28 April 2006 
Charmaine is Hiring: Media Relations, AV Production, Web Editor
The wife of Your Business Blogger is hiring talent in Your Nation’s Capital.
At the Family Research Council. Defending Family, Faith and Freedom.
If you know of a candidate, please email me or comment.
Director of Media Relations
Under the direction of the Vice President for Communications, develops and implements FRC’s daily communications strategy. Develops media messages and strategy and implements plans for both immediate response news items and long-term projects on FRC issues. Builds relationships and conducts interviews with news outlets. Promotes FRC president and other FRC experts to news outlets. Oversees the distribution of FRC publications to the media. Assists Development department to increase donor awareness of media activity. Serves as an FRC spokesperson. Works as an Associate Producer of FRC Simulcasts. Manages Media Coordinators.
Manager of Audio & Video Production
Under the direction of the Vice President for Communications, produces and edits FRC’s 90-second daily radio commentary and the 30-minute Washington Watch Weekly. The Manager of Audio and Video Production maintains the production schedule for FRC’s radio studio. The incumbent manages production, distribution, and marketing of FRC audio projects; to include radio programs, public service announcements, commercials, and audio tape productions. The incumbent also has responsibility for all video needs in the organization; to include taping, editing, and posting FRC events on the web, in coordination with the Web Editor. The incumbent in this position will also be responsible for special video projects as they are developed.
Web Editor
Under the direction of the Vice President for Communications, serves as the editing and preparation channel through which all publications, papers, and communications from all FRC departments are funneled for the most effective presentation on FRC website. With assistance and expertise of information technology staff, insures posting, revision, and arrangement of material on website. The incumbent works to enhance FRC’s Internet presence and image as a public policy research, education, and advocacy organization. The incumbent is responsible for managing the content and appearance of FRC web sites. Prepares all materials (publications, papers, legislative updates, press releases, etc.), including promotional material and FRC merchandise, for posting on website. Monitors web site traffic and provides weekly reports on traffic trends.
This position requires an undergraduate degree in political science, history, or social science and three years in a professional office environment, or an equivalent combination of education and experience. Requires the ability to engage with all levels of staff and mgmt with tact and diplomacy. Excellent organizational skills, ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, and demonstrated ability to function in fast paced environment. Incumbent must have demonstrated conceptual, writing, and editing skills along with technological expertise in html and web design. Previous web editing and image design experience a must. Knowledge of the public policy arena as well as family and cultural issues is essential.
Tony Snow, Bimbo’s
Tony Snow at
The White House Tony Snow goofed. Pay attention, because it won’t happen often.
The
Bimbo
AwardThe new Presidential Press Secretary Bimbo’ed.
This is the media mistake where the interviewee repeats back the negative content from the interviewer.
Here is the headline on Drudge today:
Tony Snow: ‘People blast me because I’m too squishy…’
Tony’s (rare) mistake was forgetting that the human mind cannot process a negative. Readers will only remember that Tony Snow is squishy.
Fall Hawn 1987 Bimbo comes from Merrie Spaeth at Spaeth Communications who developed this concept. Based on Fawn Hall’s difficulty while working at Oliver North’s office. And her denial before the press:
Maggot infested press jackal: Are you a bimbo?
Radiant, lovely Fawn Hall: No. I am not a bimbo.
So what does the world remember? Fawn Hall is a bimbo.
NIXON WAS
not A CROOKRichard Nixon is another example, “I am not a crook.”
What does the world remember? Richard Nixon is a crook.
Repeating back a negative? Methinks the Lady doth protest too much.
Now. A good marketing campaign can turn the Bimbo to advantage. A Reverse Bimbo.
As in Thank You for Not Smoking, by Christopher Buckley. (Another conservative!)
Buckley, son of William F., parodies the brilliant tobacco marketing mind. They know that the brain will only compute,
THANK YOU FOR
not SMOKING
Smoking, The MovieThat’s not so bad. The words are helpful. And compliant with the Surgeon General. But they communicate the opposite of the stated wording. Good marketers know this.
Knowing Bimbo’s will help you change your life. Even with your kids.
Remember how your mom would say, “Don’t forget your lunch!!!”
And all your little head could handle was “Forget your lunch!!!”
And obeying mom, you forgot your lunch.
From this post forth, always remember to frame (life!) in the positive.
To, “Remember your lunch.”
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Full Disclosure: Mom used to work for Tony in the White House. It kept mother and daughter out of Nordstroms.
See David Sirota on attacked.
Tony Snow reads Smash at Indepundit.
Visualize Management
Note that the manager pictured is not holding up his multiple sticks. He merely keeps the plates spinning. The sticks/staffs, re: his staff, actually do the heavy lifting.
