Posts Tagged ‘PIMA’

Compelling Headline. I’ll get back to it at the end.

The PIMA 2012 Annual Meeting. On the surface, a big success. Solid numbers, lots of engagement, great feedback.

Some of my take-away’s:

Mary Jane Fortin, CEO of American General Life Companies:

Mary Jane Fortin - Challenges

Appreciate the Comments on Usability, Education, Consumer Experience, Plain Language, Japan as a model for consumer protection rates. Man do we have a LOT of work ahead of us if we want to take her challenge to heart. I know there are exceptions, but in general, as an industry, our Web sites are terrible, our communication with current and prospective policy holders is confusing, we don’t create nearly enough content, and so our penetration rates are extremely low by comparison.

Warren Hunter, Chairman of DMW:

Unintended but I heard someone put it, “raked several insurance brands over the coals” from a branding perspective. Heard a lot of people praise him for his content. Agreed on all fronts.

The Ignite sessions:

Lot of high praise from around the group. Great format, engaging content, good choices for speakers. Great work to Rick, Mark, Gerard, and Renee. <<See the pictures here>> Understand a video will be published soon. Especially liked Gerard and the importance of hygiene relative to lists. I’d be interested to know how many people have follow-up with him. Also liked Renee’s content around the ability to do contests and sweepstakes using Mobile – big opportunity for list building and cross-marketing. Again, interested to see how many people follow through and actually start doing something.

Kipp Bodnar:

So glad HubSpot came. Key points I liked..

Kipp Bodnar - Powerful Trends

Don’t rent your Web properties – OWN!
Blog’s are the cornerstone of your Social Strategy.
Microsites and landing pages are hubs.
Email marketing – still critically important, but will run its course eventually.
Sold Out the Limited Supply of B2B books – encouraging
Inbound Conference in August, possible Boston Social Tech Boot Camp in conjunction with that.

At the closing reception, I had a very interesting conversation with one of the executives about more collaboration within PIMA with an express goal of increasing the protection rates within the US. The comment was that association marketers are perfectly positioned if we will do a better job coordinating our efforts.

Those final words from one of my favorite people in the group spun in my head all day Sunday as I made my way home. So I made some notes on the plane:

Back to the headline

Are PIMA members working to solve industry problems, really, or are they being seduced by big money? Yes, with the utmost respect, they’ve been successful in the past and as a result, big dollars are flowing. But will the processes, tools, and strategies that “got them there” keep them there? Perhaps it’s more about Comfort Zones. But either way…

A few poignant questions, understanding there are exceptions, but from a macro view:

Is our Industry as a whole badly positioned for online reputation management, organizational voice, crowdsourcing, socially directed buying, and the protection and advancement of the industry which these leading business concepts will nurture?

1. Very few industry players seem to be communicating well online, both B2B and B2C. Products seem to be often designed, developed, deployed, and maintained with weak consumer insight. There seems to be very little strategic and thoughtful collaboration between manufacturers, distributors, and strategic marketing partners. Government regulators and internal legal and compliance teams seem to be hopelessly out of touch and uninformed about core societal trends and business issues. Understaffing, underpayment, and inexperience seem to be rampant. Perhaps as a result, but certainly at the same time, US consumer impressions and demand for protection are at record lows. Is our industry leadership woefully behind the times, both individually and corporately, and thus putting the industry at grave risk?

2. Going further, it seems that the majority of industry leaders are at kindergarten, grade school, or at best, high school levels of competency with respect to critically important technologies like mobile, tablet, laptop, and Web software such as browsers, analytics, cloud-based tools, not to mention Social Tech tools. And so their leadership is often whispered as “male, pale, and stale”. Their down-lines and corporate hierarchies seem to be prone to follow suit, ostensibly taking the path of least resistance, waiting for their turn at the top. All this seems to be resulting in paralyzed, deaf, and mute insurance organizations – culturally, operationally, and societally. Generally True or False?

3. Product development and maintenance seems to be silo’d and overrun with fiefdom’s, protectionism, and politics. Marketing machines seem to be entrenched with archaic strategies and tactics, led by executives whose inherent characteristics of creativity and risk-taking have been beaten out of them over time, and who are now without vibrant information streams that keep their fingers on the pulse of their environments. Compliance departments are over-the-top too influential and stunting, themselves not tapping new technologies to keep pace with critically important changes on the legal and regulatory front, certainly not writing, creating content, and seeking to influence and lead.

