Barbara Walters Price

God at Work

In a recent post on Worthwhile magazine's blog, David Batstone noted:

Prepare yourself for a shocking expose: Scores of your colleagues are bringing God to work every day.

That idea might scare some of you given how polarized religion has become in our time. Fear not. The vast majority of spiritual seekers are not out to convert or condemn you. Some of your colleagues are looking to God for wisdom, others turn to God for comfort or courage, and yet others find God in the connections they make with others.

As a person of faith, I guess I take this for granted but as I think about not only my colleagues at Mercer Capital but colleagues outside of Mercer Capital in all walks of life, the fact that for most, God is real and is important in and to their lives is just a part of who they are. 

An increasing number of individuals are attending theological seminary as a training camp to prepare for their vocational journey. They view theology and ethics as a solid foundation for jobs in business, health care, social work, journalism - you name it, the range is wide. Only half of those completing a Masters in Divinity now join the clergy, according to data cited in the story, down 10 to 15 percentage points in the last five years alone.

Again, not a surprise.  In this materialistic and fast-paced world, many of us long for something greater than ourselves -- a firm foundation from which to live and speak.  As a Christian, I try to follow Mother Teresa's advice: "Take Jesus with you wherever you go." 

Remember that you are the same person at work as you are at home and at play.  We work to live, not the other way around.  Don't segment your life.  Take some time to think about your priorities and if they are out of line, fix them.  Time is precious.  If you don't already have one, find your firm foundation. 

Enough preachin' ... have a great weekend,

  Barbara Walters Price

Speaking Tip: The Best Advice You'll Ever Get

A couple of weeks ago, I moderated a teleseminar sponsored by BV Resources on the topic of "Marketing Your Valuation Firm."  I was honored to have three very respected and successful business appraisers as panelists: Nancy Fannon, Harold Martin, and Chris Mercer.

I want to share with you Nancy's answer to the question: How did you begin speaking and how do you obtain speaking engagements now?  It matters not if you're just starting out or are a seasoned professional or whether you are a business appraiser, accountant, attorney or other professional adviser, this is wonderful advice!  Pay attention.

Nancy Fannon:  I would say I got started speaking by being absolutely relentless at pursuing it.  I was terrified of doing it at first and yet I knew that if I really wanted to go anywhere in this field, I had to keep at it because I was convinced that speaking is an essential skill for this line of work.  Whether you're going to be up in front of a judge or jury, or whether you're going to be up in front of a board of directors or your clients, you're going to have to be able to express complicated thoughts in a clear and coherent manner.  And I believed that being able to speak and teach was the best way that I could possibly learn and get comfortable doing that.  So I was relentless in pursuing places that I could begin to learn how to do that.  And where I would do that was in front of groups of bankers or groups at law firms, community groups, and anybody I could get to listen - CLE directors, CPE directors for the state - anybody I could get to listen to me.  And eventually, I was lucky and I got some early breaks. 

In terms of how I get speaking engagements now, I usually think about where it is that I want to drive my business and then I start researching that area so that I can get knowledgeable enough to present on it.  For example, we're in the process right now of undertaking a year-long research project on a particular area that we want to drive more of our work into.  And while we're doing the research in this area, we're also preparing articles and presentations so that we can be prepared next year or later this year to go out and effectively sell that presentation to organizations so that we can become the expert in that area.

So again, it's a matter of spending the time, committing the energy, doing the research to become knowledgeable enough and then presenting that in front of the forums that you want to be in front of.

Learn from Nancy and you'll do well.

* By the way, you can purchase the entire teleseminar on CD from BV Resources if you're interested.

Have a great one,

  Barbara Walters Price

Beware of Porn Sites and Spammers

Remember that the internet is not just a collection of wires and radio waves.  Behind it are people.  That's good news and bad news because there are quite a few unethical and immoral folks out there and they could become quite a problem for you.  Consider these two examples:

Do you know when your domain name is up for renewal?  This is a true story of an event that happened to a colleague at another company who wishes to remain anonymous. I have permission to share this story. 