And note that the manager is not sweating.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Image from Mclellanmarketing.
What’s the One Best Question to Ask a Job Candidate?
What were your
high school dreams? If you want to do well in job interviewing, get Smart.
No, not the secret agent. Get Brad. Brad Smart, Ph.D..
A friend from an Ivy League university group eMailed asking about interview questions a while back.
She wanted to be prepared. She knew better than to waste time asking job seekers stupid questions, So tell me about yourself…
There’s a better way. Unless you really, really trust your HR department.
The best question, as Brad suggests is,
What were your career plans in high school?
For the interviewer, the easiest way to gauge compatibility is to determine the ‘happiness’ of the job candidate. If he’s not happy were he is, he won’t be happy were he’s going.
I recommend these candidate contentment questions; a legal line of questioning:
Career Dreams…
behaving before shaving
Tell me about your high school days.
What did you want to be then?
What was your dream?
Yes. High School. All of life is high school. [sigh]
The rationale is that the closer the current position of the candidate to his High School dream, the more content the candidate is. You should only hire contentment. With fire-in-the-belly.
For example, take my favorite example, Your Business Blogger. I proclaimed in high school the desire to be a ‘merchant.’ A salesman. A peddler and presenter. Of intangible Big Ideas.
Today, for me: Nirvana. A consultant with a blog.
A review. Here’s a quick three point landing for evaluating a job candidate:
1) Symmetry and chemistry
2) High school dreams
3) Track record
1) Don’t fill the slot with a slut. In the job search, as in a search for the mother of your future children, symmetry and chemistry is fertile ground. And like getting married, this is the first hurtle in seeking and/or filling a position. It is a courtship dance of both parties on both sides of the interviewing table.
This was the one thing Jack Welsh didn’t bother to quantify. (Except, maybe the slut part.) (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) Although he could certainly justify his decisions. But the big decisions involved more than numbers. It was, well, a feeling. Welsh named his book after it: Straight from the Gut . It also can be called wisdom and judgment.
For example, anyone who retains Your Business Blogger would probably like this article: Dads, Death and Debt of Honor.
If you don’t care for the article or the writing or my world view, you won’t like me. And I won’t care for you much either. Symmetry and chemistry.
2) Too cool for school. I was Co-Captain of our high school basketball team, a lifetime achievement once dismissed by a recruiter. His client didn’t have a basketball team, he snorted.
Jerk.
He obviously did appreciate my leadership skills…so I didn’t get the girls, the NBA didn’t call, I didn’t get the job. Ask about high school. Get ready for angst.
3) A reasonable rearview mirror. The final point is the easiest. The track record. Where the best indication of future performance is past performance. The easiest to measure. And verify through reference checks.
Even with candidates competing for entry level jobs, there should be few surprises on how the new hire will turn out. Hire character and integrity first. Job competence can be trained. Goodness, even gruff personalities can be coached. But counseled only on a firm foundation of Boy Scout qualities. Beyond knowledge, skills and abilities.
And there will be a test. At every open job position to be filled.
And you thought you were done with high school.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The high school question comes from Jack Welsh’s HR consultant, Brad Smart, Ph.D.. Yep, that’s his real name.
And sometimes I suggest the opposite of symmetry and chemistry. See Hire the Homosexual.
More references and checklists at the jump.
Mediations has advice on blog skills helping student job seekers.
Mudville Gazette has Open Post.
Continue reading…
27 April 2006
Pandas in Washington, DC, Pandas in China
DC Metro subway
farecard One of the most popular web cams in Your Nation’s Capital is not with the C-SPANing of lawmakers. Not Congress.
Nope. The other Zoo. The National Zoo.
With Panda-ring in both venues.
See the Panda Cam. Scroll down. Live shots of Tai Shan, the bear. National Zoo.
America, the world, has a thing for bears.
The Pandas are so popular that the Washington DC Metro System uses them as a branding image on the fare cards.
USA’s Smokey Bear
Your Business Blogger was not content with watching. I wanted to see a Panda Bear IRL. And I wanted to study China’s marketing equivalent of the USA’s Smokey Bear.
Tourism for China. Forest fire prevention for America. Marketing to make money. Marketing to prevent loss. Using approachable bear images.
I was crazy, Charmaine says. I went over the top…
…of the world, chugging to Chengdu. Home of the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center.
My Bamboo eating Buddy So I ask if I could cuddle a big critter.
Not the big one, the Panda Keepers suggested, but a smaller version. In red. Looks like a raccoon.
Not in the traditional black and white.
So I play with a live panda. For 100 Yuan. Twelve and a half bucks.