4. Lastly, our industry, seems to be in need of a deeper, more functional overhaul. Should the association extend its industry leadership, a stronger insurance industry voice with expanding influence, a content machine driving education, conversation and solutions?  Should the Web site, while continuing to be a hub for the logistics of the group meetings, etc., also grow to an insurance affinity network, media, and influence hub, possibly powerful enough to overcome any legal and regulatory threat, and helpful in growing the consumer demand for protection products?

IMHO, if we don’t urgently and immediately focus on these core issues in the next 18-24 months, we will look back and regret it. Yes, these are hard questions and strong statements, but I’d like to have these dialogs. But like the insurance exec alluded to, perhaps these are the questions that most urgently need attention so that we can grow our industry and see US protection rates like those of Japan, as an example.

A Helpful Step Towards a Solution?

Social Tech Boot Camp for Insurance Executives

I’ve put this together specifically to give insurance executives a small, private and safe place to grow their IQ with respect to Social. My understanding is fairly deep, both of Social and Insurance. The materials I have are spot-on Keynote slides. And my facilitation style in a small group is open, conversational, and yet passionate and instructional. See the comments and the video on the sub-page.

While not ALL the solution, certainly part of it. Crowdsourcing, Online Reputation Management, Organizational Voice, Rating Systems, Tools, Measurements, Compliance, Policies and Guidelines, Mobile, Information Streams, Consumer Intelligence, Game Dynamics, the Future – all items critically important to the future of insurance companies and agencies. What’s beyond Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, etc. (although Day 2 will be a 1/2-day session called You Incorporated – because executives need to know how to leverage the tools themselves ala Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos).

Thoughts? Comment below.

PS. As Ed mentioned in his closing remarks, remember the Give Back Tour, October 2012.

<<Link to the PDF overview>>

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I recently shared a breakfast at the home of a high-powered, very successful friend of mine. My good friend has a long track-record with a top accounting firm solving all kinds of financial-related business issues for a wide variety of Fortune 1000 companies. But my friend is an executive who is intentionally NOT engaging in any kind of Social Technologies.

Wise Road, Pompey, NY - Named after my Great-Great-Grandfather

Following the conversation on family and personal stuff, we turned to work. Knowing my pursuits, my friend shared thoughts about Social networking. After listening to his perspectives on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., I asked him, “I heard you refer to ‘Social’ in the midst of everything you were saying. Let me ask you a question. When you said ‘Social’, describe what you had in mind? What concepts did the word ‘Social’ bring to mind as you were talking about it?”

He said, “The noise, the clutter, non-important things… you know, Social.”

I clarified, “So water-cooler-type talk… weather, sports, family life, community – that kind of thing?”

“Yes, exactly. I just don’t have time for all that. Like I said, when I’m in work mode, I need to stay as focused as possible on work – no distractions. I see my wife and daughter spending a lot of time on Facebook, and frankly that concerns me. Now I know they might say I spend a lot of time watching TV or playing golf. But I can’t see myself spending my precious free time on Social networks. I hear people talking about Linkedin at work, but it doesn’t seem to be productive. I also know I’ll be asked to help people – not that I don’t want to help people, but if they want my help, all they have to do is call me. I see people using Social Networks to relive the past or trying to get the next new job. Since I don’t want to do either of those, I just don’t see a need to do Social networking.”

Does that sound familiar? The conversation went on from there. I explained that unfortunately, while understandable because of the traditional use of the term, thinking of ‘Social’ Technologies as ‘personal’ or ‘non-essential’, non-business related, etc. etc. is perhaps one of the biggest misnomers in the executive ranks.

[Curious: Do you agree? Are many executives under an incorrect assumption about ‘Social’ technologies as being more about personal, non-essential stuff? Especially in the insurance vertical?]

From a business perspective, Social is NOT ‘Social’. Think UGC – User-Generated Content and all the implications therein – “Crowd” solutions (e.g. Crowdsourcing, Crowdvertising, Crowdfunding), Ratings, Online Reputation Management, professional communities, Social CRM, Rivers of Information, Customer Intel, Revenue on Demand, e-Word-of-Mouth to name a few.

I made a case that in his position, at a bare minimum, he wants to consider what’s called Online Reputation Management. What do people find when they search for him?

