization measures success in terms of that business metric. Either you make the sale or you don't make the sale. The game is binary. 

Lat could succeed at being a headhunter. He could adjust to employee status. He could also make more money than he had in media. But gone with his choice to give up ATL is the unique influence he had.

Media is the loudest voice in just about every context. That "loudest voice" is how journalist Gabriel Sherman summed up Fox News founder Roger Ailes. Here that book can be ordered from Amazon. According to some reports, after being ousted from Fox, Ailes was conferring with deep pockets such as Peter Thiel, who funded "Hogan v. Gawker," to fund launching a competitor to Fox. No, Ailes didn't plan to get a job in someone else's media outlet. 

Also, there is the issue if ATL, like CNN, will shift into a downward trajectory after the founder leaves. Part of the innovator's genius is a good head for the business of media. Are those business smarts embedded in ATL? The ATL DNA was Lat's genetic engineering. 

My hunch is that Lat could have moderate success in the headhunting space. But it's the media innovator's dilemma not to be able to make peace with the decline in influence.

Meanwhile, it would be shrewd reputation management for Lat to let go of ATL, in rebranding himself as a leader in executive search. Turner seemed incapable of that kind of reimagining his professional identity.

As for ATL, the niche of legal media seems ripe for another innovation. It could or could not come from the folks at ATL. A severe downturn can create demand for a fresh kind of analysis and presentation of issues. 

Full Disclosure: Since the late 1980s, I have been an entrepreneur. There I found extreme success versus organizational life. Recently I had a negative experience with Lateral Link. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

The BigBiz of Wrestling and Ashley Massaro

Can a failed lawsuit "kill?"

Maybe.

All too often litigation becomes an obsession. When the legal system dismisses it those who had filed it could tumble into emotional despair and/or rage.

For former WWE performer Ashley Massaro the response might have been hopelessness.

In November 2016, she had participated in a class action lawsuit against WWE.

It contended WWE did not warn its performers about possible head injuries which could result in concussions. In addition, Massaro claimed she had been sexually assaulted when engaging in a WWE event.

The lawsuit had been dismissed.

Allegedly as a result of her injuries she suffered clinical depression and addiction to pain killers.

Now, it is reported that her death had been a suicide, at age 39, had been a suicide. Here is coverage by the media.

WWE has long been controversial. This death might prompt politicos to authorize a comprehensive investigation of the health and well-being of the performers.

There are those, however, who claim that the performers should be aware of the risks they take when entertaining. As with football, this sport may just continue on, as is. It's big business.

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.

BuzzFeed Fingers Tony Robbins for Alleged Inappropriate Behavior, Including Sexual Misconduct

Law firm for celebrities Lavely & Singer denies it all. Among its clients is Bill Cosby. 

The "it" is the allegation of inappropriate behavior by mega guru Tony Robbins. That ranges from alleged verbal abuse of audience members to sexual misconduct with employees.

But BuzzFeed stands by its findings of an investigation which included leaked recordings, internal documents, and interviews. The focus of all that has been the alleged secret conduct of self-help coach Robbins.

Unlike mental health professionals, coaches in that niche do not require licensing. And Robbins' empire is closely guarded from media. His coaching presentations aren't allowed to be recorded.  Here is that BuzzFeed expose. 

Immediately one wonders if the BuzzFeed investigation will derail the career of Robbins, just like The New Yorker ones by Ronan Farrow did the professional life of Harry Weinstein and Les Moonves. Here is one of Farrow's articles on Weinstein, dated October 2017.

In addition, will these accusations prompt the push to license all those who declare themselves "coaches?" In some sophisticated circles, life coaches have replaced psychotherapists. 

The accusations are, well, colorful. Allegedly Robbins had his followers, as a tutorial, simulate sexual release. He berated those who claimed they were victims of rape. It was contended he would have his employees take notes in his apartment while he was naked, as in exiting the shower. Five women have made those kinds of sexual harassment claims. 

If these allegations can be proven or if Robbins caves and admits them, that would be no surprise. Power can unhinge judgment. Those with it might assume they can "get away" with unethical and illegal actions. They figure the victims will be too frightened to snitch. 

This story certainly has legs. The immediate issue is: Will it deliver a blow right now to Robbins' business interests? The #MeToo movement still has momentum. 

Exactly the right tone and content for all your communications. Complimentary consultation janegenova374@gmail.com.