Panda in Black & WhiteA marketing adventure.
But I am a bit disappointed. My expectations were not managed. I was expecting a bit more, I guess.
A little danger, perhaps. Exotic Orient Express adrenaline rush. I got safely Shanghaied instead.
The Panda feels like a rat with coarse hair. Loved by kids and congressmen.
Not my cup of chai.
Sometimes a branding experience should not be handled too near at hand. Distance makes consultants more valuable; makes Pandas more valuable.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
April is Panda Month.
Basil’s Blog has a Picnic.
25 April 2006
The Manager as Sociopath: A 12 Step Program
gapingvoid.com
by Hugh MacLeod Your Business Blogger advises a number of very competent business leaders and managers. Each looking to take their organizations to the next level.
But change is required. Brutal. Mean spirited. Humorless. Dark.
To become a spectacular success, there is only one solution:
Become a sociopath.
One in 25 is a sociopath;
that’s 24 you are not competing againstNeed to fire someone?
Think like a sociopath.
Need to hire someone?
Think like a sociopath.
Need to close a manufacturing plant?
Think like a sociopath.
Need to increase sales?
Think like a sociopath.
Need to be on budget?
Think like a sociopath.
Need to step over fellow managers?
Think like a sociopath.
This takes training and practice and sacrifice. A sociopath’s kind of sacrifice. Start with these sacrificial lambs:
Dump your wife or spouse or other. Jack Welsh and Rush Limbaugh and Barney Frank come to mind.
Dump church or synagogue or mosque or coven.
No. Join a mosque.
Dump the kids.
Dump the relations. (Except for your rich Uncle Bingham.)
Dump the non-profit volunteering.
Dump the political parties. (But continue to donate to the Democratic National Convention.)
From the American Society of Sociopaths or AS… well, never mind.
(Twelve steps, modeled after AA, definitely without permission)
1. We admit that we are powerless over our character flaw - that our lives have become unmanageable — we like it that way.
2. We have come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity — but we don’t care.
3. We have made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God or Society, as we understand Him/Her/Them — if we trusted them more than we trusted our own judgment and responsibility.
4. We have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves — and have found nothing wrong.
5. We have admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being(?) the exact nature of our wrongs — perfection.
6. We are entirely ready to have God remove all of these defects of character — (assuming he put them there in the first place?)
7. We humbly [sic] ask Him to remove our shortcomings — easy job, since there are few.
8. We have made a list of all persons we have harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all — by getting out of their lives.
9. We will make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others — (see number
10. We will continue to take personal inventory and when we are wrong promptly admit it — however, other people will surely take on this responsibility for us.11. We have sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out — daddy replacement?
12. Having had this spiritual awakening as a result of these Steps, we will carry this message to other Sociopaths, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. (see also sex addicts anonymous)
Remember, an effective sociopath has no conscience and can do anything without feeling guilty. Normal people, who can be dismissed as pathetic empathetics, exist only to be ruled and managed.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Also see Hypocrisy Today.
See Business Pundit with a terrific example.
Adam’s Blog has Open Trackbacks.
Mudville Gazette has Open Post.
Jo’s Cafe has Thursday Specials.
24 April 2006
The Carnival of the Capitalists Is Up at Entrepreneurs
With host duties preformed flawlessly by Scott Allen.
And while you are there, be sure to visit David Porter with his article on The FHA Modernization Act.
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Be sure to sign up for Scott Allen’s free newsletter.
The Carnival of Marketing is at Fire Someone Today
Fire Someone Today, The Blog And expertly edited and summarized by Bob Pritchett.
And while there, see the other Fire. Brains on Fire with Thanks for showing your Pride, by Spike Jones. Your Business Blogger now knows that Delta Airlines does engine maintenance, because the tray tables are clean. (Apologies to Tom Peters.) (!)*
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Thank you (foot)notes:
The Carnival of Marketing is the creation of Noah Kagan who blogs at Okdork.com
Be sure to see Bob Pritchett’s book. Reviews at the jump.
See Managing Expectations; Managing Exits.
And The First Two Actions a New (Female) Manager Must Take.
*Tom Peters once commented on excellence through out a company that, “If the tray tables are dirty, the airline doesn’t do engine maintenance.” Attention to detail by every employee counts. And is noticed.
Continue reading…
21 April 2006
Help Wanted at the Center for Military Readiness
Charmaine and Elaine in the Pentagon Charmaine says, “I’m going to look at a new ring…”
“Wedding?” I’m concerned.
“No, bigger. E Ring.” She grabs her brief case.
Now I’m really worried.
This means only one thing.
Elaine Donnelly is in town. Women are going into combat.