Going further, he wants to be thinking about what’s next, what’s beyond the brand and title on his business card? No doubt about it – no matter how successful, both brand and title will inevitably change, won’t they? And when they do, perhaps quite suddenly, will he benefit from a steady effort to build a Social network? Will he correctly understand his Social relevancy in business? And will he be in a position for broader long-term business influence, again beyond his immediate circle with the current brand and its client base?

Lastly, like the MBA process he went through a few years back that lifted his IQ substantially in a short time-span, he wants to consider tapping into brilliant content creators, peers of his that are beyond the faceless Wall Street Journal writers, his preferred info-source. Sure, WSJ writers are no doubt great writers creating a steady stream of great stories. But what about peers of his who are sharing insights and creating dialogs via blogs and Social networks? Could these insights and conversations lift his IQ in a very meaningful and practical way – directly relating to his field?

What do you think? Are Social Technologies a ‘waste of time’? Do many executives in your experience feel that Social is purely Social?

Next up:

ICMG in Phoenix. #ICMG2012 (You heard it here first: I’m facilitating a 1.5 hour session on Linkedin on Wednesday morning before the Meeting starts. Yeah, I’d rather be playing golf as well, but I was asked, so what could I say.)

PIMA in Palm Coast, Florida. #PIMAAssn Rolling out the rebranding work Bill, Al, Shannon, Denise, Mona, Ed, me and a bunch of others have done in the past year…

Hope to see some of you there.

After a mind-blowing October and November, I’m finally getting back to the Series on how to leverage Linkedin from an enterprise perspective. However, technically-speaking, the last post for ICMG was really along the same conversation. A popular post in terms of views, that post amplified the specific activities for a typical professional to influence and impact their professional environment. Yes, Online Reputation Management (ORM) and Organizational Voice (OV) are both REALLY BIG deals.

Speaking on eWOM at World Usability Day - funny image!

You can look at this enterprise topic from multiple angles. Two angles for sure are:

1. How do we as Clients, Partners, and Fans engage WITH the Brands we do business with?
2. How do we as Brands earn, foster, and build engagement FROM our Clients, Partners, and Fans?

I’d like to shine the light on the latter. Restated, what specific activities can we as the enterprise do to earn engagement and interaction from our Clients, Partners, and Fans, specifically within the Linkedin environment. And how will these efforts payoff in measurable ROI.

A note to readers. If I may be quite direct, as I’ve been saying for the last three years, “Lurking is Lame”. I’ll go further than that now – it’s quite unacceptable to consume only, never Comment, never Share, never add value. Here’s the thing: If you’re going to take the time to absorb content, and if you find it helpful, don’t you see how just walking away without contributing is a bit off? It would be like attending in person a session that someone put effort in to develop, and that you paid for in either time or money, finding value in it, and then simply walking out without even taking the time to acknowledge, stop and thank the speaker, perhaps grab a business card for follow-up, or asking a question or making a comment during the session. So please consider some sort of action – do something with the content you consume. At a bare minimum, if you like the post, Share it. It only takes a few minutes to add value. Make a habit of it. (Btw, that adds to YOUR ORM and OV, right???)

First, what does it mean to “earn” engagement FROM our Clients, Partners, and Fans? I’ll use the analogy of the conference again. Suppose you are a new member of an association and you go to the first couple association meetings. At those meetings, you (and probably your boss) are so excited to be in the presence of all these new, targeted prospects, and driving so hard to justify the expense, that you go up to everyone you meet, introduce yourself, and immediately launch into a pitch about your products and services. So for two meetings in a row, you done nothing but “sell”. No listening to what others do, no volunteering to help the association in some way through your talents, no fostering conversations at the breakfast tables, instead “just sell baby”. Obviously an extreme example (though not really, I’ve seen this recently as I’m sure you have as well), but you get the point. If this were the case, would you reasonably expect anyone in the association to give you any positive props or mentions at any point at all? Probably not.

Now contrast that with the flip side. All you do is listen and volunteer and never mention exactly what you do. So everyone ‘Likes’ you but no one has any idea why you’re there or what you do. Also an extreme example on the other end of the spectrum. Also not appropriate.

Relative to the concept of ‘earned media’, the holy grail lies somewhere in between. That’s the goal, that’s the target. How do we do enough selling/marketing so that people know what we do and we stay top-of-mind for that function (and rank high in search along the way), but we also listen, help, and add value along the way? And what is that balance? I’ve heard it said that you can think of it in terms of a 10:1 ratio – 10 acts of added value for every 1 act of selling.

