As a parent - Watch this video

This will shock and inspire you

Last year there was Paul Potts and two of his audition videos have been watched by over 42 million and 11 million people respectively on YouTube.  Then this year (a few days ago in fact),  Susan Boyle arrives.  I challenge you not to jump to conclusions when she first appears.

I have heard this song performed many times on Broadway and I have listened to a number of different recordings.  This is an outstanding version of “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables.  Even though I am a biased because an uncle of mine wrote the lyrics, I LOVE this song and especially this version. Yes, we can all dream a dream - and sometimes they do come true.  Just ask Susan Boyle.

For old time’s sake, here is Paul Potts.

In challenging times, it’s nice to have inspiration like this.

Blast from 1998 - Dot Com revisited

Sometimes you just know

A long long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
Don McLean

Back in summer camp as a newly minted teenager, I met a guy who could play the guitar and sing.  He was cool - and he could really play.  Turns out we were distantly related and we would end up at the same school and university - but that is another story.

Recently, I have reconnected with friends from long ago through Facebook.  I have been disconnected from them for over 20 years - in many cases with absolutely no contact.  From time to time I thought and wondered - Where are they now?  What happened to them?  What do they do? Where did they go?

There is a familairity born from shared experiences that 20+ years has not changed.  And my friend’s music which was largely covers in those heady camp days - has taken a circuitous route to get to this post.  Because at 17, he stopped playing.

After 10 years in Philadelphia, he returned to Cape Town, South Africa and as he told me, rekindled his love for music and art.  and he gave me the URL for his website.  And as Don McLean sang in American Pie:

…something touched me deep inside,

The day the music died started again

Go to Paul Abro’s site Read his story and listen to his music - you won’t be sorry. Even at 13, I just new. The voice has mellowed and it is good stuff.

Bravo Paul and thanks for sharing.

Twitter explained to a 90 year old grandparent

What I Learned This Week From You - Installment #1

When I started focusing on marketing and communications and the massive changes that were occuring a few years ago, I went from not knowing what a blog was to reading 200 blogs a day in about 6 weeks.  Soon it was 300 a day and I was learning a ton and running out of hours in the day!  I was reminded of this during a fun presentation I gave to a Women President’s Organization group this week. I was asked about how I gathered information and found out about things.  Much like how people find you or your company, it is through recommendations or Google.  It used to be my RSS reader, but more and more it is through Twitter and Facebook referrals. So I am going to - time permitting - share some of the interesting things I see each week.  Herewith installment #1

1. 12 easy mistakes that plague newcomers to the SEO field from SEOmoz.org

2. 11 ways to find brands and companies on twitter from Lee Ogden

3. Social Media Cases Studies SuperList from Robin Broitman at iiG

4. 10 Tips for creating a brilliant landing page from Chromatic

5. Skittles goes Modernistawith a distributed experience by David Armano

6. Moving Needles from Chris Brogan

7. What the young people say about social media from MarketingProfs and Allen Weiss

8. The “Fall in Love” and “Now I Know You” Effects by Valeria Maltoni

Thanks for sharing and to those who commented on these posts - I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  Have a great weekend.

JetBlue taps into current market sentiment

Definitely not targeting ex private jet travellers.  Not sure what else to add.

Skittles gets it

I love that Skittles has taken an irreverent and innovative approach and being a candy, they can be playful - it is on brand.  Skittles is fun and the bright colors besides being their “thing”, is consistent with the look and feel and plays into the brand. I don’t care, or get, that folks in the social media/marketing bubble have had a backlash today because it was done once before.  YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE FIRST - YOU HAVE TO BE BEST!.  And at this point they have done it best.  Outside the bubble, people think this is the coolest thing, hip, and fun.  Just think, many people do not use Twitter - but they covered the bases with Flickr, Facebook and YouTube.

This is not for everyone.  And the ramifications are huge.  Practically speaking, Skittles can pull the site down and go conventional at any time, so they do have the ultimate control.  But in actual fact, they have given up the site to their consumers and they are allowing them to drive the brand online.  Lets hope that those who are not fans behave.  For those that can take the leap - costs are down, reach could be up, and they have gone to where their audience is in a way that they want on media channels of their choice.  Brilliant.  There will be far more of this.

I do wonder though, are they in compliance with the terms of Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Wikipedia when they overlay their widget on the sites?  Granted, it is good buzz for these sites as well, however in the strictest sense, they are not fully in compliance with some of the terms.  Wonder what happens when the legal beagles get involved?

What do you think?

Mortgage Bailout - Who is getting bailed out?

