My office is in my home. My youngest child is 12, during school days I have the place to myself.

I had a call yesterday, referred from a friend, someone with her own reasons why working from home just makes sense.

Today I’m honored to be a guest of Beverly Mahone’s BlogTalk Radio Show Passions. Join with us, listen in, ask questions today, November 17 at 12 eastern.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/passions

If you miss the live show, you can come back and listen to the recorded show, at the above link.

Thanks ya’ll.

Today I was checking out Google Trends, still much to learn on how to best use that tool, found a hot topic for today, Edmund Fitzgerald. I took a few minutes this morning to do some research and share. In memory of the lost crew, 33 years ago today, peace and comfort to the families:

Edmund Fitzgerald

Each of us have only 24 hours in a day and if she can share our message to many at once, it is a good thing. Better yet, have it recorded and listen whenever and as often as you wish.

Radio Shows
One Oct 23 I was honored to be a guest on Pat Mongomery’s Parents Rule radio show. Pat does a great job and I much appreciate it. I wasn’t sure how it would go, but after talking to Pat ahead of time I knew it would be fun, as each of us shared our experiences and spoke from the heart.

Parent’s Rule is part of SandySprings Radio. I love how they have a live radio broadcast, same time as live internet broadcast, and recorded as a downloadable audio file. So people is Georgia heard me on Pat’s show, my daughter listened live from Utah, and I’ve passed on the recording to those who weren’t able to make the show.

You will find some great information there about working from home. Here it is:

http://www.radiosandysprings.com/podcasts/ParentsRuleOct23.2008.mp3

Webinars
These are cool, You can share a powerpoint presentation or anything else on your computer screen with attendees around the world. Great when you need to show how to do something. If you’d like to watch a live webinar in action, I can invite you to one that uses GoToMeeting’s webinar system. You will learn how to use my favorite greeting card system with a live demonstration, and how to make money with it. Send an email at Heidi @ connectsimply.com (without the spaces) or send me a dm on twitter, you can find me http://twitter.com/Heidi_Caswell and I’ll send you and invite.

Teleconferences
As simple as picking up the phone. With the unlimited long distance plans many have, and the free conference call centers, this is easy to do. Most companies allow you to record your session for future reference.
Friday November 7, 11 Eastern, I will be doing a call with Heidi Richards, the founder of WECAI. We’ll be discussing the importance of effectively staying in touch with your clients without spending a lot of money. We’ll talk about a variety of stay in touch mechanisms such as email, telephone and greeting/postcard and other direct marketing ideas. You will learn new strategies for following up with leads that can save you time and money and create loyal customers and clients for life. To attend, contact Heidi Richards: heidi at successandthensome.com

Internet Radio
Back to back shows, after doing the teleconference call with my dear friend Heidi Richards Friday, I will be on Sally Witt’s (another sweet friend) Blog Talk Radio show on Saturday, November 8. around 2:30 Eastern. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/drsallywitt/2008/11/08/tbd

So many tools to connect with many people at the same time. Of course there is always television. Pricey to sponsor your own show, but if you can get the news talking about you and your business, it is a good thing.

• Do you work from home?
• Have you ever considered working from home?
• Got kids?
• Balancing work and family?
• Need ideas for a home business?

I’m honored to be a guest on Parents Rule Radio Talk Show with host Pat Montgomery this Thursday 2-3 pm EST on Radio Sandy Springs 1620 AM in Sandy Springs, GA. e for your own business. Things to consider when choosing whether to work from home or not. Join us as we discuss the good and bad of parents working from home. Pick up tips, ideas to help your home business.

• Live Radio broadcast Thursday 2-3 pm EST on Radio Sandy Springs 1620 AM
• Live Streaming of Radio Sandy Springs on the internet for those of use not near Atlanta, Ga.

See ya’ll there!

When I first joined Ryze, it was a very active network, I learned much. One discussion was about drive by networking. People who never say a word to you, never had a conversation with in any of the network forums, never even left a guestbook message, but you suddenly get an invitation to connect and be their friend. And many of these same people, when you reply, they spam you with their stuff.

