Now Appearing in an Extended Engagement! Join David Robison as he takes you into his world and his daily life of reviving a stand-up comedy career. Prepare for side trips exploring the "art" of salesmanship and business ethics and his experience with Multi-level Marketing. Enjoy some frequent detours describing his observations on life. Read the exploits of this self-proclaimed Renaissance-man and blooming blogger as you go
On The Road With Dave.
Yep, this is a blog entry that won't happen again for another 4 years.
Happy Leap Day and Leap Year to all the readers of "On The Road With Dave!"
And if you haven't read the news section of your current Internet Browser Home Page and if you haven't looked at all the trivia about why we have a Leap Year or why there are 29 days in February every 4 years, then may I suggest two websites to get you up to speed.
TimeAndDate can give you a history and recap of the "why's", "wherefore's", and small traditions of February 29.
You can also go to Leap Day--LeapYear; billing itself as the Original Leap Day site.
And while you may have heard that tradition allows for a woman to ask a man to marry her on this day; which is true--and that today is also called "Sadie Hawkins Day"--I've found out that today is not necessarily "Sadie Hawkins Day" according to the originator of the event. If you're old enough to remember the "Lil Abner" comic strip then you may already know this; if not, you need to read "Sadie Hawkins Day".
And yeah, that's the thing that caught my attention and inspired this entry.
She describes herself a baby boomer mom of two millennial children. She lives in a world where "my children know more about technology than I do."
Lynn says "But I am insatiably curious about the role that technology plays in work, home and education. As a masters level Clinical Psychologist in a past life, I’m interested in how technology enhances life ... and how it can also make it more complex.
As a Performance Consultant in Training & Education, I am excited about contributing to the development of learning programs that will help Independent Business Owners make money selling products and build successful businesses."
The BetaMom blog is already receiving some great comments and suggestions for the Quixtar-affiliated business owner. One in particular struck me as "cutting edge."
I don't have any kids of my own but I do participate in social networking sites. I've found though that it would be better to invite people we meet in those communities to a community of our own.
What do you think about an online Amway Global Community? This would help our online prospects get a better community feel and make it easier to share information about our business and products in a more organized, seamless way. Corporate participation in our 'conversations' through the production of the online community itself, the information and manner in which it is shared would add credibility to our conversations and help keep the information shared consistent and accurate.
As things are currently, we really need to be proficient in all the places that our business can be found on the internet. The new person has far more important things to learn in the beginning regarding their business.
Why not link it all together through one community? The sites could still be seperate but connected in this one place.
For instance:
Just like the other online communities, we recieve an invitation from a current community member (customer or IBO). We click on the link and set up our free profile. This could allow us to upload a photo and tell a little about ourselves. (transparency) We could also be instructed on the Quick Product Checklist, Ditto delivery and how we will benefit by using them. The QPC results could also trigger targeted advertising on that person's profile.
Also, on the profile could be corporate resources links that may include O'Zone blogs (based on whether they are a customer or an IBO) or new customer oriented blogs. Communication and information could also be based on and limited to LOAs as well as pin level or if they are a customer.
The possiblilities are profound and no other community is better suited for an online community of this magnitude and purpose than the Amway Global brand.
This is web 2.0 at it's finest!
With absolute excitement,
Tom in Atlanta
Tom In Atlanta must have read a blog entry of mine from a few years back. I admit I didn't know communities like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and the like were going to spring up; but I'd say I was pretty "cutting edge" myself.
Jill and Simon are Independent Business Owners powered by Quixtar. Jill is a stay-at-home Mom. Simon works in personnel at a chemical company. Jill is active at the iVillage community and often gives grant-writing advice; her previous profession. Simon has caught the blogging bug and writes constantly about his hobby, golf. He reviews courses, players, and follows the tournaments.
Jill and Simon were sponsored in Quixtar after meeting Steve and Lori at a neighborhood community yard sale several months back. Steve is a manager at a local nightclub. Lori is a returning adult student at a technical college, she is training to be a masseuse.
Jill met Shelly online at iVillage. Shelly lives over a thousand miles from Jill and Simon, but Jill and Shelly talk daily through Instant Messaging. Shelly is a medical biller. Her husband, Warren, is a firefighter. Jill told Shelly about Quixtar during one of their conversations. Shelly visited the website and emailed Jill with some questions. After a few weeks, Shelly decided to join, but her husband Warren decided that he spent too much time at the firehouse, and wanted his day's off to be day's off.
