Shirley de Rose’s Weblog

“Rapidly increasing food prices are impacting the world’s poorest people. The standard of living for many people in developing countries has been halved as the cost of rice, the staple diet of so many, has doubled within a year. Between 2005 and 2007 the cost of corn rose 21%, rice 74%, Soya 87% and wheat 130%. This global food crisis has been driven predominantly by the burgeoning middle-classes in Asia and also a growing demand for biofuels… ” states the Sustainable Business Practices organization located in Australia.

Not only poor people are being effected, however. People in all countries of all economic levels are feeling the effects of higher prices of food.

In March, 2008 Reuters released a report that stated, “Food prices are soaring, a wealthier Asia is demanding better food and farmers cannot keep up. In short, the world faces a food crisis and in some places it is already boiling over.” They gave examples of protests, riots, and an overabundance of counterproductive legislation that aim to help overcome the problems.

So I’m wondering if you are concerned.

If so, there are a few things you can do besides learning to shop more wisely.

I’d suggest becoming more conscious about the food crisis as a first step. You can do this easily with a quick search on Google. Or just look at the newspaper ads for the grocery store you usually shop in. How do prices compare to 1 year ago? If you don’t know, then you can search with Google to get some perspective.

OK. So now you are “aware.” What can you do next?

I’d suggest begin to learn about food values. What food do you eat that has the most to offer in terms of nutrition per dollar spent? Is it chicken or fish? Is it tomatoes vs cucumbers? Anything that you learn will help you use your dollar more wisely. And don’t be discouraged. Food study is a life-long pursuit. Especially in America where we have a huge variety of foods to choose from, discovering the “value” of particular foods can take a life-time. One of the things that can come from just small investigations is that you might add a particular food to your diet. Like nuts. Just spend a bit of time studying the benefits of adding a handful of almonds to your diet twice a week. I’m not going to tell you the answer, just encourage you to discover the answer for yourself. Then you can decide if nuts will be a great addition to your monthly diet and if you need to make a trade off for some other food (or portion of it…)

Now you are on the track to begin to help yourself with food prices. Remember it’s a process, and don’t be too surprised if you find that radishes that you can grow quickly yourself are a great addition to your diet. And that properly prepared (you can even cook them) the kids will love ‘em. Wow! Cheap, good food.

Now how’s that for an interesting few minutes trying to solve the problem of high food prices.

If you want more ideas about good eating, cheap, just comment and I’ll give you a garden full of interesting answers in future blog posts.

And by they way, almonds are a nutritional powerhouse, packed with calcium, fiber, folic acid, magnesium, potassium, riboflavin and vitamin E…

Some of you readers know that I travel quite a bit. It was a lifetime goal to experience many places in the USA first, then other countries. As a part of this I needed a profession that allowed, or required, travel. Well, writing, speaking, and internet marketing fit that description.

Lately I have been staying in hotels/motels in the Choice Hotels chain. The huge variety of experiences during the past few months has been astounding. And the level of customer service reminds me again of why many companies keep hounding on the Customer Service note. You’d think it would be obvious that good customer service is mandatory. But I can clearly say it isn’t in the hotel industry.

One particularly disturbing event is worthy of noting on a blog. The EconoLodge in downtown Hillsboro, Oregon, certainly needs a bit of refreshment on the customer service idea. Simply put, I paid cash-in-advance for a 7 day stay there. It was a good location, a newly remodeled hotel, and seemed to be all smiles and graciousness at check-in. By day 5 I knew I needed to be in a new location and notified the hotel I would be leaving the next day. On day 6 the car was packed by check-out time and I went to the office to get my final receipt and the cash back for day 7. No such luck. “You made a reservation for 7 days and you are going to pay for 7 days!” was all the desk clerk would say. “And you got a receipt when you checked in!” So when I asked for the manager she said she was the manager. When I asked for the owner’s name she said it was her brother. “And if you talk to him you’ll get the same answer,” she said. So what could I do then?

I left. That’s all I could do at the moment. However, we’re checking to see if there is a law about defrauding a guest, the same way there is a law about defrauding an innkeeper. Funny thing is, the filing fee for small claims is more than the amount of the 1 day stay, so, from a practical point, court is not the answer.
We’ll try a quick phone call to the Choices Hotel headquarters. If that isn’t successful we probably will just drop the whole thing because of the time involved to get a few dollars returned.

All this leaves me wondering how many other people have suffered at their hand. And besides, what’s with the “You made a reservation for 7 days and you are going to pay for 7 days!” ? I’ve never heard of such a tactic. I’m still too startled to be able to think about it clearly. Any suggestions?

Almost 1000 people assembled yesterday in Portland (Oregon) for the Internet Strategy Forum. Organized by Steve Gehlen, the ISF featured such speakers as
# Geoffrey Ramsey, Co-founder & CEO, eMarketer
# Nancy Bhagat, VP of Sales and Marketing Group, Intel
# Daniel Stickel, new CEO, WebTrends (formerly with Google)
# Charlene Li, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
# Chris Shimojima, VP, Global Digital Commerce, Nike
# David Placier, VP, Consumer Insights, Disney Online
# Shane O’Neill, Chief Technology Officer, Fandango
# Mike Moran, Distinguished Engineer, IBM, author (highest-rated speaker at 2007 Summit)

Charlene Li from Forrester Research began the day by letting the audience know this was her last presentation during her association with Forrester. She didn’t say where she was headed and speculation was rampant. Forrester’s new book, Groundswell, was the basis of her topic as she adroitly went thru the main points that the book supports. For instance, there are researched customer profiles that can be used to categorize your customers. These include creators, critics, collectors, joiners, spectators, and inactives. Understanding the relationship with each of these will guide your interaction with each. She emphasized that the % of each group changes by the topic, so this is not a distribution that once examined will stay in place for your marketing campaigns. She gave a number of clear examples from an interesting variety of companies. I was particularly intrigued by the Ernst & Young example where their recruiter was finding college students by using Facebook.