This company retains an internet service provider for numerous services - one of which is to renew their domain names.  They have several versions of domain names and they were obtained over several years.  One of the lesser used domain names was up for renewal.  You guessed it.  The ISP messed up and failed to renew it.  Who got it?  A porn site!  When did the company find out?  When one of the company's professionals used it (thankfully not one of their customers!).  Can this company get the domain back?  Right now, that's unknown.

To top it off, when my colleague googled the lost domain name, what was found were links to all sorts of general interest blogs and bulletin boards where the porn perp had made comments that linked to the porn site.   Therefore, it's a good idea for anyone who has a blog, discussion forum or guestbook on their site to occasionally google the domain(s) because porn perps may be using your site to promote their services.

So the first warning to you is be aware that even when paying a firm to renew the domain for you, don't count on it. People assume that if they have a web hosting company that they don't have to worry about their domains.  It's your job to keep up with your and your firm's domain names.

Joe Jobbing.  The second warning concerns "joe jobbing" which I wasn't familiar with until I read about this real life situation.

According to wikipedia, "joe jobbing" is:

A "joe job" is an incident of spamming designed to tarnish the reputation of an innocent third party. Despite having existed since at least 1996, joe jobs are uncommon compared to other types of spam because they provide no commercial benefit to the joe jobber.

Scott Allen of The Virtual Handshake is suffering from such an incident.  According to his site:

It seems that an evil spammer (who shall remain nameless pending further investigation) has developed a personal vendetta against me and is maliciously trying to smear my reputation by posting bogus blog comment spam in my name (and my wife’s...)

It began when he wrote to a comment spammer asking them to stop.  He also told them that he was going to expose their site publicly as engaging in spam marketing if they continued.  The spammer didn't take kindly to that and Scott is paying the price.

The second warning is don't take on spammers if you can help it.  I will not advocate being kind to spammers but for most of us, it doesn't do any good to take them on.  Just delete their info and ignore them.  Right now, I consider this one of the risks of being on the internet in such a personal way.  Scott certainly doesn't deserve what has been happening to him but for the rest of us - forewarned is forearmed.

She Doth Protest Too Much

I'm a jerk.  I admit it and beg forgiveness.  Hopefully I'm not a jerk most of the time.  In this case, driven to jerkdom - a new word - by insecurity and foolishness. 

I was slated to be a featured speaker in a teleseminar to other professional service firm marketing directors on a Tuesday and then to a group of business appraisers on a Thursday - of the same week.  "Who wants to listen to me?  Do I have anything of value to say?" I thought. 

To compensate, I puffed out my chest  and decided to bluff my way through.  If I portrayed a sense of confidence, it would all be okay.  Well, I missed the mark.  Boy, did I miss.  To top it off, during this time, I decided to post which I know now is always the wrong decision. 

Bookstores are Lousy Places to Sell Books

The title of this post is true and is often stated by Dan Poynter, the self-publishing guru.  Now we have some outside confirmation.  In yesterday's "Just an On-Line Minute" by Tobi Elkin of Media Post, comes this information (keep reading):

According to a survey conducted by BizRate Research for comparison shopping site Shopzilla, bricks-and-mortar bookstores are becoming good venues for meeting blind dates. After restaurants, bookstores are the second most popular locations to meet blind dates for both women and men (61 percent versus 52 percent).

Yet when it comes to buying books, 78 percent of respondents say they are regular shoppers at online bookstores like Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble.com, and big discount retailers like Target.com and Wal-Mart.com.  (emphasis mine)

For you who are considering self-publishing but really wanting to see your or your firm's book at Borders, get over it!  Remember, one of the primary goals is to sell your book so make sure it's on Amazon.com. 

Regarding Barnes & Noble, the last time I checked, you had to have a distributor which not all self-published authors do.  We don't.  We stick to Amazon.  Anyone can get on Amazon.  I have no idea how you get your book into the big box retailers but I'm positive that most self-published works have no chance. 