Shelly gets up an hour earlier than she used to these days. She spends the hour checking her email, and then logging on to several Internet communities to speak with friends online. Today she sees a message to her, asking about her business. She had been involved in a discussion at the community about Network marketing and had answered a question regarding compensation plans. She has become quite the expert on simplifying company plans. (All that experience in defining legal jargon and dealing with Medicare, she suspects, she just has a knack for it.)
She responds to the message at the community and offers to send a private email to answer specific questions.
She then heads off to work.
Zack is a college student and weekend golfer. He works as a carpet installer for a carpet supply house. He discovered Simon's blog on golfing and left a comment at the blog about a golf course in his home town, and the way they deal with "green's fees."
Simon sees the comment and strikes up an email conversation with Zack. Simon finds out that Zack's ambition is to be a chemical engineer. They have a lot in common.
It's noon and Lori comes home from class and logs on to her Quixtar organization's free web community. She had left a message earlier congratulating Terrell, another IBO in the group, but not sponsored by Steve and Lori; about his recent successful sale to a restaurant in his town. It seems he had asked Steve for advice, given Steve's experience in restaurant and bar management. Steve's advice had proved helpful.
Terrell responded to Lori thanking her and Steve once again, and had summarized his sales call and analyzed the results for the group. Lori noticed that 21 other IBOs had viewed the discussion. Terrell also left advice on the proper use of samples with prospects. He had some further success with a next door neighbor.
Later in the evening, all these IBOs were invited to a private chat, conducted by Platinum IBO Yvonne. Yvonne fielded questions from the group and got to know Zack a little bit. Seems Simon was talking to Zack in IM when the "Invite to Chat" was sent. So he invited Zack to join on the spur of the moment. "Hey, I have to go to my online Quixtar meeting, wanna follow me in?"
During the meeting, Yvonne relays some company news and directs everyone to the Quixtar site to bookmark a mp3 she had just heard. She also gives links to Shelly who has an offline IBO with no computer. Shelly will print out these articles and give them to the IBO in question. Yvonne also suggests that a copy of the chat log should accompany the articles.
Warren has come home by now and Shelly bids all farewell for the weekend. 3 days off for Warren and Shelly doesn't do "business" when Warren is home.
The chat ends with Yvonne recommending a book on Debt Management and Steve recommending a website on Internet Marketing.
Terrell leaves the chat, and logs on to the Quixtar site, to check on his downline sales for the month, and then goes to Blogger.com. Steve has convinced him that he might be good at doing a blog on Sales Techniques.
"Hmmm, he thinks, "What would be a good name for the blog? Terrell Sells? Sales Training Simple? Sales Made Simply? That's it! A new blogger enters the community.
He writes his introduction post and heads off to watch some television.
A few days ago I was contacted by a representative from FreshBooks. Freshbooks is a Canadian software firm.
I think evidence will show that I have associated with a Canadian every now and then. But three of Freshbook's "tech guys" including the CEO, Michael McDerment, are planning a trip across the Southeastern United States on a whirlwind promotion--"thanks to our clients"--can we live in an RV for a week--tour; and one of their stops en route will be Mobile, Alabama on March 3rd.
Mike McDerment has two successful start-ups to his name, along with being the founder of Canada's Mesh Conference.
Michael's traveling companions will be Sunir Shah and Saul Colt.
Sunir is most well-known for building up the wiki community through MeatballWiki, including his most recent project, BibWiki.
Saul Colt likes to build stuff, but since he isn't that handy he chooses to assist in growing great companies. As Zipcar Inc's first international employee, Saul launched the company's first foray into the Canadian market and was instrumental in getting the Toronto operation off the ground. Saul is a respected publisher, having led his company SSS Comics to infamy, super-hero style.
No. They want to have a beer with yours truly, Dave Robison.
They'll be on their RoadBurn Tour and they want to meet and drink with fellow blogger of "On The Road With Dave." I'm still trying to figure out where the great International USA/Canadian Blogger Meet-Up will take place.
Beer and Oysters at Wintzell's? Or an old-fashioned Bar Crawl on Dauphin?
Can a poor Mississippi boy living in Alabama hold his liquor against some tech-savvy Canadians? We will see.
For my readers who thought I was bound in chains in some demented lunatic's basement, scratching and clawing for food while listening to the rotary saw coming closer and closer...rest easy...I escaped.