It’s critically important to understand this point. Earned media is/will be an essential element in the near future of sales and marketing.

What does “Earned Media” look like inside of Linkedin? Here are the spots to look for earned media and mentions. Once you understand the locations, and then combine that with the a for-mentioned concept of sales-versus-valueadd, you’ll quickly get the point. Again these are all Linkedin spots:

1. Company Page Recommendations
2. Company Page Status Updates
3. Individual Recommendations
4. Individual Status Updates
5. Group Mentions
6. Answers Mentions
7. Company Buzz Mentions
8. Twitter-integration Mentions
9. Of course, Employee Mentions
10. Employee Activities

These are a few of the hot spots. If you know any others, please Comment.

So what to you do with these and where does earned media come into play?

Company Page Recommendations:

Obvious caveat: The brand must do a great job in adding value and servicing its clients. “Astroturfing”, or getting your brother-in-law to say something nice about you in spite of poor service, inflated prices, etc., will be discovered and exposed, and will further exacerbate the original problems. Trust that.

Sample Linkedin Product Recommendation on a Company Page (click to enlarge)

Once you have the Company profile in place on Linkedin, be sure to add the tabs that allow you to feature your products and/or services. At that point, in these early days of Linkedin, it’s a simple matter of asking some of your Clients, Partners, and Fans to hit the page and make a Comment. Here’s a great example from HubSpot. Notice the inherent Linkedin functionality associated with the Recommendation and how it reinforces the relevance and influence of the Recommendation. Notice also that there is a Share button on the page. Did you know that brand advocates are 83% more likely to Share a page, all the more so when they’ve engaged with the content in some way, put their personal virtual fingerprints on the page? Do you see how these things work together to create earned media and viral marketing? (see more stories on this here)

Company Page Status Updates:

We all know that personal Status Updates (aka Shares on your Linkedin Homepage newsfeed) have the potential of being seen by your network. Going further, most know that if your network Likes or Comments on something YOU shared, THEIR network has the potential of seeing it and sharing it – and so on. (I saw one guy who posted a bet he made with his boss that his boss would give him $1 for every Like and Comment he got on a post about the utility of Linkedin. At that point, the guy had the usual couple hundred Connections. Well, his update went viral inside Linkedin. I’m not sure I remember exactly what I last saw or where it sits today, but after a few weeks the guy’s boss owed him SEVERAL THOUSAND bucks.)

As with personal, the same functionality applies to Company Status Updates. The Status Updates are obviously not earned media, but Likes, Comments, and Shares of those updates are. When the Status Updates appear in Followers Newsfeeds, if people are fans of the brand and appreciate the content of the item, there’s a good chance they will Likes, Comments, and/or Shares, especially if they’ve advanced in their Social maturity beyond the previously mentioned lurking stage. Those actions then become the earned media, the holy grail of Social Media Marketing. Nuf said.

Well, that’s all I have time for at this point. I’ll continue the dialog on the finer points of the other seven items next time.

Meantime, I’m greatly looking forward to ICMG first week of February, PIMA the next week, perhaps the ACT Conference, perhaps SWSX in March, and a VERY exclusive Enterprise Social Tech day-long Boot Camp for C-level insurance executives, also in March in Charlotte – a busy Q1.

Again, please Like, Comment, and Share. Let’s see if I can earn some media myself! Thanks in advance. Merry Christmas!!! Emmanuel.

After Farming in the Rain

See all the pictures and links to videos here.

Appreciate Comments and Shares.

Boy, this was one of the hardest blog posts I’ve ever written for some reason…

People have been asking, “How was the Mission Trip?” Well… Stunning… On several levels. (Note: I’ve hyperlinked many of the comments to the corresponding pictures in the photo gallery on SmugMug. Click through as you read!)

I wept. I’ll just be right up front about it. We all did actually, at different times and for different reasons.

For me, thinking back on it, I’d best describe it as an incredibly complex mixture of ….