So, give up the dream of seeing your book on the shelves at Borders or Books-a-Million in favor of actually selling the book through direct channels and the internet.  And, as a brief aside, don't spend an inordinate amount of time and money on the cover since most covers are designed to catch your attention, where?  ... at the bookstore!  That doesn't mean the cover is unimportant.  It is.  It, alone, however, will not sell the book.

And, as for a bookstore being a great place for singles, I have to think that's true.  If I were single, that's one place I would hang out.

"You can find out a lot about a guy in a bookstore," Rebecca Opp, a production manager from Los Angeles, Calif., told BizRate. "I especially look for single men in the cookbook, business, and pet sections of Barnes & Noble."

Good luck, Rebecca!

  -- Barbara Walters Price

Pamela Stewart Pegged Me!

In my last post, I answered five questions posed by Pamela Stewart on her blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation.  Those questions were posted under the title of Five Easy Ways to Discover What You Are Meant to Do With Your Life. 

Pam found my answers and from those answers pegged me pretty closely in a follow up post. 

To recap, the questions and my answers are as follows.

What is your favorite move?  Mine is probably "To Kill a Mockingbird" for numerous reasons.  I love the story and I can connect to the south as portrayed there. 

What are your favorite channels on television?  I find myself watching the History Channel, Nick at Night, TNN, and PBS when I get to watch TV which is not often.  My favorite types of TV shows are intelligent (well-done documentaries or docu-dramas and movies for grown-ups - not teenagers), along with mindless nostalgia which is where Nick at Night comes in.  Give me a black and white episode of the Andy Griffith show any day.

What kind of art museums are you attracted to?  I love photography exhibits where the subjects are real people.  I do enjoy painting and sculpture but photography tells a story and that appeals to me.

What kind of music do you love?  Gosh, this is almost too hard to answer.  I guess my favorites are singer-songwriters and almost anything from the late sixties (save the real psychedelic stuff).

What kind of outdoor environment makes you the most happy?  Springtime in the south.   Trees.  Meadows.  Flowers.

Pam's comments are as follows:

Since I don't know Barbara personally, I can only guess at some things that are important to her in her work:

• Work that revolves around interesting and thought-provoking conversations (her interest in the History Channel and photography are clues here)
• Truthful and honest communication (movie choice is a clue here)
• Fun and levity when things get too heavy (Nick at Night - old shows bring her back to a simpler state)
• Focus on human interaction.  Technology is fine, but not so much it gets in the way. (This is my guess here, but it seems like she is very connected to real people and doesn't want to be too separated by cell phones, blackberries or email)
• Big-picture work like strategy or planning (that is what jumped out at me from her description of her ideal natural setting - I feel she is looking at a broad expanse, not a small detail of nature)

In short, Pam's gooood!  She's pretty much right on target. 

As Pam notes,

The purpose of answering the questions is to get you connected with your intuitive, essential self.  The self that laughs easily and enjoys learning.

Pam, thanks for the follow up and thanks for the post and your insights.  I felt like I got some free coaching and I appreciate it!  And follow the link to her post because it contains a cute picture of her son. 

Readers, take some time to answer the questions yourself and see what they tell you. 

Have a great day,

  Barbara Walters Price

Still Don't Know What I Was Meant to Do With My Life

Pamela Stewart's blog, Escape from Cubicle Nation, is a fun read.  She had a recent post that piqued by interest: "Five Easy Ways to Discover What You Are Meant to Do With Your Life."  Finally, someone has made it easy for me!  So I immediately read the post and here's what I found out:

In order to find your "life's work," the stuff that Jim Collins says you are "genetically encoded to do," you must listen to your true, authentic voice.  It usually speaks through our creative selves more than our rational, so get yourself a three-ring notebook and look here for clues:

A "three-ring notebook" ... I'm thinking this means homework.  Yet I forged ahead.  According to Pamela, take some time to answer these five questions and you'll have insight into what you were meant to do with your life.  Here are the questions and my quick answers:

What is your favorite move?  Mine is probably "To Kill a Mockingbird" for numerous reasons.  I love the story and I can connect to the south as portrayed there. 

