CEO Speaks, Sage Advice During Turbulent Times

Well, I am teaching a course this fall to about 17 undergraduates, mostly sophomores and juniors, and they did pretty well on the first exam. I asked them if they had seen President Obama on the Letterman show and only a few did. Television may disappear – we are not there yet – it’s still a few years away. It will be interesting to see how all this evolves with technology. These students are leaving their footprints everywhere.
One day I said something about an Etch-a-Sketch and the students just looked at me, and then someone said it is now called a Magna Doodle. I enjoy having older students in the classroom. They have a slightly different perspective, and they get my jokes.

Excerpts from the book.

This is amazing

Digeus has an amazing blog tool SnapIt Screen Capture 3.7 and it is highly effective.
Not sure what other products and services they offer but the blog software is cool!

Humans and creativity is amazing to me. What gifts God gives us is humbling too.

Dallas hotel

STC is a professional organization I am a member of and recently enjoyed the fall conference in Dallas. The OMNI Mandalay Hotel was the place of choice for the conference. What a gorgeous, clean place and comfortable rooms with white linens, down pillows and delicious food.

Customer service was unbelieveable too.

CEO Speaks

This is the last Stone Rings blogs at least for awhile. I am starting a new blog about the book I just published CEO Speaks, Sage Advice During Turbulent Times.

Thanks for rreading this for as long as you have. I truly appreciate the support for technology information seekers and other issues.

CEO Speaks excerpts

The book released June 10th is now on the web and soon to be on Amazon. These CEO's typify the ethical, the intelligent and the trusted to do what is right now, for employees, for companies and for America's growth. Miami to New York, Ft. Wayne to Dallas, St. Louis to Nashville, Dayton to Sarasota these men and women tell about their passion, their purpose and educate from their point of view. They would not be CEO's is they were not smart!

A quote from the book "People will not necessarily remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel". David Pursell, Farmlinks

Farmlinks is a beautiful resort, golf course, hunting, fishing and more about 45 minutes south east of Birmingham, Alabama. The beauty of nature comes alive when you drive onto these gentle rolling lopes of lush grass with animals on either side.
Long horns from Texas and angus cattle are closed in with a natural fence. A must see for anyone wanting to get back to nature.

CEO Speaks book

Excerpts from interviews with the CEO’s in CEO Speaks, Sage Advice During Turbulent Times released June 10, 2010


Sustainability is a mind set. Innovation creates value, strategy captures value, and human beings deliver value. The human being is the one delivering the value: people to people, business to business, in the community, in the neighborhoods. When people talk about sustainability and growth, I come back to mindset and the human being who chooses to consistently deliver relevant value or not. The global meltdown has been a reality check. Everything is connected to everything else. We are literally one degree of separation. As a people, we are connected on this planet. It is important to recognize no matter the time, the distance, the geography, the culture, whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. Sustainability is a mind set, an attitude and outlook on life.

Edith C. Varley, President, The Varley Group, St. Louis, MO

During our interview Shelley shared by writing African and American on the back of an envelope. By separating the words with a line the message become, I Can. He also shared the message he presents to children through a video of prison stories and lost lives. Shelley does not tout race. Shelley promotes education.

Afr ican
Amer ican



Shelley’s mother was Mattie C. Stewart she was killed when his father knocked her out of a two story window in a drunken state. Shelley was one of four sons. One died in the Korean War, one died in prison, one died here after Shelley brought him home to die. Hence, Shelley’s passion The Mattie C. Steward Foundation began as a way to keep students from dropping out of school. Shelley’s passion is education, keeping children in school and keeping them out of prison. This is written in his life’s story. Shelley’s program exhibits a school bus with the back simulating a prison, the front a school room.

Shelley Stewart, CEO, O2 Ideas, Birmingham, Alabama



Serving as an expert witness can be nerve wracking. The attorney’s job is to win the case so they come up with things you never think would be addressed in those environments. Our firm concentrates on mentoring others. Our focus is to be the best and we are well respected among other accounting firms.

Kelly Todd, Senior Partner, Forensic Solutions with offices in
Birmingham, Alabama, Los Angeles, California, Dallas, Texas



Give me someone who has Emotional Intelligence, someone who has gone through the school of hard knocks, a student of life with American ingenuity. I like people who like get things done, a person that can accomplish what ever their goal is, what ever the job is; I like a scraper. I have a good family life, a good business life and a good community life.

Charles Collat, Chairman Emeritus, Mayer Electric Supply
Birmingham, Alabama


I find that one of the pitfalls of talking about this is that it can come across as self-righteous or aggrandizing or somehow pious. It is important for me to find the right language to use, to your point about communication when you are speaking with someone. When you are delivering a message, you have to deliver it to the person you are speaking to in a language that they understand. You do not want to water down what you are saying so much that you become a chameleon just for the purposes of getting someone’s approval. I do think it is important to be able to frame the concepts that one is talking about in the language of the audience to whom you are speaking.

