Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

FIRE - From the Front LInes of Radical Saving

FIRE - Financial Independence, Retire Early - doesn't necessarily mean stopping work.

Instead, for those of us who still love what we do professionally it can mean having choice in what assignments we do and for what clients.

This morning I rolled my eyes.

A former client who had treated without respect in the past tried to foist on me an urgent assignment.

Of course, I didn't have to accept it.

See, I didn't need the money.

Not that I'm wealthy. It's that I have "enough." At least, for now. If that amount ceases to be adequate, then I will have to lower the criteria for assignments I find acceptable. No big deal.

Even with FIRE, there is no settling in. We play it by ear. 

Since October, the numbers in my portfolio were erratic. Mostly on a downward trajectory. I held off even on swinging by discount retailers like Goodwill. Obviously, my financial wiggle room was smaller.

Starting at the end of last week, the numbers surged upward. Also, I was tested as an "intuitive," passed, and have been hired to provide psychic guidance to those over-50 in their struggle with ageism. The compensation is less than my communications work but it's a side hustle which does plenty of good.

So, the financial wiggle room has widened. 

Today I bought a winter coat and five sweaters at Goodwill for $26.00. A few years ago, that bill at Talbots likely would have been more than $2,000. 

Goodwill, at least in my experience, charges less than consignment shops, yet carries brandnames, including the Talbots one. 

Goodwill has more selection that the Salvation Army thrift shops.

And it offers both a rewards program and senior citizen discounts. 

Six months ago I shifted from JCPenney hair salon to GreatClips in Austintown, Ohio. The trick in that is having a referral to a good stylist at those discount hair services. Through the grapevine I found my way to Hannah. The monthly styling bill is half. 

I downsized from an iPhone to one with only the features I need. The initial price of the phone itself and the monthly fee are significantly less. I cut an additional five bucks from the bill by prepaying monthly with a credit card. 

For the future I have even bigger plans for radical saving.

At the end of August I will relocate to a small U.S. town on the border on Mexico. The internet service is fine. Therefore, no limits on my telecommuting communications assignments. 

Crossing that border will reduce the money I traditionally invest in dental procedures. Yes, I have one of those million-dollar mouths, including myriad crowns.

Even with the best kinds of dental insurance, dental tourism to Mexico results in saving about a half what I pony up in the U.S.

The apartment I called about in that town reduces monthly rent a third. Its location gives me access to amazing day trips to California and New Mexico, as well as, of course, Mexico.

By bunking in motels and pensions I also can penetrate Latin and South America and cross the ocean to Spain where I had lived and worked in in my youth.

Can I become a travel writer?

That's an emerging dream.

And, dreams become possible again with FIRE.

My last dream was in the late 1970s.

I was stuck in the tiny town of Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Then state senator James R. Kelley had fired me as a research assistant, just as he had fired the previous research assistant. He also had fired the secretary.

It was a bottom.

At a bottom, you can look down or you can look up.

Up I saw I had nothing to lose by trying to become a professional writer. Within four years I was a ghostwriter/speechwriter for executives at Chevron.

Decades later, when I was blogging the Rhode Island lead paint public nuisance class action trial, I had the opportunity to post on that worst of times with Kelley. Here it is. Smirk smirk. I hadn't even dared dreamed of achieving my version of "justice."

A disbarred lawyer I assisted with his promotional materials for a guitar coaching business also has grabbed back hold of a dream. It was one he had had in high school.

He had envisioned himself as a high school music teacher.

By sophomore year in college, "they" convinced him that a smart guy like him had to become a lawyer. No surprise, he self-destructed. 

A displaced housewife I intuitively coached moved out of Greenwich, Connecticut. She is leveraging her divorce settlement to fund her dream to, as she puts it, "make trouble." I predict she will run for elected office in Jersey City, New Jersey. Since that's my home town I will campaign for her pro bono. 

Meanwhile, colleagues ask me what I will do with all the money I will earn if I land a possible lucrative book ghostwriting assignment. It may or may not come through.

Answer: Squeeze every penny.