1. Spiritual gratitude, joy, and despondence
2. Emotional happiness and sadness
3. Physical pain and exhaustion, and yet “a good kinda tired”
4. Mental fatigue and mind-bending contrasts
5. And an overwhelming assault on my senses – smells, sounds, sights, touches, and tastes

Serving God in a Third World country is intensely personal. Some of you might say, “Well, the DR isn’t really ‘Third World’.” Well, some of the resorts like Punta Cana are up-scale. But where we were? There was electricity – a little. There was cell phone coverage – for the nationals, not for us. There were mopeds and pick-ups. There were stoves and running water. But the people we were serving generally had no cars, shared mopeds, lived in small little wood and/or cement huts, used communal waste facilities, no garbage pick-up, very little food, very little money, and almost no medical/dental/vision care. So call it what you want, but it’s a pretty unforgiving environment. As an example, if a child gets dysentery there – they die within a week. So the fresh, clean water we connected to the school definitely will save lives over time.

What did we do? The big item was spanning a river with a water line that had been washed away three months before in Hurricane Irene. It had rained 10” in 5 hours and the water level had risen 20’. So the local school and surrounding 10 homes had been without a steady supply of fresh, clean water for three months. In fact, Doug Brown on the team reported seeing a teacher dole out a drink to a student in the lid of the jug of water – that’s right, the LID. That was a simple but relatively hard project.

We also accomplished a few more things:

1. Laid a cement floor in the home of a local family
2. Dug, fenced, and planted two full gardens and part of a third – in a downpour
3. Laid about 400 ft2 of cement outside our main compound
4. Trenched a new water line to a new house
5. Repaired the fresh water spring and natural filtering system
6. Encouraged a local church by singing to them in Spanish
7. Met with several families in their homes to ask for prayer requests

We slept poorly in bunks, took cold showers, got cement burns, ripped up our feet, defended ourselves against bats, shaved very little, lost weight while eating and drinking well, cursed the blasted roosters who had no sense of the actual sunrise, hung on to each other to keep from falling out of the truck on a road that in the States would be considered ‘out’, saw a rat run out of the kitchen, and left all of our clothes, shoes, and money right there. But what we walked away with was a deep sense of satisfaction, something that can only be gained by doing exactly what we did.

Here’s the key verse from the trip. Note the different spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental aspects to it.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” Colossians 3:12-14

To my fellow PIMA members: Will you have a similar experience next year if it comes to pass? Possibly. But it bears saying again. Each person has a different response to a trip like this. Each team overcomes new obstacles. Each trip has unique weather conditions. Interpreters and construction staff will vary. So it’s impossible to say. But here’s the thing: Our expert leader, Dave McCarty, was spot on right from the very first email he sent out to the team: “No expectations.” Just ‘come and see’, go and give. And that seemed to be the key to a successful trip. So pray about it, let things happen as they will, without resisting based on expectations, and step out of your comfort zone. You will likely be extremely blessed beyond measure.

Final thoughts:

• Overwhelmed by a feeling of great fortune for having my cup filled to overflowing because of so many things that had happened along the way
• Deeply moved at the feeling of separation from people I had come to love and respect in profound ways, especially my 11 teammates
• Immensely satisfied by what we had accomplished physically in such a short time-span, and the positive, perhaps life-saving and life-giving implications
• Above all, my prayer in the weeks leading up to the trip had been for God to soften my heart and prepare it for the people I would be with

And boy did He.

PS.

A couple funny anecdotes from Doug and Cindy Brown, via email to the team following the trip, with permission. You’ll get some additional insights and smiles.

Having some issues re-acclimating…

The strangest thing happened on Sunday morning.  After arriving home at 1:00 AM we dropped our luggage in the front hallway and went straight to bed, exhausted.  My eyes opened at 7:00 AM Sunday morning.  The first adjustment came when I realized Ed wasn’t sleeping in the bunk above me.  In fact NO ONE was sleeping above me.  I could see all the way to the ceiling!  The next thing I noted was Cindy in bed next to me.  I quickly checked to see if she was still breathing although I had decided, whatever the outcome, I would have to deal with that later.  No purpling!

I laid there for only a moment taking a mental inventory.  Two aching legs.  Check.  Two aching arms. Check.  As I went through the list I determined only my hair didn’t hurt.  I listened for a moment, a strange silence filling the room.  Then it occurred to me, there wasn’t a single rooster crowing anywhere.  I called out, “Hey guys, what happened to the roosters?”  No response.

