20 July 2006 
World Trade Center, Oliver Stone’s New Movie
World Trade Center “Redemption,” wrote Cal Thomas earlier when he saw Oliver Stone’s movie. Stone may have redeemed himself.
Tonight, Thursday, The Washington Insiders were invited to a private screening of World Trade Center. I got in on a waiver. I would have been easy to pick out of this cool crowd: I was the only one with a bucket of (fattening) buttered popcorn, slurping a giant Coke.
Your Business Blogger, Charmaine
Melissa and Rob Bluey
Charmaine and I joined Rob Bluey, blog editor at Human Events and his wife Melissa from The Atlantic Monthly and the smart crowd at a Cinema near Charmaine’s office to see Stone’s newest movie.
What it was and what it was not.
It was not a conspiracy movie.
It did not bash Bush.
It was not sappy.
It was not about stupid, church-going nuts.
It did not mock marriage.
It did not blame America.
It did not support radical Islam.
It did not mock Marines.
It did not mock Jesus.
It did not mock cops.
It did not mock family, faith or freedom.
Charmaine says, “It was a Hallmark Hall of Fame special…on steroids.” Jim Pinkerton, from the New America Foundation DID NOT tear up. Me neither.
But the theater was a bit dusty. That stuff can get in your eyes. Or was it dust from the movie?
This is a movie that you will see in a few weeks and you will be glad you did. After the viewing, there was no applause, little talking. At the end, the crowd audibly exhaled, as one.
People moved out as if leaving a wake. Tony Blankley and his significant other were the last, the very last to leave. They were moved.
Laura Ingram moved out quick; she was among the first out. Dr. Land, President of the Southern Baptist Convention expected to walk out early and didn’t.
We spoke to Blankley. He was surprised at Stone’s movie, “Good, True, Patriotic, Religious.”
Kate O’Beirne from Nation Review was a bit more skeptical about Oliver Stone, “His other movies don’t sell, nobody goes to them. So he made this to appeal — to sell. He wants to make money.”
And so he will. You must see how Stone can make a movie with Jesus, yes Him, without a smirk. Mel Gibson can do Passion, sure. But Oliver Stone?
Better check the temperature in Hell. The impossible has happened. Oliver is redeemed.
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New Blog? Enter the Showcase Carnival!
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Information overload. The problem of blog reading is not that there is so much — But that so much is actually very good.
So what’s a surfer to do?
The solution: Find a friend — to act as your editor, a trusted filter.
And the new blog ShowCase Carnival is such a filter-friend.
Be sure to visit and comment.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The ShowCase of New Blogs reviews interesting new articles each week from infant blogs — less than 3 months old.
This carnival is the work of Ogre. Semper Fidelis.
Your Business Blogger will be hosting the Carnival next week. Please submit an article this week and next week using the handy Carnival Submit Form or alert me to a new blogger you like!
14 July 2006
The Modern Working Woman in Business, at Home
So here’s the typical mom in America today: baby on knee, small business down the street, with rifle in Pakistan.
Your Business Blogger(R) wrote a column for Small Business Trends a while back. About the highlights — and I’m not talking hair — of a typical mom. Yes, women have always been producers — breeding babies and businesses since Eden, but this is something each generation has to discover for itself. See Women’s Future in the Small Business Labor Force.
Helen, second from left
with rifle “consulting” in Pakistan
“How do you it all?” Accomplished women with kids constantly get this question.
Helen Philbrook, married and mother of three, from Raleigh, NC, has the answer.
Your Business Blogger(R) sat down with Helen and her husband David to learn the secret.
Helen:
GARDENING WITH CONFIDENCE™
She’s a former Vice President of an environmental testing firm, and perhaps the world’s first female “Smoke Stack Sniffer.” She’s run a number of start-ups.
But Helen says she’s now “followed her passion to gardening.” One of her first companies Tiger Lily’s was an award-winning firm and her current company, Gardening with Confidence gives her what she needs most:
Flexibility.
She was well-prepared. Helen has an M.S. in Environmental Engineering and Science, studied Garden Design in London, and completed a series of international consulting assignments. In a male-dominated business. Where she learned:
Negotiation.
The greatest challenge women face in business is learning to negotiate.
But she also negotiates with her clients. Hard. She establishes upfront contracts with the explicit understanding that her family will come first.
She is an advocate of “sequencing” for women — marriage, children, work. Helen says a woman can always have an “ambitious career.” After the kids are in school. She knows she will anger feminists.