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Casting Spells - "The Inventor," Debuting at Sundance, Features the Amazing Elizabeth Holmes

How so many were duped by Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes still remains a mystery. They range from Henry Kissinger to Rupert Murdoch.

Yes, the dynamics and details of the elaborate con were provided by The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou.

He broke the story in that newspaper.

That was despite how hard Holmes' celebrity lawyer David Boies huffed and puffed to not have the first expose published. Eventually it seemed to tarnish the Boies brand to have been associated with Holmes. Yesterday, he announced he was stepping down from leadership of the law firm he founded Boies Schiller. Here is the coverage in Law.com.

Eventually Carreyrou published the book "Bad Blood." A feature film derived from the book could be released in 2019.

But, the hunger to understand still exists - so much so that a second feature film will also be released about that saga. It's "The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley." The movie will have its debut at Sundance in Utah in 2019. Directed by Alex Gibney, it will explore the psychology of deception. Here are more details from TechCrunch.

A third probe into this kind of collective delusion has been Dan Lyons' book "Disrupted."

Fifty-something Lyons was laid off from his journalism job at Newsweek. To provide employer-paid health insurance for his wife and two young children he grabbed any job he could.

It turned out to be another example of tech startup magical thinking. More a cult than a contrived fraud it made no business sense. 

His next job stop was Gawker. And we all know how "Hulk Hogan v. Gawker" represented the beginning of the end of digital native hipster fun and profit, posing as journalism. 

Will all this analysis prevent the next tech con? The odds are against it. When I was interviewing sources for a book on tech entrepreneurship I asked why was so much money being risked. Most of the time there was no guarantee of reward.

The answers ranged from the anticipation of fast wealth to wanting to be close to the action. Those needs cast spells. That kind of voodoo has become standard. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

No One Is Happy with Facebook

Call it the Global Gang of 8. 

And its target is Facebook.

Collectively, eight parliaments are pressuring Facebook to address issues about how the social network may be influencing democratic processes globally.

They call their joint initiative, led by the UK, the "grand committee." Here are more details from TechCrunch.

The members are:

Argentina

Australia

Canada

Ireland

UK

Brazil

Latvia

Singapore.

So far, Facebook has ducked the "invitation." 

Essentially, its head Mark Zuckerberg has indicated he's too busy to respond to the issues in-person. However, that will no longer get him off the hook. The grand committee noted that he doesn't have to appear in-person.

In its most recent communication, the eight parliaments cited the recent expose in The New York Times how the leadership at Facebook doesn't seem up to the job of managing the current crises and preventing new ones. 

Meanwhile, Facebook's troubles are pulling down the stock market. Right now (11.48 A.M., New York Time), the Dow is down 335+. That means Facebook investors and investors in general are not happy with the social network.

Advertisers could flee. They have move their business to other digital platforms. There are plenty of them hungry for the commercial messaging. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

Sheryl Sandberg - Banished (will that throw shade on Larry Summers?)

Success in Silicon Valley isn't just a matter of brains and talent.

The network, that is the ability to reach the right people, also factors in.

And, Facebook chief operating officer (coo) Sheryl Sandberg is being factored out.

The New York Times expose functioned essentially as the force escorting her out of the inner circles of the tech community.

The door was open. Diverse constituencies let loose on their negative assessments of her. In Vanity Fair, Nick Bilton applied the label "vicious."

Bilton recounts this anecdote. She had been waiting for the cameras to pan on her and former president Barack Obama at a White House kind of tech meet-up. At that moment she touched the president's hand. Of course, that catapulted the photo-op to the top of digital coverage. Many technies seethed. But, the timing wasn't right for starting to toss rhetorical grenades at the Sandberg positioning and packaging. The brand still was intact.

No, Sandberg isn't America's high IQ sweetheart. At least, no longer. 

Like Megyn Kelly, who had been ousted from NBC, she has been outed as a seeming self-absorbed empire-builder whose ambition might have outstripped her ability.

