Today most news media operations are in the entertainment business and are expert marketeers. The golden rule for marketeers is  “Give the customer what he or she wants”. As one spokesperson for a major fast food chain said when responding to a question about their menu containing  items with questionable health value, “We would not stay in business long if we did not give the customer what they want”. Is our consumption of negative media coverage every evening (or consistently at any time) something that we’ve been asking for? Let’s change this now, there are more positive things happening in the world then what we have allowed ourselves to see or hear each day.

Marketing communications pioneer Tom Burrell, author of Brainwashed is a recognized leader and change-agent revolutionizing the use of positive and realistic images of African Americans in television advertising and the founder of The Resolution Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to self-healing and self-actualization. In a recent  A New Way Forward Virtual Training held online, he put it this way:

We have to understand … that there is nothing more powerful to influence human attitudes and behavior than media messages. As someone once said, “Media speaks more loudly than mom.” We can lay out the steps (to changing negative media messages) but people must be motivated to take them.

The Internet as a medium is a great tool, let’s not waste it. Lead the way, what’s Positive and Powerful that we can talk about now? Spread the word.

There is always something that we didn’t know or  a different culture to understand and diversity provides us with the opportunity to become smarter and wiser. We find that the issues that confront us daily are often resolved outside of our personal comfort zone via communication with people or communities we don’t know well.

Businesses, regardless of their size are seeing the advantages of diversity. Now more than ever, consumers of our products and/or services are coming with a wide range of needs supported by culture, race, gender and geography. We are living in a diverse and global economy and isolation is impossible and unhealthy.

As more and more women join the ranks of executive business leaders, they bring with them their unique understanding of how to build and nourish relationship, the importance of community and their sustainability. Women are leading the way towards a global recovery.

From everything that we have observed, whether a person is or is not an influencer is determined by the people who decide to be influenced….their sphere of influence.

Perhaps we never grow up. Perhaps we are determined to be influenced by someone else, their actions, choices, tastes, and decisions. And maybe we lack the will power and rigor to examine for ourselves what is right for us. Could it be that free will and self determination are illusions and that we are so confused in our lives that we need to be directed by others? That we need these men and women we choose as our influencers. I don’t think so.

Watch the Trailer for Influencers: How Trends and Creativity Become Contagious and let us know what you think and where you stand. What control do you feel you assert on what you do, wear, listen to, eat or buy?
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These professionals are experts in developing the best ways to make diversity work for the good of their corporations and internal and external customers. They are successful in creating inclusive environments in which every individual’s contributions are valued. Their contributions are competitive business advantages stimulating success for their companies.  They have made it to the upper echelons of corporate America, what do they know that you need to know? In addition, what might be possible if they collectively decided on strategies that begin to create salary equity for women? There are other challenges in the leadership gap – enough for these two days of critical communication and beyond. Attend, contribute and learn.

Women, do you have a fear of negotiation? You could lose $1,000,000 over your career.The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School publishes a monthly journal, Negotiation.  The June issue had a disturbing article about new research on women and negotiation.  According to a new book by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, Ask for It:  How Women Can Use the Power of Negotiation to Get What They Really Want. The article goes on to say “that men initiate negotiations to advance their interests about four times more often than women do; that (women) students who did not negotiate their starting salaries would forfeit at least $1 million in income over their lifetimes (wow!); that men are more likely than women to negotiate for resources, training, and other factors that boost job satisfaction and success. As a result, research says, “men who seek out career opportunities will advance more quickly in their organizations than equally qualified women who do not.” Women faced with this are likely to quit and when they do ask for more money to be disliked and penalized. Obviously knowing how to negotiate is key to your success.

Here are some other facts about women. Click the links to drill down...