Elaine runs the non-profit think tank Center for Military Readiness.
Elaine is a former member of the Defense Advisory Committee on Women in the Services. She was appointed by Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger in 1984. Members have three-star protocol status.
She’s a pro.
The Center for Military Readiness is expanding. Elaine is looking to hire a Public Affairs and Research Director.
Women may be
assigned to subsThe position will involve specialized research on matters of concern to CMR, preparation of news releases and person-to-person communications with broadcast producers, writing or editing of articles for CMR publications and its website, arranging or attending meetings with public officials, representing CMR at hearings or events and on radio or television interviews, and assisting CMR with fundraising activities.
Of primary concern is,
…when the issue of congressional oversight of defense matters has become extremely controversial, both Congress and the Bush Administration have been inattentive and negligent on the important matter of women in land combat.
If you know of a candidate, please comment. We will be in your debt.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
See Hidden Agenda: Women in Combat.
Mudville Gazette has Open Post.
CMR’s Board of Advisors at the jump
Continue reading…
Selling the Great Wall of China
Elmer Wheeler selling
through the senses “Sell the sizzle, not the steak,” said master salesman Elmer Wheeler. His book SIZZLEMANSHIP: New Tested Selling Sentences and his others are among sales lore classics.
His original research was built around 105,000 word order combinations and tested on some 19,000,000 people, as the legend goes. Elmer then took the “Wheeler Word Laboratory” on the road consulting with major retailers. Teaching salesmen to sell more.
His research from the 1930’s still holds and sells today. Even half way around the world.
Your Business Blogger was touring the country side north of Beijing. Seeking out local thrills.
The buzz from my hosts was about a terrific luge-like ride. Nothing like Disney World. A real experience.
A ride faster and more dangerous. Not OSHA compliant with all those pesky safety restrictions.
It sounded great. All my senses were a-tingle. I jumped at the chance for danger.
Ski lift to the top of the runOur guides mentioned some history and scenery and artifacts, along the way. With an edge. So I ride with my buddy David Wayne up to the top. And sped down to the bottom.
A Chinese thrill rideEveryone was right! Cheap, exciting thrills! When you come to Beijing, be sure to look into the luge ride!
It sizzles.
By the way, there was another attraction in between the ski lift ride up, and the tremendous luge ride down.
Here’s Your Business Blogger modeling genuine Chinese Communist Red Army head wear. At the Great Wall of China.
The structure was breathtaking. A meaty experience sold with sizzle. Anticipation rewarded with a concrete experience through each of the senses.
Marketing at its best.
Elmer Wheeler lives.
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Thank you (foot)notes:
Off-vertical brick laying Your Business Blogger worked in college as a carpenter’s helper and was intrigued by the brickwork of the Great Wall. The bricks followed the terrain contours. The Wall in the Middle Kingdom doesn’t follow the vertical to earth’s center. If a mason could plumb this out for me and comment, I’ll send a blog t-shirt.
From Emperor Heaven,
The Great Wall of China is one of the great man-made landmarks on earth, an incredible feat of engineering begun some 2000 years ago. It stretches for about 6,500 km from the Korean mountains to the Gobi desert. The average height is 10 metres (originally the height of 5 men) & the width is 5 metres (originally 6 horses wide at the top, 8 horses wide at the bottom).
It was started during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty as small bits of defensive wall for three of the individual states to keep the northern nomadic barbarians away. Under the Qin Dynasty the independent bits of wall began to be joined making it the ‘great’ wall to protect the whole country from northern invasions. Over a million people eventually were sent to work on the wall during the Qin Dynasty (local people, soldiers, scholars and prisoners) and it was worked on for ten years continuously day and night using, for the most part, local construction materials. If anyone died while working, they were buried in the wall. Workers who complained or tried to run away were buried alive. During the Qin and Han Dynasties the construction was of wooden frames which were filled with earth which was then tamped tightly. The frames were removed leaving a tightly packed earthen wall. Many years later the earth was enclosed by brick and stone.
It consisted of wall interspersed with watchtowers. The soldiers lived and stored their supplies in the towers and each tower was within sight of the next. The soldiers looked out for invasions when a flag or torch was used for signaling and occasionally took part in skirmishes with the invaders. Many of the garrisons had nearby farming plots so were self-sufficient as getting supplies to the remote areas was hard.
From the Han Dynasty (200 BC) to the Ming Dynasty (17th century), it was continually extended, reconstructed and restored. It’s the remnants of the Ming wall that are mainly visible today when the brick and stone work was extended and sophisticated designs added.
Mudville Gazette has Open Post.
Russell Davies has a better picture of Wheeler. Bet on the Brits. And a better article. Blog roll him.