How would security analysts rate her as a coo? Overall, the consensus might become that she, along with Mark Zuckerberg, are in over their head when it comes to the leadership and management of Facebook. But unlike "Zuck" who fesses up to flaws, she assigns blame to others. 

Will shareholders, like the powers that be at NBC did with Kelly, push Sandberg out? There may be a collective sigh of Good Riddance.

If so, like other fallen saints in tech, such Elizabeth Holmes, she may Become Wunderkind Erased.

There is one more question: Will the collapse of the Sandberg brand throw shade on that of her mentor Larry Summers?

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

FIRE at the Top of the Food Chain

The frugal ideology of FIRE (financial independence, retire early) has seeped into the corridors of a Manhattan BigLaw firm.

The attorney endorsing FIRE remains anonymous.

The missionary's views come to us through the twitter account @fine_freedom - and an interview with Law.com. 

Like many followers of FIRE, this professional is not unhappy with working in general or with the line of work chosen as a career path.

Instead, there is a recognition that the money made - in this situation big money - shouldn't be wasted. Also, through radical saving it's possible to gain control over the terms and conditions of one's career. Those include when to leave it for whatever. This attorney might downshift financially to working at a non-profit. 

@fine_freedom is critical of the big spenders in BigLaw. However, they are not unique. Conspicuous consumption is epidemic at the middle and top rungs of the food chain. Actually, it's almost necessary.

In settings such as the Gold Coast of Connecticut, professionals (and therefore their children) are judged on the location and size of their houses, the brands of their clothes, whether the offspring attend private or public school, model and year of their cars, where the second home is, and club memberships. 

Not maintaining that lifestyle can wind up penalizing a career. Information, notices of job openings, and referrals don't come one's way. Instead there can be a scary isolation. 

One disbarred lawyer I coached for a career change assessed that he embezzled to simply keep up with the spending that he was expected to do. That included having on his payroll in-laws his wife demanded he hire. When The Great Recession hit his real estate niche business hard he didn't lay off the help. Instead he stole. 

Today it's too late for him to embrace FIRE. He lives off Social Security and the profits of the small music tutoring business I helped him establish. But he takes pride in describing his new lifestyle as "minimalism." And he sadly smirks recounting how he spent $10,000 joining a network from which he never derived any business. 

On the other hand, a 62-year-old lawyer I coached to land another good job, despite her age, has no intention of cutting back on her spending. She positions and packages that non-FIRE ethos as compensation for a difficult childhood. 

Reflection: Could a version of FIRE have helped prevent the suicide of bankruptcy lawyer Gabe MacConaill? 

Coaching and Thought Leadership Ghostwriting about Issues Associated with Aging.

Complimentary consultation, sliding scale fees. Please contact Jane Genova at janegenova374@gamil.com.

 

Career Paths - Remembering Peter Thiel's Big Disappointment

Sure, Jones Day paid bonuses up to $400k to the 11 former U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) clerks.

And, sure, that has become a story in itself, and, according to Tony Mauro at Law.com, not an entirely positive one.

But, likely Jones Day doesn't give a damn. When The Washington Post broke the story that one of its partners Don McGahn was representing the Make America Great Again campaign, planet earth went off its axis. Jones Day didn't seem to blink. 

Some question what Jones Day and other law firms are buying with those large bonuses and is it worth it.

Jones Day has hired 47 former SCOTUS clerks since 2102. But, even with all that, it couldn't get its client Sherwin-Williams a review by SCOTUS of its conviction for creating a public nuisance through lead paint in Santa Clara, California.

Now, Sherwin-Williams, along with the other defendants which had been convicted in that bench trial, will have to pay multi-millions in abatement fees. In addition, the door is wide open for the filing of similar lawsuits in other counties and states. Here is Forbes on that. So much for the return on an investment. Client Sherwin-Williams could become the setting for the play-out of the next type of tobacco or asbestos litigation. Nice job, Jones Day.

In addition to the issue if former SCOTUS clerks are worth the big bonuses is the question if such a monetary reward boxes them into a career path that could be unduly limited. 