YouTube had a hilarious video (sorry I can’t find it) about the same thing on FaceBook. Guy knocks on the door, “Will you be my friend?” Who are you? I was in your physics class many years ago and sat 3 rows behind you. “Will you be my friend” etc.

There are more effective ways to spend your time. I do like the general rule, would you do this in a real face to face sitting?

Always open to learning ways to network more effectively, I appreciated Dean Hua’s post on how he used LinkedIn as a follow up tool. Thanks Dean!

Now if I can just figure out how my blog went from a google PR 4 to gray in the last update and how to fix it.

Donna Cutting

Customers are precious. They keep us in business. They are not just numbers on spreadsheets. These precious clients are human beings with their own dreams, hopes, lives. I don’t know about you, but I love my customers, I want them to stay. They are a great group of people. Customer loyalty is a 2-way street. If you treat them like just another number, you may wake up one morning and find they evaporated overnight.

I’ve had the pleasure of reading Donna Cutting’s book The Celebrity Experience, and no matter the size of your company, it is a book worth reading. Not only is it informative, but The Celebrity Experience is enjoyable to read. I’ve had the pleasure to ask Donna a few questions, and here are her answers.

1.What are some of the most important things a small company on a shoe-string budget can do to make their clients feel like celebrities

Here’s one of the best tips I can offer – get to know your customers! In casual conversation, see if you can pick up on the following items:

• Their birthday
• Their children’s birthdays
• Their children’s names
• Their pet’s names
• Their hobbies and interests
• Their anniversaries
• Their favorite stores
• Their favorite music
• Their favorite foods
• Their dreams for the future
• Etc

Use that information to WOW them! Clip articles that might be of interest and send it to them. Send birthday cards to them and their family members. Send a holiday card to their beloved pet! Greet them in your office with their favorite drinks or snacks.

I learned a lot about this from the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center Celebrity Services Department. The first time I was there they heard me casually (and without intention) mention that I liked blood oranges. Someone snuck a few into my hotel room later that day. On my next visit, blood oranges were not in season – however, I arrived to my hotel room to find two bottles of blood orange juice!

Keep your ears open and imagination working and you’ll come up with many fun ways to WOW your customers without spending a lot of money.

2.I remember horror stories from a company that had a very high turnover rate among their employees. It had become a toxic environment. The owner said “I rule by fear.” He believed that people are motivated by fear, and the only way to get 150% from your employees is when they fear losing their job or getting ridiculed in front of their peers. In fact, he fired an assistant who dared to tell him otherwise. He’d have food catered for his clients, lavish parties, then turn around and fuss when leftovers were served to his employees. Never mind they were working overtime for his event. What would you tell such an owner?

I’m not sure I could tell that boss anything – sounds like his mind is made up! However, if he would listen, I would tell him that you can’t do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result. Bottom line, he is losing time and money with high employee turnover – and if he continues to treat his employees like the bottom of the barrel, he will continue to waste time and money replacing his staff.

While he may think he’s getting 150% of his employees, I would be surprised if that were true! People are no longer loyal to companies because, frankly, the world has changed. The days of staying with one company forever, celebrating 40 years and collecting your pension are over. However, people ARE loyal to bosses. If they have a boss that inspires them, challenges them, appreciates them, and respects them, and makes them feel good about the work they do, they will give MORE than 150%. Show me a boss who disrespects his employees and I will show you employees who are disengaged in their job.

The companies profiled in The Celebrity Experience all have this in common – they work to treat their employees the way they want their employees to treat their customers. They lead by example. For instance, the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN has seen much higher customer satisfaction scores in recent years. This is directly related to their decision a few years ago to put their STARS (Gaylord employees) first, their service second, and their product third. Treating your employees well, while training them and holding them accountable (in a respectful way), will result in better service to your customers.

3.What is the “Booger Principle?’ or do we need to read the book to find out?

LOL! Everyone loves that chapter. Actually, they do – and not just because of the title. The Booger Principle is the commitment to tell the truth because you care. Tell the truth to your customers, your employees, and yourself – even when it’s difficult. It’s about the fact that you will instill trust within your customers by being honest in all circumstances. Sometimes the Emperor needs to be told he has no clothes – and sometimes the Emperor is you.