1. Women comprise 46% of the total U.S. labor force.
2. Women make only 77.5 cents for every dollar that men earn. (2003 Census.)
3. The more education a woman has, the greater the disparity in her wages. (This was a stopper for me. The source said, women should be aware that they may have to battle harder for equal pay. Women in professional specialty occupations were found to earn just 72.7% of what men in the same position earned, and women in upper level executive, administrative and managerial occupations earned even less at 72.3%. If you compare this against the average of 77.5%, the numbers speak for themselves.” This does not imply that women should not go for the high level positions!
4. Women may work longer to receive the promotions that provide access to higher pay.
5. Women business owners employ 35% more people than all the Fortune 500 companies combined. There are about 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., a number that comprises nearly 40% of all businesses.
6. Savvy organizations and institutions realize that women are a growing and savvy group of customers. Women impact 89% of savings accounts. American women spend about $5 trillion annually…over half of the U.S. GDP. 85% of all purchases are influenced by women.
7. Women account for 46% of the labor force, but 59% of workers making less than $8 an hour.
8. Only 53% of employers provide at least some replacement pay during periods of maternity leave.
9. Four in ten businesses worldwide have no women in senior management.
10. Women earned less than men in 99% of all occupations.
11. Minority women fare the worst when it comes to equal pay.

There is work to be done. “I want to empower women to go back to their homes to influence others and their communities. This conference (#DWBiz10) is designed to support the leadership and executive development of women of all races, cultures and backgrounds; it will spark your imagination and energize your career.” Sheila Robinson.

This is an annual event so the pressing question is whom will Sheila bring together when the 2011 conference convenes in Chicago, IL? For now, be prepared to be in the Era of the Woman by attending this one. Register today for this important national personal and profession development event. Oh, you might also want to be there when Dr. Maya Angelou receives the Mosaic Woman Award and Donna Brazile speaks.  I could go on …but this just could be a once in a lifetime event. I’m looking forward to it.

Panel Discussion: The pleasure and pitfalls of social media present themselves daily. Social media tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook can enhance a career or kill it with the touch of a finger. In this session, learn how to use these media as an asset to your work and marketing. Through coordinated conference activities, all attendees will have the opportunity to use this conference as a practice space for social media. Learn how not to distract others or be distracted by these useful tools. Uncover for yourself how to get the best from social media.

Download the complete Agenda Here

“Layoffs attributed to business demand factors (especially slack work or insufficient demand) accounted for more than

Recently I spoke to a woman who was one of those separatees. We spent a long time talking about how she landed on her feet. Her name is Linda Michaels and she is the new Managing Director of eWomen Network of Phoenix, AZ an international women’s networking organization. Linda is vivacious and visionary two of my favorite attributes. She also has great professional skills, another fav. Though she wouldn’t tell me the name of the organization that released her, she said that as their regional HR director she was responsible for over 4,000 people – the hiring, firing (ironic), benefits, compensation, training and other generalist areas. On a personal note, she’s an avid bowler and dancer, hails from Sheffield Lake, OH (Cleveland), and is in a serious relationship.

I’ve coached and trained many people in finding their passion and power in the midst of upset. Here are the tips she and I discussed about how to transition from being a laid-off separatee to someone gainfully employed in an occupation that fits their passion and purpose:

1. Take time to grieve. It is a loss that you will likely remember forever. Your identity is not your job.
2. Don’t panic! Even though you are in upset, do what you can to keep grounded. Remember in this crazy time of ours you have a lot of company.
3. Reassess your skills, what you are passionate about, and your marketability. If it isn’t a yearly thing that you do (and I highly recommend this) get out the resume and go over it with an expert. You may be too emotionally attached to what was vs. what could be.
4. Take action! There are many reasons for this. Sitting at home eating bon bons with not get you back on your feet. Go to the gym – do something to keep the body moving. Not only is physical activity fundamental to disease prevention but it lessens depression.
5. Create your own happiness.
6. Get out of your own way. Bust through your own box. It will be uncomfortable. Deal with it.
7. Take risks. Be willing to not know how it will turn out. That’s what transformative leaders do.
8. Be authentically willing to give and receive. In this know what will support others, as Linda Clemons said at Linda Michaels’s intensive MD training, “Listen so hard that you can hear what is not being said.”
9. Be nice to others. People do business with people they like.
10. Don’t be afraid to be a rookie.
11. Network and socialize with people that inspire, empower, educate, and are great to be around.
12. Never give up! You are much too precious and your contributions too important. You are the only you our world has.