Confused I made my way to the shower.  This is where things got really strange.  I tapped on the door and asked if anyone was in there.  Hearing nothing I grabbed the door with both hands and nearly pulled it off the hinges.  I then stepped inside fully clothed.  I tried lifting and pulling the door to get it mostly closed but it gave no resistance and instead, slammed shut seated perfectly in the track.  As I took off my clothes I began looking around for nails and any other sharp points where I could hang them so they were partially shielded from the shower head and any fine streams of water coming from the pipes.  Get this, the shower stall was dry!

As I stood there at a 30 degree angle to adjust for the slope of the floor it occurred to me, the floor was nearly flat with only a slight slope toward the middle where there was a small grated hole.  I started to share this new found information with the person in the stall next to me when I realized, I was all alone.  There I stood, no other men or women to share in my discoveries.  In fact the next nearest shower stall was down the hallway.  I felt so alone.

After fumbling around the shower head looking for the valve I noticed on the wall, two, that’s two handles.  Feeling adventuresome I turned them both on full.  After an initial blast of familiar cold water the water temperature began to rise, first warm and then HOT.  I quickly turned off the water, lathered and rinsed, the whole process taking less than 47 seconds including when I accidently opened my mouth and a few drops of water entered.  I spit out every bit of moisture from my bowels forward.  I wasn’t going to die in the shower from some intestinal thing carried in by questionable water!

I grabbed a towel from the corner of the stall and used the driest part.  At first I thought I had the wrong towel because it smelled like dryer sheets, not my 7th grade gym locker.  I put on my damp clothes and flip flops and stepped out of the shower.  That’s when it hit me!  I was inside the house!  I was in a bathroom with a sink, a toilet with a small pile of toilet paper on the floor next to it from sometime in the night, towel bars, and toilet paper actually hanging from the wall.  No tiny stick with a duct tape handle.  I took off my flip-flops and the floor was cold and smooth ceramic tile.  Not a grain of sand anywhere!

Then, like Dorothy it struck me, I’m not in the D.R. anymore… I am in Kansas!

The rest of the day was mostly normal.  Except when I passed a construction site and jumped out to mix concrete by hand.  A policeman stopped me.  “Sir, you can’t do that.”  I told him oh yes I can, I’m “Meester Kansas Guy” and he insisted he was going to have to take me to the station.  I told him that was fine but I would like to ride hanging on to the outside of the vehicle.

It’s good to be back.  Hope your adjustment is going well.  What a great experience serving God, and the people of the D.R. with you.

Doug

I too am adjusting to being back in the good ole USA.  Some reflections on what I learned in the DR.

• Who knew the roosters have immigrated from all different time zones and not adjusted to the time change?
• The bats in the DR have a gender bias, I know I would choose to hang out in a women’s restroom, wouldn’t you?
• Plantains can be cooked many ways, a new method for each day of the week.
• Hot sauce enhances any food, at any meal, just ask Pedro.
• Hot water is highly overrated.  Have you ever seen more excited people to be given the opportunity to shower with cold water?
• Hairdryers and curling irons are not necessary for beauty, just ask Mike Wise.
• Duct tape on the end of a stick saves sticky fingers
• The off-roading experience was included in the deluxe package we all signed up for … as well as, deep pore cleansing, an apricot (well maybe sand) scrub and a daily steam bath.
• Pirates dwell everywhere, especially in the Caribbean.
• Hexagons are harder to create than one might think.
• The simple things make kiddos smile, a buddy to play football, jump rope, bubbles, wash cloth cupcakes, foamie crosses and glo-sticks.
• Hugs and smiles cross all language barriers.

God is alive and well in the DR.  He is on the move, using the 12 most unlikely saints, hand-chosen for a time such as this.

It was a joy to be in your presence, in the presence of the living KING.

In Him,

Queen “Cindy” or Sheba

See all the pictures and links to videos here.

Appreciate Comments and Shares.

Wristband gift from Kelle, DR, June 2011

I’m excited to share Part 2b of the Linkedin series on B2B promotion and the role of employees, especially leaders and stakeholders. But I feel led to go and swim in the deep end of the pool for a minute, spiritually speaking. So if you’re not into spiritual things, more to the point, Christian things, this post is not for you, but thanks for visiting anyway. Understanding I’m speaking to a business audience where the norm is to “never talk about religion and politics”, if you ARE even moderately inquisitive about the spiritual aspects of life, you might find this a good respite.