In his bestselling book "Zero to One," multi-billionaire Peter Thiel recounts how he applied for and was turned down for two SCOTUS clerkships. At the time, the Stanford University JD was beyond devastated. Now, he seems to smirk.

Without being pushed off that career path, he probably wouldn't have gone on to co-found PayPal and more. Incidentally, as Mauro points out, the SCOTUS chief justice only earns $267k annually and associate justices $235k. 

Meanwhile, with his much larger earnings, Thiel has had as much or more influence as SCOTUS. That included funding the "Hogan v. Gawker" breakthrough litigation. In addition, he financially supports conservative ideology. In photo ops he was sitting right there, near U.S. president Donald Trump.

Can the bonus game be blown up? Clients can do that by refusing to do business with law firms participating in the payout. The slogan can be: Remember Sherwin-Williams.

 

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.

 

 

Intersection of Court of Public Opinion, Court of Law - Sherwin-Williams and Lead Paint

Sherwin-Williams and its legal team at Jones Day likely knew it was coming.

The "it" is the filing of lead paint public nuisance lawsuits by other municipalities when it looked like the U.S. Supreme Court would refuse to review its conviction in Santa Clara, California. On October 15, SCOTUS made that ruling.

Here is my prediction that, given the SCOTUS decision, Sherwin-Williams was wide open territory for such litigation.

The stock price could reflect that. And the shorts could move in.

The legal fees alone will be heavy financial burden on Sherwin-Williams. After that, there could be the additional expense of jury/bench verdicts or settlements.

This is happening at a time when the housing market is down in the U.S. and a few other nations, depressing paint sales. In October, the stock lost 14 percent of its value. 

As many recognized, the odds against the SCOTUS review increased when The Wall Street Journal outed that a 1900 internal memo at Sherwin-Williams acknowledged the danger in lead paint. Yet, not long after, Sherwin-Williams published an advertisement promoting lead paint for residential use.

By partnering with municipalities filing the lawsuits, private law firms working on contingency can earn up to a third of large verdicts and settlements. Collectively, Sherwin-Williams and the other convicted defendants in the Santa Clara lawsuit have to pony up $400 million.  

In Forbes, John O'Brien reports:

"Recently, Lehigh and Montgomery counties [in Pennsylvania] filed their lead paint lawsuits through lawyers in Anapol Weiss' Philadelphia office. The firm is wooing other counties like Delaware, York and Erie."

O'Brien adds that Montgomery county filed its lead paint lawsuit 11 days before the SCOTUS ruling.

Lehigh county signed a contract with Anapol Weiss on August 28th. That specifies a contingency fee of 33.3 percent. Obviously there is plenty of money for private law firms to make. 

Of course, Sherwin-Williams is pushing back. Among its moves is a federal lawsuit it filed on October 22the. In it, it requested that a federal judge stop those Pennsylvania lawsuits before trials get underway.

The particular judge assigned is Nitza I. Quinones Alejandro. He had been appointed by Barack Obama when president. Therefore, the ideology may tend to be liberal. 

Essentially, Sherwin-Williams contends that law firm Anapol Weiss, motivated by contingency fees, has encouraged Pennsylvania counties to sue even though, the complaint states:

" … they do not have evidence that Sherwin-Williams' lead paints or pigments are in or on the counties' buildings or the buildings of their constituents." 

In the lawsuit, Sherwin-Williams also challenges the government authority's to participate in the contingency process. In addition, the corporation brings up the issue of the right of commercial free speech, that is, the constitutional protection it claims to have to promote its products.

As is well known, the court of public opinion intersects with the court of law. Litigation communications has grown to be a powerful and lucrative niche in public affairs. Specialists in public affairs position and package the legal and public policy issues for constituencies such as the media, investors, government leaders, communities, NGOs, and laypeople.

In my perception, so far, the formal public relations for the lead paint defendants have not aligned with the dramatic shift in the tone and content of advocacy communications. In my experience legalese and a corporate voice break down trust. In particular, I sensed that the public relations tactics  did not exploit the possibilities of social media. Here is my analysis of that. I had blogged the Rhode Island lead paint trial (November 1, 2005 - February 22, 2006).