In Linda’s case, number nine assisted her in getting the position. She attended an eWomen meeting as the guest of Rosemary Price the previous Managing Director. Some one sent glowing comments about her to the corporate representative, and she was immediately hired. Good choice for all. Linda wants to increase membership. She said “I want to involve and expose the members, to make them look good, because that’s how we all win!” Her next big eWomen event is Fearless Women Day featuring keynote speaker and trainer Dr. Joyce Mills author of Butterfly Wisdom and the Fearless Women book. Catherine Anaya, three-time Emmy Award-winning journalist and anchor CBS 5 News will also be at the podium. That will be a big event with women and men who are all about number 11 on the list above. Number 12, well that’s what I speak about and want all people to get.

What else should be on this list? Let me know, I’d be happy to share what you have found works. JPMartin@TriadWest.com

Wal-Mart the worlds largest retailer has done something that conceptually may ease the pain and cost of getting a college education and degree. Wal-Mart to Offer Its Workers a College Program

The point of the program, they said, was to help employees get more education and to build a better work force.

This move by Wal-Mart does a few things, some of which are:

1. Increases the profile of “For Profit” education institutions
2. Verifies that “Online Learning” is the way of the future
3. That is time for corporations to do more for the communities they do business with.

Some people will be cynical about this move and we don’t believe  Wal-Mart has gone soft, rather they are showing us how smart they are.

Here to Make a Difference

For over two or more decades, large corporations have taken the concept of Human Potential and filtered it through the sometimes impersonal process called Human Resources. What has survived in the corporate world is the rhetoric of change, the managing of legal issues,  and making differences for the organization good with all too often none of the substance of developing people to be their best. What Human Potential was meant to be  has become, hilariously so, the foundation for  jokes on Dilbert, the “Family Guy” or “Two and Half Men“. Not that there weren’t and aren’t problems with the Human Potential Movement, there were and are plenty. But at least, from its earliest days there was in name alone the suggestion that there might be something there for people to learn, a new choice,  and a way to improve themselves. In “Human Resource” there is a suggestion of being used as one more clog in the machinery.

“Up in the Air” the movie that stars George Clooney and Vera Farmiga has a series of real life encounters with real people whose potential has been squashed and their humanity challenged. I am realizing that even with the difficulties of our economy, we could still treat people better.

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It is shocking how much we have lost faith in our ability to judge a person’s worth without first accumulating a lot of data that in the end doesn’t prove or disprove whether this candidate can do the work. Sure some research is necessary, but how often has the research conclusion been contrary to your gut feeling? In the end, which has the better record of getting the choice right.

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Yesterday on CBS Sunday Morning, one of the features was on “Fighting Hunger in a Land of Plenty” and how a number of organizations across nation have been committed to getting  food to the hungry.

Last week, the government said 49 million Americans are unsure of where their next meal is coming from. That is almost one in six . . . and 17 million of those are kids. –USDA

One of the ironies of the hungry in the United States, unlike some other countries,is that there is no shortage of food, just an abundance of waste. Good food (our interpretation) is often unavailable and/or overpriced. It is food that is said to be not good for us, foods loaded with salts, sugar and fats, and over processed laced with harmful chemicals. So an inquisitive person might extrapolate from all of this is all we need to do is to come up with a way to get healthier/nourishing  foods to the people who need it. That very well may be all of us. And if we can do this we just may solve the problem of how to provide affordable care for the whole of our society. Our goal should be living longer well, positively powerful and productive.

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