On Saturday, I’m joining a team of 12 from an industry association I’m involved in, PIMA, the Professional Insurance Marketers Association, on what’s being called the “Give Back Tour”. We are meeting up in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic for a week of service to the Dominican nationals through an organization known as World Servants. Our leader is Dave McCarty from AGIA. Dave and his wife have been doing this for about 10 years now, so they have the whole thing “wired”. I put that in quotes because as you might expect, when you’re walking by faith and serving the creator of the universe, you gotta kinda be open to ‘changes in plan’ if you know what I mean. Right?

Here’s the agenda:

Saturday – Travel to DR and then to San Cristobal. Dinner at camp, Group Time and go to bed.

Sunday – Cross Cultural Orientation from 9 – 3pm, Community Tour 3-5, Worship with the community, Kids Club preparation, Group Time, Small Group.

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday

• 7:30 – Breakfast
• 8:00 – Personal Journal & Devotions
• 8:45 – Group Devotions
• 9:00 – Construction
• Noon – Lunch
• 1:00 – Construction (Mon. and Thurs.), Home Visits, and Kids Club (Tues. and Fri)
• 4:00 – Free Time
• 6:00 – Dinner
• 7:00 – Evening Program
• 8:30 – Small Group
• 10:30 – In Dorm Rooms
• 11:00 – Lights Out

Wednesday – “Day Off”

• Tour school and community in an urban area of Santo Domingo
• Marketplace
• Tourist stuff
• Dinner out
• Home and go to bed

Why am I going? Quite candidly, I see my life as leading a team of 4 horses:

1. Physical
2. Mental
3. Emotional
4. Spiritual

My desire is to keep these horses together and at the same pace. So as I age physically, I want to advance mentally. As I work to develop my mental IQ, I also want to develop my emotional IQ. And as all three of these grow and mature, I seek to develop the spiritual component right along with them. That way my life stays in balance. The interesting thing about the horse analogy is that horses have several speeds, right? Rest, walk, cantor, trot, gallup, etc. So it’s my job to tune into what’s happening around me, be sensitive to the needs of those I touch, etc., all common-sense stuff, and lead my horses appropriately.

As many of you know, I’ve grown a great deal mentally in the last year – not that I’m boasting, that’s just what’s happened as a result of the leap of faith in starting WebWisedom, something I didn’t really see coming, but I’m grateful for. At the same time, I’ve also started a more rigorous workout regimen involving spinning and jogging with my wife. Emotionally? Well, without going into the details, let’s just say with the separation of my son (Army) and the looming separation from my daughter (college graduation and moving on…), as well as a very difficult time of trial for my wife and her job, I’ve grown a lot emotionally.

So that leaves the spiritual side. I know, like most guys, I tend to compartmentalize things. But in reality, I’ve held the spiritual reign loosely, really all these reigns, because I know at this point in my spiritual journey, the spirit is working in and through ALL of these things, right? I’m kind of just along for the ride, trying to be obedient to the leading of the spirit, stumbling and falling to be sure, but persisting and trying to ‘walk worthy’. So when the opportunity presented itself, even though it’s a real stretch financially (and I appreciate the grace of my business partners to whom I owe small amounts of $), I said yes. (And btw, just yesterday, thanks to 6 business partners, I just billed my highest month WebWisedom-to-date. So praise God, I’ll be caught up with my obligations by the end of the month if everyone pays me on schedule…again, not boasting, just being candid and transparent as it relates to this story.)

What are my expectations? Well, I’m leading the music part of the trip. So I’m looking forward to some really good singing time – that always ministers to my soul. I know about half the guys on the team. So I’m looking forward to deepening those relationships, as well as getting to know the others. My daughter, Kelle, has gone to the DR the last five years in a row and has told me many great things. So while I’m going to a different region, I’m looking forward to walking in her footsteps a bit and then sharing with her after. And of course, I’m looking forward to serving the DR folks. But most importantly, I’m anticipating seeing the hand of God at work in a clear and unmistakeable way. (I went to the jungle of the Philippines in ’98 with a church group and saw some amazing and unforgettable things then.) And yes, I’ll have my camera and will make a video, Lord willing and by his grace.

So that’s it for now. Selfishly, I’d greatly appreciate your words of encouragement and any other Comments and thoughts that immediately come to mind. But I’ll be offline from 10/8-16. The scripture passage I’m memorizing: Col 3:12-14. Thanks for reading and good thoughts for the team. Blessings…