My wife and I recently attended the Water Lantern Festival on Cleveland’s Lake Erie coast at Voinovich park. On a beautiful, warm Cleveland evening, I, along with thousands of others, spread our numbers out, milling around and socializing over the lawns and walkways and waited for the sunset to be begin. Each participant received a bag containing a paper lantern and marker, on which to write our thoughts, hopes and wishes, a wooden base and a battery powered candle. It...

Most people, when developing their new creative idea, take time to plan and think through the steps, envision the process, visualize the finished product or goal and most importantly, attempt to answer all possible questions. Nothing hatches without preparation and time; a concept we can easily learn from the animal kingdom and ourselves. But what happens when we spend too much time planning, designing, strategizing, thinking about the journey and struggling to develop the answers to all anticipated questions and...

This week, while my grandchildren were here, we decided to make the trip to Cleveland’s West Side zoo attraction during the heat of the day. We, along with what seemed like the rest of the county, trekked through the exhibits from the flamingos to the elephants. The Cleveland zoo was built on very hilly acreage, which is easy for the young, but not so much for the young at heart to navigate. I was willing to call it quits during...

When developing a new web presence or new offerings for our clients, the key is to clearly identify their target buyers, their preferences, concerns, aspiration and potential transformation. Your buyers change their preferences, and as markets and conditions change and potential new markets open up for you and for them, these answers may change as well. Below are the top 10 questions I ask my clients in order to thoroughly and successfully identify their buyers and their preferences: What are...

On this day, July 17, in 1955, Walt Disney’s dream became a reality when Disneyland opened its gates to its first wide eyed guests. The $17 million theme park was built on 160 acres of former orange groves in Anaheim, California, and soon brought in staggering profits. Today, Disneyland hosts more than 14 million visitors a year, who spend close to $3 billion. Walt Disney, born in Chicago in 1901, worked as a commercial artist before setting up a small...

With her siblings at summer camp, I had the pleasure this weekend of hanging out with my four-year-old granddaughter celebrating the 4th of July weekend. We had a wonderful time visiting Luvin Lavender farms, enjoying the beautiful surrounding, working on exciting art projects, as she even posed for brief moments to allow me to capture some images and showoff my photography. I was just asked what does the perfect morning look like for me. The first thought that crossed my...

July 2, 1776, congress passed a resolution of independence and legal separation from Great Britain. The declaration was signed on July, 4, 1776, the day which has become one of national celebration, picnicking, fairs and parades. In times of peace and times of war, our nation has come together to honor the original tenets and hopes of that original declaration. Today, I’d like to share the famous words of three of our past presidents. Whether you agree with their historic...