Planning a brainstorming meeting with colleagues or masterminds? Here’s the checklist: Peruse your calendar to find an open day/time. Prepare list of topics and ideas to discuss. Prepare questions and format. Contact colleagues. Confirm date, time and place. Gather all pertinent materials. Meet colleagues at agreed upon date and time. Be seated. Pull out cellphone. What???? Unfortunately, the incredible technology available on our smartphones today is oftentimes a hindrance to our work, our business and our family life. How many...

Last weekend, my wife and I traveled to hear The Cleveland Orchestra perform at Blossom Music Center, which is one of the most beautiful summer concert venues in Northeast Ohio. Being somewhat in a hurry, I quickly launched my browser and searched for available online tickets. I clicked on the first link that came up and to my surprise it showed only a few tickets available at the starting price of $180 per ticket. This made no sense since tickets...

What does your business have in common with online dating? As it turns out, quite a lot. In both situations, the images you post can make all the difference between a great connection or a really sour interaction. Posting misleading photos on dating websites—like that glamour shot from 1997 that shows you 20 years younger and 20 pounds lighter—will only hurt you when the actual date rolls around. And just the same, posting outdated images of yourself on your business...

This week’s reflection point: We all know that the Internet is the world’s best tool—right at our fingertips—to transform our lives and improve our businesses. But the web is also the world’s biggest distraction, and one of the worst enemies of productivity. Do you leverage the web to its full potential? Or are you one of the scores of people “caught” in the web, mostly distracted by it rather than empowered by it? If you think of yourself as a...

This week’s refection point: The amount of fraud that takes place on the web is mindboggling. Here are a few examples: Receiving phishing emails from various financial institutions that look authentic and lure the recipient to click and enter their confidential information, only to find out that their identity has been compromised or stolen. Spam emails that promise amazing investment opportunities that guarantee your future wealth or the opposite, the ones looking to place their inheritance of millions with you!...

This week’s reflection point: Has technology taken over your family dinner hour? Many decades ago when frozen TV dinners were the newest craze, we began losing precious family time staring at the TV while we ate. The family dinner time to talk about business, schoolwork or highlights of our day stared slipping away. Today, we are incessantly checking for emails, messages, Instagram or Facebook posts all throughout the day. Go to any restaurant and you will find folks on their...

This week’s reflection point: Do the acronyms: BRB, LOL, IMHO, CYL, or IDK, seem familiar to you? When it comes to web acronyms, or Internet jargon, how hip are you? I’ve noticed the popularity of such acronyms growing significantly over the years where one may probably need a special dictionary to interpret incoming messages. I suspect the trend started years ago with the invention of cell phones and the need to type short messages on a clunky numeric keyboard. It...

This week’s reflection point: Does it ever feel like technology is controlling you, rather than empowering you? If so, it’s easy to understand why. We live in a world where machines seem to conquer all. Back in 2011, IBM’s “Watson” computer beat out Jeopardy!‘s two best players to win over $70,000 in a landslide victory. And since 1996, when the first computer beat the top-rated chess player in the world, computers have been yelling “check-mate!” at strategy competitions around the...

This week’s reflection point: It’s easy to give your clients advice. What’s more difficult is following it yourself. Admittedly, it can be challenging to “walk the talk” when it comes to doing the very things you tell your clients to do. But if you fail to implement your own strategies, why should your clients trust you? Of course, the answer is that they probably shouldn’t. That’s why it’s so important to take stock of your business habits on a regular...