The Best Way to Meet Famous People

Communication Posted By Michael Angelo Caruso, 03/01/10 at 10:03 AM

I love meeting famous people and always get a kick out of shaking hands with folks who are the top in their field.  

Having been in the music business in my 20s, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many famous musicians, including Mike Love of the Beach Boys, Rick Springfield, Corey Hart, the boys from UB40 and our own Bob Seger.

I’ve met celebrities such as Ben Vereen, George Herbert Walker Bush, John McCain and Abigail (Dear Abby) VanBuren.

As a speaker and author, I’ve met tons of people famous people in my line of work, including, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Stephen Covey and Mark Victor (Chicken Soup for the Soul) Hansen.

Many of these meetings were photographed and the pictures are displayed at Read more | comments

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My Breakfast with Andy: A Discussion with a Michigan Workforce Leader

Workforce Development Posted By Joseph F. Bastian, 02/27/10 at 02:23 PM

It was a cold, but sunny, February morning when I entered Cadillac Place, the regional offices for the state of Michigan, located in Detroit’s New Center. I had been offered an opportunity to chat with Michigan’s Deputy Director of Labor and Economic Growth, Andy Levin, and I jumped at it. 

As someone who has taken a worker-centric approach to getting Michigan back on its feet, I was very interested in hearing what a voice from the top had to say about where we are now, where we are headed, and what our state leadership is doing to promote re-employment and workforce development.

Andy met me with a warm smile, a firm handshake, and an attitude that got right down to business.

In our discussion, Andy noted that Michigan is leading ...

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Investor Behavior...One of the Real Risks

Financial and Investment Planning Posted By Lou Melone, 02/18/10 at 04:01 PM

This blog is available only in PDF format.

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Time to Circle Back: Companies are Preparing for Rehiring

Workforce Development Posted By Joseph F. Bastian, 02/12/10 at 01:48 PM

So, it’s February 2010, how are things going so far this year on your job hunt?

From my vantage point, I can see things are starting to pick up. Just this past week, I got three calls from businesses that had been holding my resume since last year. They contacted me to let me know that they were just beginning a new hiring process for a number of positions within their companies.

This is great news on many levels.

After asking a few pointed questions, these recruiters confirmed what I had suspected since August of 2009. Businesses spent the latter half of 2009 retrenching and defining what their new strategies would be for 2010, and beyond. Most everyone in industry just treaded water last year, while they devised new plans for restructuring ...

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Customer Service Tips

Communication Posted By Michael Angelo Caruso, 02/10/10 at 07:20 PM

Odds are pretty good that your company provides some form of customer service. But the Information Age has made many products and services virtually indistinguishable from the competition. Businesses from air carriers to zipper manufacturers are struggling to differentiate their offerings. One of the easiest ways to do this is by providing exceptional customer service. 

Excellent customer service can be what keeps your business alive. Your goal should be to develop what author Carl Sewell refers to as “customers for life.” Here are 5 Cool Ideas for providing exceptional customer service.

1. Set yourself apart.

Whether you market a product or service, you must find, cultivate and deliver a Unique Selling Point ...

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The Timing and Selection Culture…Driven by the Financial Media

Financial and Investment Planning Posted By Lou Melone, 02/04/10 at 03:12 PM

Our culture — and more specifically, the American investing culture — can be quite unique (to put it mildly). We live in a time of instant news, messages, texting, food, cash, and gratification. The American investor wants to feel as though they have all the available resources at their fingertips instantaneously. Armed with that information, the investor believes that the solution to “superior investment performance “ (whatever that means) is timing and selection…and the financial media knows it.

Feeding on your emotional confidence, in the background, is the financial media telling you that the markets are in turmoil again and again and again. With that drum beat playing on both your confidence and fear, they will ...

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