It’s called The Booger Principle because of a story told to me by Rita Tateel, owner of The Celebrity Source, about a celebrity on the red-carpet. And yes….you’ll have to read The Celebrity Experience to find out the full story.



This was a guest post as part of a blog tour conducted by Key Business Partners

Yesterday, the blog tour made a stop here:
Karen Putz / Karen Putz.com
Debba Haupert / Girlfriendology
Glenda Watson Hyatt / Author of I can do it Myself - Do It Myself

Today, the tour finishes at these locations:
Jenn Givler / Create a Thriving Business
Melodiann Whitley / Wealth Together
Andrea Nierenberg /Andrea Nierenberg’s blog

At anytime, you can purchase Donna’s book, The Celebrity Experience, Insider Secrets to Red Carpet Customer Service by going to Amazon

Donna Cutting The Celebrity Experience customer service birthday cards holiday card
]]> http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/treat-your-clients-like-celebrities/feed/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/hello-ike/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/hello-ike/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:49:21 +0000 Heidi Caswell http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/?p=310

Galveston Sea Wall

Quite windy, rain off and on, son, his wife and my grandson visiting, enjoying their company. via Twitter - 3:37pm

Stepping outside, enjoying the wind via Twitter - 4:32pm

Saying hello to ike wondering how far the trees can bend before they snap. . . via Twitter - 6:39pm

Crack, There went a tree across the street, missed the houses and cars thankfully #ike texarkana. via Twitter - 7:06pm

Getting dark outside quickly. via Twitter - 7:23pm

And then I lost my internet, silence for over 2 hours, apology to friends who were worried, hoping I’d only lost power. (Actually it was both our universal backup battery and router on the blink). Another crack and more broken trees.

Ike packed quite a punch, seemed to go on and on. Considering the size of the thing, I guess it would take a while to move on through the area. And I don’t doubt it strengthened heading on into Arkansas because the last little bit was a whammy. You’d think it’d be weakening on the tail end, but not so.

My son, his wife and their little boy were visiting, made a wise decision to to travel back to Dallas that evening. Ike took up the whole interstate between here and there.

Friday, Texarkana went crazy, Walmart parking lot looked like Christmas season. Everyone inside stocking up. Long lines at the gas station and prices had jumped. Some stations were empty. Soon they all were empty. One of my friends was stranded in Hope, Arkansas, she couldn’t get gas there either.

Now I love storms, just not the damage they cause. I love the way it feels when a storm comes in. You can smell the rain, the wind blowing in your face, everything feels so alive, the clouds, the lightshow in the sky. Don’t mind a few sprinkles. But times like this I’m very happy that I don’t live on the coast (although I wouldn’t mind it rest of the time.)

I called friends in close by, to check on how they were doing. Many were without power, but had their cell phones turned on or their old corded phones plugged in. Inside the kids played games while my grandson slept through the first half of Ike. But Ike went on and on, naps don’t last forever.

Envied Angela her blackberry she was twittering from, checking her home from her cell. Yes, if I’d have set up text messages and twitter on my phone, I could have continued to give updates even if my power and internet went down. Learned that if you checked #ike on twitter’s search engine, you’d get constant storm updates http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ike

We made it through, so nice to see sunshine the next morning. Fences down all over the neighborhood. Chain saws cleaning up the felled trees and branches. We had a pickup load of downed branches from Gustav to which we added Ike’s. When it dries up we’ll take them all over to the recycling center to get chopped up into compost.

Thankful that things were not worse, and as much as I was tempted, I did not run around the block during the storm, dodging falling tree branches, but stayed close to the porch or safely inside.

Feel free to add your storm story to the comments or add the link to yours.

ike texarkana twitter
]]> http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/hello-ike/feed/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/connecting-with-family-2/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/connecting-with-family-2/#comments Sun, 31 Aug 2008 21:52:06 +0000 Heidi Caswell http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/?p=301 We have all kinds of cool ways to connect with our friends and family, but nothing beats being able to get together in person, real hugs, not just virtual ones. So when I attended August’s SendOutCards Convention, it became a road trip. My son and his family traveling with us, visiting relatives along the way.