What are your favorite channels on television?  I find myself watching the History Channel, Nick at Night, TNN, and PBS when I get to watch TV which is not often.  My favorite types of TV shows are intelligent (well-done documentaries or docu-dramas and movies for grown-ups - not teenagers), along with mindless nostalgia which is where Nick at Night comes in.  Give me a black and white episode of the Andy Griffith show any day.

What kind of art museums are you attracted to?  I love photography exhibits where the subjects are real people.  I do enjoy painting and sculpture but photography tells a story and that appeals to me.

What kind of music do you love?  Gosh, this is almost too hard to answer.  I guess my favorites are singer-songwriters and almost anything from the late sixties (save the real psychedelic stuff).

What kind of outdoor environment makes you the most happy?  Springtime in the south.   Trees.  Meadows.  Flowers.

Those are my answers.  I'm still not sure what I'm meant to do with my life.  Maybe a documentary filmmaker?  Photographer?  Storyteller?  These questions do make you think.

After you really spend time reflecting on these questions (more time than I have committed to them, that's for sure), Pamela suggests:

Your essential self is intimately connected with your creative self.  Review all your notes about your favorite creative endeavors and places.  You may be surprised what they reveal about your true life's path.

So, visit Pamela's site and see if you can discern what you're meant to do with your life.

Have a great one,

  Barbara Walters Price

The Power of Opposite Thinking

"OnMilwaukee.com ... in fact, the site considers itself a magazine rather than a dot-com because of its robust content."

This is a quote from "Milwaukee's Finest," OMMA, March 2006, discussing the website OnMilwaukee.com, a local city website that is different in that it's not owned by a daily newspaper.  It's an independent site that initially saw themselves differently than most others would have. 

I read this article the day after giving a teleseminar presentation to a group of accounting firm marketing directors on the topic of "The Power of Opposite Thinking."  Wow, talk about opposite thinking.  We're about to begin the nitty-gritty of redesigning our website and it's certainly content-rich.  Have I been thinking too "in-the-box" by thinking of the redesign as a professional services firm website?  Should I instead entertain the thought of considering our site more akin to something like a magazine ... or something a bit different from that even?  Hmmm.

Kudos to Matt Washburn, my co-presenter, during the above mentioned teleseminar.  Thanks to the talented marketing directors whose firms belong to IGAF Worldwide, one of the oldest, largest, and most well respected accounting networks in the world.  And my appreciation to Debra Helwig, IGAF's Marketing Communications Manager, for signing Matt and me up for this gig.  It was a lot of fun!

Whew! It's Been a Busy Two Weeks

I've been absent from this blog for two weeks now.  Hope someone missed me but I'm not counting on it.  I was out of town for a long weekend serving on a team during an Emmaus Walk and then prepping for and delivering two teleseminars in one week.  All of that on top of what I normally do here at Mercer Capital to make the phone ring along with chasing two kids and one husband at home.  Whew.  I'm tired.  But I'm back with information to share.

Until I get to that information, I thought I'd do something that I've never done but have been asked about.  I'm posting pictures of my kids. 

Here is 3 year old Sarah.  Actually, she's 2 years old in this picture which was taken on the beach in Miami Beach last year during my stint as the heavily pregnant (at the time) booth babe at the Philip E. Heckerling Conference.  She's a doll and as you can probably tell, adopted.  She's originally from XinTao China.  Her birthday is November 25, 2002, the same day our adoption dossier arrived in China.  We adopted her when she was 12 months old and we simply adore her.  If any of my readers want to know more about adopting from China, please contact me.  I would love to talk with you.

This is Annie.  She arrived the old-fashioned way.  We had all the paperwork complete for our second adoption from China when we found out that Annie was coming.  Whenever I tell this story, people always say "oh, I know someone who got pregnant after adopting."  You would think it's very common but I found out that it's not really.  However, I certainly didn't think it would happen to me.  Annie was born April 21, 2005 to a 43 year old mother.  She's beautiful and healthy and now 10 months old.  She began crawling two weeks ago.  Life is certainly different with two mobile little ones.

I'll save a picture of my handsome hubby for another post.  In the meantime, enjoy the pictures of the kids.  They, along with my husband, are the reason I do what I do.