I have met with some pretty smart people in the last few days.  Today I met with a partner at a private equity firm and a week ago I was with a fairly senior World Bank employee.  The bail out was top of mind.  For my private equity discussion, I was asked what I thought about the bailout and the impact it would have on advertising in 2009. The World Bank discussion, I was asked about the mortgage situation. I have been thinking a lot about that discussion - and more so today considering the sketchy details of how the TARP plan is going to help homeowners. Here’s waht we discussed.

Lets forget that the banks underwrote the risks of the buyers relative to their assets, their ability to pay and the property values based on the term of the loan.  Lets talk about the cycle of defaults, people spending less, massive layoffs, people spending less, more layoffs, and an increased propensity for default on mortgages and foreclosures.

Whether people have interest only loans, convertible arms or fixed mortgages, many have paid for a number of years.  If nothing is done to help the homeowner and the interest rate, amount and term remain as they are per the mortgage agreement, many more will default and many owners will lose equity and homes in addition to their jobs. And the banks will be in more trouble. Sadly, many mortgages are locked in at property values and interest rates that are higher than what either are today. And the homeowners would not qualify for a traditional refi.

Today one can get a Convertible Arm mortgage - the rate stays the same for a period (3, 5, 7 or 10 years and then fluctuates by an amount (maybe up or down 2% a year) for the rest or the term.  It is ludicrous to me that one can get a Convertible ARM that is fixed in term with a fluctuating rate, but not one that is fixed in rate with a fluctuating term.  At

An existing mortgage is based on a valuation done at the time of the initiation of the mortgage.  So if the mortgage continued, the valuation it was based on is somewhat irrelevant as would be a current valuation as the mortgage continues - provided the mortgage payments continue. I know the banks will disagree with this, but if I were to continue paying my mortgage, the valuation should not impact them if I keep paying.  If I stop paying the valuation is critical - so the bank should find a way to have the owner continue making payments. I am guessing that the present value of the loans will change on the institutions books, but the diminution in value will pale in comparison to the loss from foreclosed properties.  And they will have cash flow and not the ridiculous fees to close out the properties and the actual losses.

My concern is that the cycle outlined above is going to increase the rate of default.  With layoffs continuing and retail nowhere near recovery, more distressed sales and foreclosure actions are coming.  By enabling a way to distribute over time or deflect the focus from now when we are in the eye of the storm, the lifeline to both consumers and banks will IMHO facilitate a greater measure of stability.  But what do I know?

Rather than have the defaults,as a way to

1. Keep owners in their homes
2. Stem the default rate
3. keep banks in business without giving them money to finance these bailouts

The banks underwrote the loans at a certain value - they need to live with it.  Rather than foreclose, how about an “amnesty” refi that is in some sense similar to chapter 11 for the mortgage. Unless I misunderstand, does not require Govt funding or at a minimum requires way less funding. Here’s the plan for folks who meet certain qualifications:

• The property value in the mortgage is held constant.
• Any loan rate that is more than a certain amount (.25% or .5%) higher than prevailing rates, is refi’d at the lower prevailing rate (this could be the current plus an eighth to compensate the bank).
• Term is extended to a number that brings down the monthly payment to a point where people can make payments. The maximum term is extended beyond 30 years to 40 or 45 years. e.g. - if a laon has 25 years to term, the loan gets refi’d at a 30, 35 and 40 year term and the shortest term that enables the person not to default, is agreed to.

So the principal stays the same, the rate stays the same or is lowered and the term of the loan is extended. Basically by extending the term, the mortgage is paid off over a longer term with less in each payment.  Although each payment is lowered, more payments are made.  Additional amounts could go to the bank for doing this - either as a fee that is added to the mortgage (like points which are deductible). The banks earn interest for the longer term. The person keeps their equity, and they continue to pay down on their home ownership. Why not?

Back up your blog

So the last few days have been a nightmare. While moving some files around on the server, I deleted some files accidentally, and in one fell swoop my blog, my site and a whole bunch of other data and test spaces went poof.

I had the blog backed up on the server - and luckily I backup my WordPress databases locally whenever there is a new WordPress release during my upgrade process. So I had a backup of the sql db. But getting it restored proved to be another mission. When I did get it back up, my theme was gone as were all the embedded images and videos.

But I can’t complain - I have everything up to December 14, 2008 and I can salvage the little I posted subsequent to that from the feeds I had. Apologies for the subscriber feeds of the “Hello World!” message from the WordPress setup and today’s email with all of the posts. At least I had them backed up. Now I will slowly recreate the images and get back up to speed.