I heard last night that Roy Scheider, a two-time Oscar nominee best known for his role as a police chief in the blockbuster movie "Jaws," died Sunday. He was 75.
Scheider was best known for his role in Steven Spielberg's 1975 film, "Jaws." Widely hailed as the film that launched the era of the Hollywood blockbuster, it was also the first movie to earn $100 million at the box office.
In 2005, one of Scheider's most famous lines in the movie - "You're gonna need a bigger boat" - was voted No. 35 on the American Film Institute's list of best quotes from U.S. movies.
He was nominated for a best-supporting actor Oscar in 1971's "The French Connection" in which he played the police partner of Oscar winner Gene Hackman and for best-actor for 1979's "All That Jazz," the autobiographical Bob Fosse film.
"All That Jazz" made an indelible impact on me. As a teenager growing up in Northern Mississippi, you'd have to understand that Broadway plays--Broadway music; would be "not right" to be interested in.
But THAT movie, that guy Fosse and that actor Scheider changed all that jazz.
Here was a story about Joe Gideon, a Broadway choreographer and director, who was working on a play that was sex-laden, AND at the same time he was directing a film about a stand-up comedian. (Fosse directed "Lenny", the Broadway play and movie about the life of Lenny Bruce.)
Joe was an alcoholic, a womanizer, a drug addict--not exactly a role model. BUT, he was cool. Not "Oklahoma-wind-sweeping-down-the-range-Broadway" cool; but sex, drugs and rock and roll cool. Roy Scheider played him perfectly.
In the movie, Joe Gideon is one cigarette, one drink, and one night of sex away from a major heart attack. He fantasizes about the extravaganza that will be his death. So much so, that the finale of the movie is a Broadway show fantasy of Joe's choreographed death. Dancers, music, a complete horn section and actor Ben Vareen singing a duet with Roy Scheider of the Everly Brothers' "Bye, Bye Love". (Ben Vereen appeared in Fosse's "Pippin")
Okay, I shouldn't tell you this; but you probably already know I sang as a kid in front of the mirror.
My best friend, Jim Folse and I used to do this song. I was the Ben Vereen part. Go Figure.
If you have ten minutes, this is the finale. It starts slow, but it builds. Considering the death of Roy Scheider, some may find the end in poor taste. I offer it as a tribute from a fan. Yeah, "Jaws" was good--big shark, blah, blah, blah; but this is why I'll remember Roy Scheider.
"The Internet is clearly about more than sports scores and email now. It's a place where we can conduct our democracy and get very large amounts of data to very large numbers of people."
I discovered these new blogs at Comedy Soapbox. The first new links are from comedians at the Soapbox.
If you ever watch Last Comic Standing on television, you might be interested in reading their accounts of the audition process that recently took place in New York City.
I'll be adding new blogs as I discover them. Got a link? Send it to me for possible inclusion.
"ADA, Mich., Feb. 7 --Amway Corporation (Quixtar in the U.S. and Canada) has discovered an internet scam that uses a bogus Amway charity as a lure. Amway cautions individuals to be on the lookout for e-mails from a group calling itself the "Amway Children Charity Foundation".
Please be advised that this is not an Amway-sanctioned program and the name, program and people indicated in the e-mails are not related to Amway in any way and do not have Amway's authority or support.
The goal of the scam is to trick people into sending money to the fraudulent charity. The bogus group sends an e-mail informing the recipient that he/she has been selected as a recipient of a grant to help establish a children's help center to assist poor children in the area. A nomination code number may be given, and banking information is requested. If the recipient responds, an indemnity bond of several hundred euros is demanded. The e-mails may be signed from "Dr. Kevin Brown" or someone else claiming to be a grant processing officer.....
.....This "Amway Children Charity Foundation" scam has been circulated by e- mail in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. Recipients are advised to not respond or reply in any way. Amway is currently investigating the origin of the scam and authorities have been notified. If you have information or questions about this scam, please contact Amway through its Corporate Communications Department at (616) 787-7565."
"There are several differences between a football game and a revolution. For one thing, a football game usually lasts longer and the participants wear uniforms. Also, there are usually more casualties in a football game. The object of the game is to move a ball past the other team's goal line. This counts as six points. No points are given for lacerations, contusions, or abrasions, but then no points are deducted, either. Kicking is very important in football. In fact, some of the more enthusiastic players even kick the ball, occasionally."