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

 

FORTUNE Magazine - Can a Thai Businessman Restore Its Influence and Profits

FORTUNE Magazine, like TIME, had once been an influential media property.

That was before digital.

Now, FORTUNE, just as TIME, has been sold by Meredith. Like TIME it wasn't able to pivot from print to digital effectively or fast enough. The issue is: Can it find its way back to influence as well as profits?

The buyer, reports The New York Times, is Thai businessman Chalchaval Jiaravanon. For him it's a private investment. His strategies to generate a profit focus on digital operations, geographical expansion, and talent. 

However, native digital players are having their own challenges. Vice Media, for example, has been losing millions of dollars. Last year that totaled about $100 million. This year it's projected to be $50 million. It is reducing headcount 15% through attrition and not filling jobs. 

Vice Media, along with other digitals such as Buzzfeed, has been unable to align its tone and content with online audiences whose tastes keep mutating.

Jiaravanon's job number-one is to figure out what business readers want and need and then continue to do that every second of every working day. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

 

Vice Media, et al. - Hipster Tone/Outrageous Content Got, Well, Old

It was palpable. 

Not only we over-50 but also Millennials and iGens were becoming weary of the hipster tone and outrageous content of much of digital media. What had been cool just seemed yesterday. Downright old.

The tone came across as arrested development.

The content was neither entertaining nor useful.

And, all the while, they were sucking up all the oxygen in the media space.

Many of us returned to more buttoned-down media such as The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Bloomberg. 

As a result, Vice Media was and is among the digitals in traffic trouble. That, of course, translates into revenue and profit trouble.

As The Wall Street Journal reports, last year Vice lost $100 million. This year that could be $50 million.

Consequently, its chief executive officer Nancy Dubuc announced reducing headcount about 15%. That will be primarily through attrition and not filling job vacancies.  She is also making other changes. 

Digital Vox Media and Refinery29 are equally out of favor. 

The issue is: Why didn't those digital media outlets pick up on the shift back to "normal?"

Bloggers like myself got it fast that taste was changing. For instance, the personal was no longer in demand. Instead readers wanted more how-to content, with a bit of personal on the side. For instance, we should post a how-to on landing pages, with a two-sentence paragraph at the end about our own experiences with them. That's the extent of the personal. 

My hunch is that too many digital media became intoxicated with their ability to be badasses. What they should have known is that few get away with that for long. Time even caught up with Alec Baldwin. But that's nothing new. The day after graduation from college we are expected to be all grown up. 

Currently, we want digital media to respond to this question: What can you do for me? If the answer isn't on the money, usually literally, we un-bookmark the outlet. 

Attention is the currency of the 21^st century. Jane Genova helps you get it for products, services, points of view, causes, branding, careers after-50, and college admission.

In addition, this blog welcomes sponsored content.

Free consultation janegenova374@gmail.com

Forced Arbitration - Can Googler Power End That in the Workplace?

Googlers understand how to do political performance art. Their walkout over issues such as the $90 million payout to alleged sexual harasser Andy Rubin generated plenty of media coverage.

But that could turn out to be simply great theatre and no reforms.

One reform that employees in many other industries throughout America are waiting for is the end of forced arbitration for sexual harassment complaints. Googlers are demanding that. 

However. they might have expanded that requirement for all employee beefs, not just those associated with alleged sexual misconduct. 

From the get-go on hiring day, so many employees have to sign agreements surrendering their right to collective action such as a class action lawsuit for alleged abuses. Employers know, of course, how much negative publicity such a class action lawsuit would generate. 

Currently, employment law is a popular subject for the media to cover. But members of the media don't have access to what goes down in arbitration hearings because those are confidential.

In California there is one way to bypass those signed arbitration agreements. That is to leverage the CA Private Attorneys General Act. 

Here is a simplified explanation how PAGA facilitates getting around forced arbitration.

Litigation Communications

Making points of law, policy issues, and politics accessible and engaging for the public, media, investors, and more. Complimentary consultation. Please contact janegenova374@gmail.com.