She has advice to young women starting out. Where the fear is that they will get behind the power curve. “Not so.”
Helen says, “Your career is still waiting for you.”
After your children.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Helen is my sister.
Follow Your Business Blogger(R) on Twitter.
No Speed Bumps has Women in Engineering.
Alas, a blog has Homeward Bound.
Basil’s Blog has Breakfast.
13 July 2006
ShowCase Carnival: Attention New Bloggers
ShowCase CarnivalInformation overload. The problem of blog reading is not that there is so much — But that so much is actually very good.
So what’s a surfer to do?
The solution: Find a friend — to act as your editor, a trusted filter.
The Grill Maestro is hosting this week.
And the new blog ShowCase Carnival is such a filter-friend.
Be sure to visit and comment.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The ShowCase of New Blogs reviews interesting new articles each week from infant blogs — less than 3 months old.
This carnival is the work of Ogre. Semper Fidelis.
Your Business Blogger will be hosting the Carnival next week. Please submit an article this week and next week using the handy Carnival Submit Form or alert me to a new blogger you like!
12 July 2006
Tom Peters(!) and Rick Kaplan: Who’s Who
Tom Peters “Look, there’s Tom Peters,” I whisper to Charmaine. “What’s he doing here?”
We were at a show bizzie garden party in Georgetown in Your Nation’s Capital. It’s a pre-party for a big-party, for media moguls. Drink freely. Talk freely. It’s Off The Record.
There are no name tags.
Tom Peters is a super star. But not in quite the same way as Joe Pantoliano from the Sopranos or Chris Matthews from Hardball or Tom Oliphant with the Boston Globe. (Who is looking good after a brain aneurysm last year. Don’t like his opinions. But glad he’s around to kick around.) Morgan Fairchild, Bernie Trainor and Tucker Carlson, who says he’s quit smoking.
But ! is a business super star. So we elbow our past Michael Barone, Howard Kurtz, and step on Bob Schrum’s feet. He’s got no sense of humor. Democrat.
We go straight for Peters, unafraid to intrude and break in — the roof constitutes an introduction as Miss Manners might say.
We reach our target. “Hello,” I stick out my hand, “Jack Yoest,” I’ve always wanted to meet you…”
He faces me, “Rick Kaplan, nice to meet you.”
Who?
Rick Kaplan Charmaine sees my quarter second silence and knows immediately something’s wrong. She jumps in. “Yes, Rick, I’ve done MSNBC and we loved your work on Nightline…” Kaplan makes eye contact; makes small talk. Bookings, Ratings, Revenue.
Then we are mercifully pushed aside by the slobbering scrum of lower lights, bottom billings. (How did they get in?)
Anyway, I might be forgiven in that Tom Peters and Rick Kaplan are twins, I think. But I don’t think they’ve met.
Alert Readers will note that Rick Kaplan recently left his number three slot at MSNBC. I don’t know his reason for leaving or how MSNBC will fare without him.
But I know that he is a gentleman. Because of how he treats bumbling unknown nobodies.
Like me.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The identifying names captioned below the pictures are… reversed.
See the Washington Post.
7 July 2006
Washington Baltimore Corridor Music Camp
The Diva on Piano The Baptist Convention of Baltimore and Delware is sponsoring a music camp. Starts this Sunday and spaces are filling up.
Cost $99 per child — We’ll be sending our Penta-Posse.
Call Bryan at 410 -dot- 695 -dot- 5374 to reserve a spot. Reservations can also be made at the door at First Baptist Church in Laurel, Maryland. Or email Bryan at BPatrick AT FirstBaptistLaurel dot org
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Cross posted at Reasoned Audacity.
6 July 2006
The New Sales Cycle: Forecast Failure in 8 Easy Steps
Every motivational speaker uses Babe Ruth as the example to just keep swinging for the fences. Joy always comes with persistence. Keep Swinging!
This is a lie.
Your Business Blogger
with sales baubles:
Always avoid
braggards and
blowhards
like this.
Managing salesfolks is the best job in the world.
And the worst job in the world. Your Business Blogger has had a number of sales teams full of Babe Ruths. The swings, the misses, the whining. The winning.
The pain. Even for the Babe, striking out would hurt.
But not all sales guys have Ruth’s talent.
Most fail.
And here is the script so that you, too, can see failure coming down the track. Like a whistle before the train wreck, listen for these clues.
