I recently returned from a trip where people converged from all over for the Baptism of my latest great-nephew (I have 3), Joseph Andrew.  He’s my oldest brother’s 3rd grandson and this was the first I’d met him.  Of course, I’m partial and think he’s the cutest baby around.  Since the family is spread all over the country, folks came by cars, buses and planes to celebrate the Sacrament welcoming Joseph into our church community.  Because of the distance, it was a weekend long affair, with lots of time for reunions with old and new friends and relatives and a time to talk about everyone’s life and circumstances. We had many generations represented, with folks ranging in age from about 66 to 6 months.  But I’d say the majority of us were Baby Boomers.  We went to a Sports Bar to watch another nephew’s football team unfortunately lose the...
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It is growing so fast, sometimes we forget to keep up with our usernames and passwords, but this is urgent if you want to keep your name spreading virally around the web.  Today I am working on making sure my links, webpages, services and forums are up to date with what I am doing online and keeping in contact with my business partners as well.  It takes a little time, but it isn’t the monster some fear it to be.  Boomers are my market because I am one, think like one, act like one and have a lot of the same desires and dreams of my generation.  I read a very troubling article yesterday by a Gen Y computer expert anticipating the total extinction of the Boomers in the social media market.  I’m determined not to let that happen and look always for like-minded boomers for partnership in all...
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If you don’t know who Seth Godin is – well, you better learn if you goal is to make money in blogging, otherwise let’s just says he’s one of if not the top blogger on the Internet.  People often borrow the popular “WWJD” and turn it into “What Would Seth Godin Do.”  In today’s entry he quickly and with pinpoint precision states what I’ve written theses about – the Internet is the game changer.  All business is different now because of the Internet and whatever business you are in…….what are YOU going to do?  The future is just like the past (but shinier).
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A very interesting article from New Zealand on Sunday by Steve Hart (September 26, 2009) Retirement Far From Boomer’s Minds contends that society’s premise built around the presumption that Boomers will cause an overload on the system and requirements for services as they retire at 65 isn’t necessarily true.  It points out that Boomers are different from other generations and consider the “new old” to be 81, not 65.  Based on a survey conducted by MBA student Sharon Buckland, her results show that the governmental plans hover around the notion that reaching age 65 means that Boomers will look to retire, thus burdening the state with the need for services.  But as Buckland points out, “. . . . baby boomers have never acted like their parents.  So why anyone would put in place a whole bunch of social planning that they were suddenly going to do so now...
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I’ve been ready quite a few articles lately on the impossibility of Baby Boomers continuing to work til they drop, the losses suffered by all in the stock market crash.  Don’t quote me on exact statistics, but the picture isn’t pretty.  One shocking tidbit said that the losses suffered by the generation left the younger portion of the Boom with a total net worth (including their house) of $100,000 and the older half with a total net worth of $170,000.  It doesn’t take an accountant to figure out that no one can retire on that amount of money – not when life span projections say that we’re going to live longer and healthier than generations past. So, what to do?  This will not affect just the Boomers, but will trickle down to the generations following us.  With Boomers hanging on to jobs well past retirement years, where will the...
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If you don’t know who any of these people are – you’ve been on another planet in the online marketing world.  Jenn Lawlor recently updated her blog with a fabulous interview of Jonathan Budd, a rockstar in the Internet Marketing world especially since he is so young and rose from nowhere to a household name and Mark Hoverson, who continues to build the most profitable team within Global Resorts Network, Team Synergy, by training leader after leader to truly duplicate – the key to success in the direct sales industry.  As Mark discusses in the interview, he wanted to work less and not spend his day with the phone ringing off the hook talking to potential prospects 14 hours a day. Sure, it’s a promo audio for their upcoming Joint Venture in an exclusive Google Adwords course, but the content and value offered in the free interview itself is...
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Of the virtually limitless ways in which the Blog can be used, from informing us of on the spot happenings in war zones to teaching us how to knit, it has today become the virtual brick and mortar store of the online entrepreneur, in a sense transporting us back to the 1950′s where we knew the hardware store own, the druggist (as we called him) and Paul down at the deli.  It is as important to business online in the 21st century as a building for operations in the last.  It is the nerve center of your business universe. The world of attraction marketing is not really new.  We lost in as societal norms changed, people usually did not spend their entire lives in one place knowing their neighbors from cradle to grave.  Also, the Moms and Pops couldn’t fight the big conglomerates who offer megastores at discount price. In...
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I am psyched today, because tomorrow I leave for Minneapolis for a three-day educational superconference. It’s not about product “rah rah”; in fact, nobody’s product matters. There will be Internet marketers there from all over the country, learning from the masters, networking and having a good time. It will also be a chance to meet some of the people I’ve gotten to know online very well, but have never seen in flesh and blood. Education keeps us going and I’m looking forward to learning all I can about quality content, educating and giving value to my customers.
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It’s Labor Day, a time for barbecues, saying good bye to Summer, and taking a day of rest honoring the American worker. Yet, there is a different feel out there this Labor Day, as we are struck with a country living with it’s highest unemployment rate in decades, still at war in far off lands, and a population generally running scared. Today’s worker, if he is lucky enough to have a job, is usually performing the tasks that in the past a company may have hired three people to accomplish. The laborer doesn’t complain, however, because being employed in America today is often considered a coup. Support groups are springing up for the unemployed, and especially for the older unemployed. I’ve known men to dye their hair not out of vanity, but because they did not want the gray to reveal how much older they were than their bosses,...
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I do it all the time. I click “remember me,” but does that little bugger do it? NO! Every time I go back to the page, I have to re-enter my information. I’m not overly paranoid about identity theft – maybe I should be, but I’m not. I joined AOL when it first “opened” when one’s username was limited to 7 characters and nobody cared how long your password was, whether it contained symbols, numbers or capital letters. Now, I’ve started a journal of usernames and passwords, because even my online tools to remember them mess it up……..sometimes it makes me not want to visit the page! Such a shame we can’t go back to the Old America where we could leave our doors and computers unlocked.
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I don’t know why I awakened thinking of this today.  And during my caffeine injection whipped out a Hub Page article on it, Marketing to Baby Boomers – Don’t Be Surprised If They Ask for a P&L Statement but obviously it has been on my mind.  Most of what I had to say is in the article, I suppose, but we are a generation of people who for the first time really challenged their elders and were determined we’d be forever young.  To many, that makes us brats – but we are the generation that brought you Bill Gates and Steve Jobs so don’t be too harsh on us.  Marketing to Boomers requires more than the dire warnings of the state of the economy and the flashy dollar bills on websites.  They are not going to go there.  If a Boomer is going to be an entrepreneur in his...
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My little encounter with the Lyme disease tick triggered a series of events that have left me physically wiped out; nothing left.  Anybody hungry – call for a pizza! Oh, it’s breakfast time – oh well!  Mom left for Singapore……….I might as well have. Aside from sleeping and dealing with symptoms, it’s been a good time to slow down and really look at myself, where I am going, what I want, and to take time to learn, bolster myself for coming storms.  This is all part and parcel for success on the Internet, so they say – but I think it’s more than that.  It’s what it takes to be succesful in life.  To take these times when life absolutely FORCES you to stop, when you have no choice and use that time to recharge.  To recharge the body, soul and mind.  I’m afraid the relationships will have to...
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