By popular demand, here are a few of the photos I took:



Kids horsing around



smiles



Eating shoelaces



Rock Stars



sisters love



having fun

]]> http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/connecting-with-family-2/feed/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/what-town-is-this/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/what-town-is-this/#comments Sat, 30 Aug 2008 17:58:09 +0000 Heidi Caswell http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/?p=298


Guess where?


Quiz time. Where in the world is this town? What is it’s name?
]]> http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/what-town-is-this/feed/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/school-lifestyle-networking/ http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/school-lifestyle-networking/#comments Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:10:42 +0000 Heidi Caswell http://www.connectsimply.com/blog/?p=295
Photo by Laffy4K

Nothing like the start of a new school year. Chaos at my place. Of course getting back home right before school started didn’t help. First day of school and my kids do not have their schedules, passed out while we were out of town. My youngest is entering middle school for the first time, another one entering high school (at least she has her older brother to show her the ropes.) Few school supplies bought ahead of time.

It is never a small list. My youngest claims there is a giant storage room where her klennex boxes, paper towels, ziplock bags are sitting along with those of her much older siblings, and one day they will need to build a new building just to hold all that stuff. She said she has never once used nor seen many of those supplies.

We go to school early, pick up schedules, thankfully my high schoolers can handle that by themselves. It is much cooler to have your senior brother show you the way around campus than your mom.
My youngest doesn’t care, unlike her older brothers who once they hit that age will only hug mom in public if they are dripping sweat. She wants my hand and I show her how to find her classes. She still tells me she will never get married unless the guy agrees to move in with us, and she won’t go to college unless I come too.

So I’m catching up on stuff that accumulates when away for 2 weeks. Kids hit the house starved, grab snacks, then crash. Getting up at 5:30 to be at the pool by 6 AM then swimming a few miles had something to do with that. I wake them up about 9 so they can go to bed and it is panic city.

They said they were good on supplies, but now suddenly they forgot that they needed all kinds of stuff, and need it for tomorrow, can’t find their lock for swim locker, need a new one, etc. Fortunately Walmart is open all hours. Sadly their shelves look quite empty. I get what I can, the rest will have to wait.

My youngest has to have deodorant for her athletics class (her electives are swim, soccer, and athletics –the more time she can spend not sitting at a desk the happier she will be). Now she hasn’t quite reached that stage, but I’ve had enough whiffs from those sweaty boy hugs that I don’t mind.

There is a guy looking through the different brands, scents, so I naturally made some kind of comment about finding a smell my youngest would like. He says he likes trying new things and to smell this tropical one. So I do. It reminded me of the smell of the candles passed out in our bags at the SendOutCards convention. And the conversation went something like this:

“That smells just like this cool candle I got, sort of a pina colada smell. It was a different kind of candle.”

“What do you mean?”

“When you light the candle, it melts into a pool of massage oil”

“Cool, where can I find such a candle? I’ve never heard of such.”

“I got mine at a convention I just attended for my business. You can buy one at my website.”

“An online store?”

“Sort of, we have an easy way to send cards and gifts from your computer, saves trips to the store. I can give you a couple of cards for free to send out, give me a call and I’ll show you where to find the cool candles”

And so I give him a business card, he thanks me, introduces himself by name, blesses my business, and promises to send a card.

Take any time out of my day? Not really. But I’d have never meet him if I wasn’t out and about.

Then I look in the hardware section for new locks. I hear my name, and there is the guy who’d left a message in my absence, that I hadn’t had a chance to return his call. He wanted to pick up a big 50 gallon drum for water storage. Another friend left it with me when she moved and he was wanting one. I give him my cell number.

So much that got accomplished while shopping for school supplies. The water barrel just got picked up this morning. Not heard from the guy in the deodorant row. I need to remember to collect names and phone numbers. If I’d said “I can show you were to find those candles, give me you name and phone number, email address” it may have been better.

With all the school activities going on, there are plenty of excuses to be out and about. Start conversations.

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