It starts in the interview. The bragging sales guy [ tout chapeau aucun betail ]says, “Hire me…”
1) I can sell anything, (You Want Refrigerators in Antarctica? I’m Your Man) and so he begins,
2) Exaggerate the client’s interest, (They Love Us, Baby) with
3) Unfounded optimism, (The Deal is Done — Good as Booked) then
4) Excuses Galore, (The Order is Coming — Next Quarter, You Can Take That to the Bank) — here it is:
5) Disaster, (My Contact Quit, Stabbed in the Back, Poor Bugger.) followed by
6) More Optimism (We’ll get ‘em Next Quarter — Guaranteed) and later
7) Finger Pointing (It’s a terrible territory; It’s not the man — it’s the land.) finally
Abandonment (Great concept; a little too soon…Sign this expense report.)
And he’s off to another start-up making even more money. (Not that I’d know.)
So, if your need something to sell; You Want Refrigerators in Anartica? I’m Your Man.
Meanwhile, check out my upcoming post on working with super star Bono — coming tomorrow. U 2 can be a star. (See #2 and #3 above.) “Hire me…”
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Be sure to know When to Quit.
And visit my weekly column in Anita Campbell’s Small Business Trends.
4 July 2006
Plan Your Next Event — Be SAFE
In the Army, Your Business Blogger first learned the ’7 P’s of Planning’: Proper Prior Planning Prevents [Pretty] Poor Performance.
Except the fifth ‘P’ wasn’t, well, Pretty.
Event Planning is made easy by being SAFE:
Speaker
Audience
Food
Entertainment
For more detail, please visit Event Planning: Keeping it SAFE in 4 Easy Steps at my weekly column in Small Business Trends.
3 July 2006
Get a Blog; Get Hired — And the First Question
Blogs are better
than classifed ads Whenever Charmaine or Your Business Blogger have to hire someone, the first question we ask ourselves is,
Who do we know?
So we then tap into our network of contacts and friends and get the background propaganda on candidates.
But to really, really know a candidate, we’d like to check deeper on:
Their Opinions, and
Are their Opinions worthy? and
Does the Candidate want those Opinions known, and
Does the Candidate want to make a difference?
To learn it all fast and easy, we ask, “Does she have a blog?”
We now have an (unwritten) rule: We like to hire only those who write and read blogs.
The most recent example is Joe Carter from Evangelical Outpost. Charmaine hired him for some work, and we only knew of his talents through the blogosphere.
For example, Tom McMahon quotes Joe in Important Stuff,
Why do so many people buy into the ridiculous notion that a daily diet of “current events’ is anything other than a mindless (though perhaps harmless) form of amusement? Even ardent news-hounds will admit that the bulk of daily “news” is nothing more than trivia or gossip. How much of what happens every day truly is all that important? How many of us have ever even stopped to ask why we have daily news?…
As Malcolm Muggeridge, himself a journalist, admitted, “I’ve often thougt…that if I’d been a journalist in the Holy Land at the time of our Lord’s ministry, I should have spent my time looking into what was happening in Herod’s court. I’d be wanting to sign Salome for her exclusive memoirs, and finding out what Pilate was up to, and…I would have missed completely the most important event there ever was.”
Indeed, imagine if Dan Rather had been a reporter during that era: “…three revolutionaries were crucified on Golgatha today. Included among the executions was a man called Jesus, who some Jews considered to be the messiah. Those hopes were dashed, however, around three P.M. when Roman soldiers declared Jesus dead. And now…this….”
Oz Guinness also wrote about our fast-paced world; the, “Now this…culture” where every event is superceded by something, anything, to hold our short attention spans.
Joe Carter is a guy who knows signal from noise.
And a guy who thinks like this is someone we needed on the payroll.
I wish we could get Tom McMahon.
To help in your job search see PASS this test.
Basil’s Blog has a picnic.
1 July 2006
MSNBC Chooses World’s Ugliest Dog…Over Charmaine
This is an update on that old story about an ugly dog. It came back to bite us.
The story, that is.
Charmaine was bumped last night off MSNBC for a segment on The World’s Ugliest Dog.
You could choose:
Screeen Capture Credit:
Peter Shinn
or
But I’d choose…
Charmaine
My friend Steve, on the bestiality beat. . .
Be sure to visit Small Business Trends Radio and see my weekly column. Topic today: Feed Your Family or Feed Your Ego: Sales.
Cross-posted at Zeitgeist and at Reasoned Audacity.