President of Williamson Auto Group, Trae Williamson, Miami, Florida


In 2008, TransAction—as staff to the Neponset Valley TMA—was selected by the Federal Transit Administration in a competitive bid process to manage the National Rural Technical Assistance Program (National RTAP). Working for the Federal government for the first time can certainly be challenging as a small company, but we report to two women who have truly been supportive and helped us work through the process.

Cindy Frene, CEO TransAction Solution, Inc., Waltham, Massachusetts



Each chapter in the book ends with Sage Advice in highlighted form from each interview. The following is an example:

Sage Advice


- Emotional Intelligence is important –

- Serve in nonprofit if you are a for profit business -

- Care about others-

- Nurture is as important as structure -

- Accept yourself and accept others -

- Connection is better than separation -

- Unity is better than individual separation -

- Make a meaningful contribution in a compassionate way -

- Life has many treasures including our planet, our earth, our world -

- Words do not have inherent meaning –

Written communication and publishing

When this idea came to me I thought how will I find 40 CEO's to interview? Well, live and learn...an analytical friend found some errors...I am not perfect and obviously neither are the people that transcribed, edited, proof read, etc. the book.

It was a great accomplishment and learning a valuable lesson (again) in having 10 people re-read...as a dear friend said today, "I didn't find any errors, I was reading for content". Hopefully most people feel the same way. I can live with an extra preposition here and there.

To finish this in one year took 10 hour days, flying around the country, asking and moving forward with it all.

Interesting results with Google

When I typed in my maiden name some strange stuff happened as well as some interesting coincidences...name of an uncle popped up as well as many physicians and other professionals and many in science or science related topics and careers.

Blogging about the new book CEO Speaks, Sage Advice During Turbulent Times released in June 2010 brings up more interesting topics...attempting to properly underline the name of the book, well, no way not with Yahoo wanting to add Spanish...sorry guys not my language. Nothing wrong with speaking Spanish but I do not. Can America stay American very long...I doubt it in this crazy times.

Yahoo will never be half of what Google is and the reason is simply they try to control everything from your email to your blogs...as soon as this contract runs out I am leaving ATT because they use Yahoo for their email. Bad decision guys...probably was less money since they are all about the money.

Interactive Intelligence

Boy do these people have their act together. Size matters with technology but for the little guys this is so cool...not so sure it will help the big boys with their communication needs but the little guys are in luck.

Independence has become a way of life in America but I'm still concerned about the cell towers and the honey bees...

The younger generation has no idea what their need for technology is doing to the bee population and that means food supply like fruits and vegetables!

Man's diet is poor enough so leaving out the veggies and fruit is not good!

Re-living the horror stories of companies relocating

Relocation can be a dounting task when employees are without land lines and email is down there is no communication with clients. Last year an interview with a friend, client, customer all wrapped into one she was recalling the horror stories of being disconnected in 2007 and beginning 2008. With sixteen employees and no lines or email this could have been a business gone out of business. They are a graphics company too.

They did survive, thankfully and is continuing to grow even in this economy!

SIP is awesome

It is amazing to me to be out and about and see business people in the grocery, the library, the bank, at meetings and all are connected to their offices via cell phones and technology. We can move in every direction. In Tampa in January my niece sells real estate and it was amazing the number of calls she received in 3 days. The freedom to be with family and still do business. Ya!

Finally finished the book

CEO Speaks, Sage Advice During Turbulent Times is done...edited copy is at the publisher and I am so eager to get my life organized again. I truly feel in awe about the entire project because nothing went awry. Not one road trip, one hotel mishap, not one delayed flight...this was just an amazing project. Thank you Father!

cell bills going up?

A colleague recently shared a story about a corporate audit where she saved the company over 8K dollars a month. The culprit was text charges...employees think that's the way to communicate but it not acceptable when a company is paying the bill. Voicemail may go by the way side but email and voice calls are still the way to do business...sorry twenty somethings. Texting is expensive and I resent customers costing me money because their lives are organized enough to understand it is not appreciated.

SIP and technology made easy

Following a SIP presentation I was impressed with the vendor and the knowledge of making the product work. There was two small issues not covered in the presentations.

1) Power outages and yes they do happen. Last night a technician in a CO in Venice Florida took a circuit down for about an hour. I was cut off a call and when I called the party back could hear ringing with no answer.

2) What about SIP trucks and security? Hackers are pounding away at fire walls constantly and consistently waiting for the right vulnerable moment, that is a guarantee.

So answer all the questions even the ones not asked!

cell phones

A business associate is focusing on cell phone audits. After doing so for one clients she saved the organization 1/2 the cost they were being billed...when companies provide cell phones for employees do not expect employees to text. No texting and no International roaming either. As one associate said it is about the client and saving them money in this economy...we can help do that. Our network of people have thousands of years of experience doing just that...saving clients money
through reducing expenses.