Mike Moran, author of Do It Wrong Quickly, spoke of the difficulty of tracking social media statistics, saying that over 80% of what we do is hard to track. He urged the use of Direct Marketing knowledge be applied to websites. DM has refined the art of testing. Websites are just beginning to make headway in this arena. Simplistically stated: Cut out all the meetings and discussions and just do something and see what happens. Afterall, changes on a website can be made immediately. Now if only we could get layers of management to agree to fast changes…

Everybody’s favorite of the day was Geoffrey Ramsey (who wrote the forward to Mike Moran’s book.) His energy level was on top and his PowerPoint clearly showed he had read all the “Death By Powerpoint” essays. I particularly enjoyed the fact he understands that visual media means images, not text. I couldn’t find a hint of a smile when he offered to send a copy of his PP by request at the close of his keynote. It is mostly images - I’m sure without an audio track it might be a challenge to get any info from it that would have much meaning.

And so it went. A day full of pithy comments about the Internet and the strategies a company needs to consider when moving into the future.

If you weren’t at ISF, consider going next year. It’s worth the price of admission.

I always knew Gary would make it, Big Time! Some other people must think so, too.

Here’s my comments sent to Guy about his new book:

Hey Guy,

Hope this is what you want…

Thanks for the privilege of commenting on your book. I think your intro says it all: [it] is a tweaked, updated, edited, and supplemented compilation of the best of my writing (blog and eight books) in one place.

And what a powerful compilation!

I began with the midpoint at Chap 45 (Effective Emailer) and read it thru. Yep. Yep. It was all I could do not to shout, “OMG! His book is a handbook for a real life! I can think of 10 people for this chapter alone.” But I couldn’t shout - my partner was asleep. So I kept reading, thinking about how I could comment on all this. But my analysis was the same for each chapter - it’s quick, instructional reading, bullet-pointed to be memorable and above all, useful. None of which is bed-time reading because it gets the motors revving and the brain whirling. It’s a better book for first-morning devotional, a devotional about business, a devotional to fire up the soul of the dedicated business person who is hungry for quick fixes that work in the long run.

Your book, Guy, is a true Vade Meacum, a “take with me” volume to read at lunch or in the bathroom. A book that you can read with new insights each time. A book that will ring true as long as there is business. And a book that gives the reader purified Kawasaki.

Reality Check will build your kingdom of fans, no doubt, and add many more.

Change anything in the book? Not a chance. It’s been edited already. What it’s ready for is the bites that people take and chew on for a while. It’s the chapter that can give new thought-life to a public speaker with presentation challenges. The kick in the butt for the guerilla marketer. The confidence builder for the newbie. The reminder that [a person’s] contribution is what counts in the end.

This book is the dad and mom birthing or re-birthing a business using an epidural called Reality Check. And you can take that check to the bank.

Shirley de Rose

Part of the joy of living in Portland, Oregon, is the Rose Festival. And I’m willing to bet that I’m not alone in that thinking.

Take a look at the details of the awards presented by the International Festivals & Events Association (IFEA) to the Rose Festival. There are 30 Pinnacle awards, plus the highly coveted Grand Pinnacle Award that acknowledges our event as the BEST IN THE WORLD!!

So now you know one of the reasons why I love living in the “City of Roses.” It’s the Rose Festival.

We’re heading to San Diego on March 31, driving down the coast to see all the natural beauty of springtime. We’ll use this blog to share the sights and inspire you to take the drive someday yourself.

The night lights of Portland, Crescent City and the Redwoods, Mendocino’s spectacular coastline, the famous Pier in San Francisco, and then the long drive to the Flower Fields in Carlsbad - north of San Diego. Ah, that’s a way to raise your spirits and your soul!

If you are a hard driving business person, or a Geek glued to your computer, science has proven that a break in your schedule to immerse in nature will renew your creativity and your balance, bringing you back to your tasks refreshed, renewed and fabulously more productive. Now that’s a vacation with ROI!

Can you even imagine not complaining? How would we ever get things changed? What about constructive criticism… isn’t that good?

Well, according to author Will Bowen, it isn’t necessary to complain. Complaining is just a negative habit and can be changed in just 21 days, just like other habits. It seems Will Bowen is a pastor and gave a challenge to his congregation not to complain for just 21 days. As a reminder he gave them all a purple bracelet and told them to change the bracelet to the other wrist every time they complained. This would be a physical activity that reminded them they were complaining and they could then choose to act differently. The results were amazing. You can check it out in the book “A Complaint Free World.” And even if you don’t like the book, remember, no complaining!

Most people that I hang around with (like my networking groups) can’t believe my energy level. It’s not like some cheerleader for the Chargers but it’s way up there, especially with endurance tests. Most days I’m like the Energizer Bunny. Yea, sometimes I crash, even take an afternoon snooze, but, you know, it’s now been proven by scientists that an afternoon snooze is the key to a long, healthy life. So I guess the world will just have to put up with me for a few more years.

Anyway, what’s this got to do with you? Well, if you want prolonged energy every day you’ll want my secret: Goji Juice. Goji Juice has gotten a lot of press lately, especially in Hollywood, including Oprah. I’ve been using it for over a year and it’s really made an incredible difference in my life. My family thinks it’s absolutely amazing. I must admit, it’s just way cool to be able to keep up with everything and smile while doing it.

You might want to check out Goji Juice. It just might turn you into an Energizer Bunny, too.

Care2 Halloween E-Cards!