Barbara Walters Price

Busted flat in Baton Rouge

I came across one of those top twenty lists recently of songs that you had to have if you needed an adrenaline boost.  Most of the list was pretty lame.  Maybe just not my tastes.  This past week, I've been working on pushing our self-publishing book project to completion and have found myself listening to Janis Joplin's Pearl and Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.  I've thrown in some Paul McCartney (Ram) and I've been very productive. 

I love Janis Joplin and Bob Dylan.  My friend, Ilinda, who was my roommate for nine years before I married would never let me listen to them because she said they couldn't sing.  Well, okay, Bob Dylan really can't sing but given his song-writing ability, who cares.  But Janis Joplin could not only sing, she could wail.  A blog I read from time to time, Jew Eat Yet, reminded me to pull out Janis' CD and turn up the volume.  Cry baby ....

Getting it done

We're so close here to having several major projects finished.  Yet, as everyone is so aware of, that last push to get over the finish line is so hard.  It's so easy to get complacent when you're close because, well, you're close.  So you start to tweak.  You start to add to the scope.  You think all these changes can't be bad because you're so close.  However, they will kill you.  The difference between success and being an also-ran is getting it done.  As I've gotten older, I've learned a few things and one of them is it is better to have a really good product or service on the market than a perfect one on the shelf.

So, whatever great idea you have or project you're working on, focus on getting it done.

It's Been So Long, I Almost Forgot My Password

No, dear readers, this blog has not been abandoned.  Before you nail the front door shut and report me to the blogosphere zoning control board, know that I'm in here.  I've just been too busy to come out. 

The life of a PSF marketing director can be an interesting one.  Some of the things that have kept my attention away from this site include:

• website redesign project - we presented our ideas to the CEO and president and they were very complimentary and had great ideas of their own.  Yet, the color scheme wasn't quite right.  The new design was lacking in "energy."  You see, now that brown is back in style, we're transitioning away from using it as our primary color.  Yes, I know.  Hey, if it's good enough for UPS ... .  So, my extraordinarily talented associate, Matt Washburn, went to work on tweaks.  We tweaked and tweaked and tweaked until we were dizzy.  BUT, I think we've got it and in our meeting with the web designers today, they had another great idea.  So, I'm happy again.  Now we just have to have it up by the end of the year. GULP.
• self-published book project - we are oh so close to being done with our latest self-publishing venture - a book on buy-sell agreements.  The trouble is that when you get oh so close, it's oh so hard to finish.  We're scrambling to keep all the balls in the air and get this thing done and fill the 100+ orders we have so far by the end of the year. 
• book project #2 for external publisher - on top of that, we have agreed to provide a second edition of one of our self-published books for publication by Wiley.  That's great because they can reach a broader finance market than we can.  That's not so great because we have to have it done by ... you guessed it ... the end of the year. 
• annoying development - I'm not going to go into details here but something appeared "out there" that is potentially damaging to our firm and we have to respond.   Don't you love these unplanned events?

Then there's all the speeches, articles, newsletters, postcards, blogs, business development travel, new market opportunities, new industry niches, internal development, board responsibilities, etc. that have to happen.

I'm tired.  On second thought, maybe you should nail the door shut.  Maybe then nothing else can get in.