We are the best!

Auditing

During the days of layoffs and low profit margins has companies evaluate the number of access lines they have...the providers would probably say something like, "you're under contract, you can't change that now. My question is do you know when your contract expires? Providers do not tell you when your contract expires nor do they call you and say, "would you like to re-sign"? No, they automatically put you into another contract or a month to month situation.

It isn't in their best interest to communicate with their clients. Especially since we have learned to use computers so we do not have to talk to people...how absurd we are in the field of technology. We're putting computers in everything and "dumbing down" society. As one writer put it we're educated to the point of imbecility.

CEO Speaks, Sage Advice During Turbulent Times

Nine months into this project and already I feel a sense of relief knowing I can concentrate for marketing my consulting skills and the book. Within a month it will be finished...an exciting project, a wonderful experience, meeting wonderful people through networking with people that knew my integrity and level of faith plus confidence helped too...I can do anything I choose to do with class and completeness.

Engaging, trusting the CEO's came forward, only one questioned me and I did not know him so that is OK and his prerogative, it was his interview, his time, his credibility and his name. As one CEO said his grandfather told him, "Son, all you have in life is your name". Good advice...do you think Wall Street forgot? Because no one with millions in bonuses and a sense of entitlement in the millions of bonuses has a good name, we are on to you now and the taxpayers money is at stake. No more bonuses for bad behavior, no more rewarding and taking from the American people, no more Congressional screw ups, no more political games...vote everyone out of Congress, House and Senate. American's let us clean house, literally in November every time we vote, let's take back our country from dirty money, in and out of Wall Street and Washington no more lobbyists money...and while I say that can we give Obama some support for attempting to help instead of bad mouthing and coming up with fabrications on his religion plus other garbage. Bush II almost destroyed our country with all his cabinet and I voted for him, shame on me.

We have supported many Presidents without a good reputation and causing shame on a country, to a country, to their family, to the world. Change is needed and it is still an election process that allows the sequence to perpetuate upon it's self. If this nonsense does not stop soon it may be too late, if not already. Supporting self interest while in Congress is not what was to be done by our founding fathers. Serve in Congress means served for life for those there. Not right, not moral, not ethical, not anything but self serving...end of story

Re-read article on phone company charges

Which I have seen on dozens of bills...it is an ongoing problem for businesses and yet one account the two people made 19.2 million. A bit of cash wouldn't one say.

Again, as reported in the Washington Post the some of the companies turn their heads to the charges. Interesting way to care about one's client, those paying...small business and big business alike.

Wireless plus

Termination fee on cell contract are stiff without any reason yet it is all in the fine print...

Wireless is responsible according to science for messing up the bees solar system...they can not find their way home to the hive...

Cramming is very real and resurgent wave is growing for tiny charges the phone companies have on their bills...no answer for where the charges come from...according to the Washington Post cramming can be a very good way to make a living...

The crooks always find a way to ride on the coattails of society...entitlement to be a crooks...the question is who parented these people!!?

wireless and honey bees

Cavaet: I am not a scientist nor is research in nature my full time job, I simply care about future generations. Is there a way to stop the demand for wireless toys?

With some evidence suggesting a correlation to wireless and loss of honeybees are the geeks in the world eventually going to kill off mankind? Without the bees there is no pollination! Without pollination there is no fruit and vegetables. This is serious information to consider.

Listening to the words

Attending a business venue this morning I am always amazed at the poor listening within an audience and a person. Others are talking and we fail to hear the words or interpret the meaning within us vs. meaning intended by the speaker. In business I am sure millions if not billions of revenue is lost every year due to poor listening.

After the key note speaker opened the session for questions someone in the audience asked a question that had been answered during the speech. I was amazed the person had missed the comment. The speech was on energy and we do not have turbines for power in the southeast due to wind verbosity needed to make the turbines produce energy which is 30 miles an hour.

In telecommunication electronic orders have codes for any service to be installed. If one code is incorrect orders (then installations) stagnate for days, weeks and even months if communication does not flow between companies. No communication, no service, no revenue, no application, it is that simple. We all need to become better communicators.

Technology just a different sort

Manufacturers please stop and think...what do packaging engineers and design engineers and geeks have in common? They think consumers don't have brains. Bought a new coffee pot Monday and after washing, drying and cleaning with clear water run through I needed a flash light to read the buttons. There is no stop and go button or on and off
buttons...no words that make it easy to turn it on and turn it off, we have to figure all that out on our own. The design team wanted all the gee whiz components but not have it eligible in a straight forward method.

Why does everything have to have gee whiz? I just want to make coffee. I do like the pre-set features so if we get up at 5 or 6 am the coffee is ready. But I really just want some simplicity in my life instead of difficulty especially in my home? Does anyone understand that?