I first met Sahar on LinkedIn.  I believe it was via the Q&A section of LinkedIn that our paths kept crossing.  She always had relevant answers to questions, and brought a unique perspective due to an interesting backstory.  At one point a year or so ago, we had a private conversation about my blunt no bullshit answers that I had given to some other people’s questions, and that conversation sparked a friendship connection that we [...]

There are unsavory types in every industry and every market.  Heck, there’s usually one in every crowd no matter which way you slice it. There is a video circulating on Youtube today highlighting one person’s list of ten “influencers” on LinkedIn.  Personally, I don’t think the person who made the video really knew who some of these people were other than people with large numbers in their network.  Instead, I think the guy simply put [...]

Heading to Mackinac Island this weekend? Have an iPhone? You may be interested checking out the companion app iMackinacIsland, made by Rick DeLucio of Emmy award winning DeLucio Creative. Rick describes the app as: “iMackinacIsland is a mobile reference companion app for visitors and residents of Mackinac Island, Michigan.  iMackinacIsland features maps, phone numbers, descriptions, and links to various businesses and community resources on the Island.  It also contains a ferry boat schedule for all [...]

Tuesday September 7th is National Buy a Book Day. What the hell does that even mean? It means that on Tuesday the 7th, if you typically enjoy reading the occasional book, you should go on down to your local bookstore and pick up a new book to bring home with you (maybe even buy one or two as a gift for a friend or family member).  Not only will you have something to stimulate your [...]

I’ve heard John Zadikian on the radio in Michigan for as long as I can remember.  Not only that, but thanks to my grandmother and her trips to K-Mart, I know John as the voice of Kmart.  The new economy has displaced John and driven him to branch out on his own.  His business is a service oriented business delivering voice overs for voicemail, automated attendants, radio spots, youtube videos, electronic books, and anything else [...]

My cellular provider is Sprint and my contract ended last month.  Since then, I have trying to figure out whether to upgrade my phone and renew my contract or to bail and switch to a different carrier.  My wife has ATT as her service provider, so I had considered picking up an iPhone and going that route.  Everyone tells me I am crazy for considering that though, as cool as the iPhone is, it is [...]

East Lansing, Michigan. Known the world over as the home of Michigan State University.  Known locally to have one of the highest business churn rates, especially if that business is located on Grand River Ave.  This is mostly due to the challenging market of selling to the college student demographic.  You end up seeing new restaurants and other specialty businesses prop up and flame out every quarter in Downtown East Lansing, and particularly along the [...]

This morning I toured a late entry to the list of location considerations for Cowork Detroit. Here is the video tour of the space I looked at this morning: Interested? More information can be found on the Cowork Detroit website or on the Facebook fan page.

According to Wikipedia, Serendipity is the effect by which one accidentally stumbles upon something fortunate, especially while looking for something entirely unrelated.  I think I would describe my meeting with Rob Rammuny as serendipitous.  You see, I don’t really remember what it was that I was looking for or looking at that I landed on his website, but once there I found his content and his story quite interesting.  Here was a young man – [...]

When I finally caved to the proddings of friends & staff a few years ago and setup a LinkedIn account to investigate its appropriateness for our business, one of the first people I met was Mary Lascelles, of Redding, California.  For several years now Mary has had an active presence on LinkedIn.  It was immediately apparent that Mary was/is a kindred like spirit because she is always trying to help people, always trying to connect [...]