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or...
stop being so darned professional and take a break today!
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| Issue No. 57 November 2012 |
| Welcome! If you enjoyed last month you'll be craaaaazy about this month!The purpose of this ezine continues to be inspiration, humor, business, personal and just plain fun: aka the don't-take-yourself-so-seriously ezine. |
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For years people have asked for more coaching on presentation skills which I offer through Speakers Schools, or in-person coaching (also via Skype and phone). And now, and now, and NOW...
This is a membership-based, subscription coaching club on presentation skills. Once a month you will call in for a 45 minute group coaching session on all the aspects of making great presentations. If you can't call in, it will be archived for members only. You will have time to ask questions regarding your specific issues. You will have an opportunity to request certain topics. You will be entitled to Speakers School discounts and other related events.
Who is this for? If you are breathing, with pulse, can eat without assistance...sign up now!!! Because everyone can benefit; salespeople, professional speakers, wannabe professional speakers, executives, homemakers, teachers...anyone who aspires to be a better story teller, a better presenter, a better communicator. THIS IS FOR ALL OF YOU!
Sign up now and get the introductory price of ONLY $47.00 per month.
And for anyone who registers prior to Jan. 1st we'll waive the $50 initiation fee.
Questions? We've got answers!!
Just call 312.664.8447 or email me.
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To all veterans, past and present, thank you for your service to our country. We remember and honor you, and appreciate the sacrifices you and your families have made to keep us free and safe.
"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them."~John F. Kennedy
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CONNECT WITH US!
In case you've missed past issues of the ezine Click here to visit the archives. |
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See, I really do own a pair of jeans!
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I love this time of year; the joy, the celebrations, and being fully alive to enjoy it all. As I reflect back over my month while writing my musings I am truly grateful for the people, the places, the events. I hope this Thanksgiving will be a time for all of us to reflect on our blessings.
My month had some unique venues, as usual; from Planned Parenthood
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Lori Lemerand, Planned Parenthood
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to taking a freight elevator in NYC at TEI Group
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Mark Gregorio
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(Mark Gregorio, President at left) to The Silverado Resort in Napa.
One particular highlight was keynoting the Secret Service Summit in Cleveland, the premier event of it's kind, for
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John DiJulius
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John DiJulius, THE Authority on Customer Service.
While in Napa, I participated in the TEDx Conference festivities with my "mini-me," Kristen DaRosa who was serving as Marketing Director for the event.
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Kristen DaRos
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I socialized with the songwriter of The Lion King who flew in from South Africa, and award-winning singer from Slumdog Millionaire, plus many brilliant entrepreneurs. One I was fascinated with was Jake Kloberdanz, CEO of One Hope. You MUST check out this wine company.
My annual Vistage KEY group retreat,
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Key group retreat
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led by Martha Strong, was held at The Herrington Inn in Geneva, IL. Here are a few of us after a tour of the Spice House and shopping in town.
Then I flew right to Santa Fe to work all week on my one-woman show with my coach, Tanya Rubinstein (below).
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I took time out for a spa night at the famous Ten Thousand Waves Spa (below). Santa Fe was a little too "tofu" for me.
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10,000 Waves Spa
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I had the honor of participating in the wedding ceremony of my member Brian Beaulieu, and bride Debbie (below) in New Hampshire.
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My speaking gig following that was canceled so I "got outta Dodge" in time to avoid Sandy (and got outta NY on the last flight to avoid the nor'easter).
Then I wrapped up the month with former member/race car driver/friend, Sherri Heckenast
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Sherri Heckenast
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(right), and the Annual Vistage All-City Event with over 500 attendees (pictured here with Mary Hoffman and Gretchen Martz).
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Mary Hoffman, Gretchen Martz
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Have an outrageous Thanksgiving!
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I LOVE THIS BOOK!
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The What if?
Book of Questions to some of your most revealing answers on LOVE and HEALTH, WEALTH & HAPPINESS
by Miggs Burroughs
 In the spirit of full disclosure I am a Miggs Burroughs zealot, fan, friend and more. Miggs and I shared office space over 25 years ago in Westport, CT and he has designed every one of the myriad of logos for all my businesses. Check them out here: Meet Mikki This book is very "Miggs." He's an out-of-the-box thinker (and you wonder why we have been friends for so long?), and he's always had a questioning mind, an irreverent sense of humor and immense creativity. This book asks some poignant, get-your-mind-working questions,
always in a playful yet introspective format. Some of my favorites: - What if the same illusion of ownership that connects you to what you have, can connect you to what you want?
- What if the only thing you can truly own is a thought? Is there anything you can't have; anywhere you can't be?
It would make a fabulous gift for the holidays...for everyone. It's available on Amazon, B&N, iTunes & Kindle. Now go get this book! |
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Join me and some of my fabulous friends for fun and informative tele-conversations!
The next tele-conversation is on Tuesday, November 20th
at 12:00 noon CST.
No cost, no obligation.
Just CLICK HERE to register.
TELE-CONVERSATION
 WITH GREG BUSTIN
TOUGH LOVE: DRIVING RESULTS THROUGH ACCOUNTABILITY
GREG BUSTIN should have been an umpire. Not because of his love of sports, but because he calls 'em like he sees 'em. He led two divisions at two companies before founding his own consultancy where the final decision was his. As a sought-after consultant who's led more than 150 strategic planning sessions, Greg works with leadership teams at some of the world's most admired companies plus up-and-coming firms that aspire to be the best. He also leads three groups of successful executives for Vistage International. In each encounter with tough choices and the occasional prickly personality, Greg delivers tough love to help improve individual and organizational performance. His survey of 3,000 executives in the U.S., Canada and Europe confirm that accountability is the single greatest barrier to business performance. Join the conversation and find out how accountability can work for you in business and in life.
December's guest - back by popular demand:
 Dr. Bhavesh Patel Tuesday, December 18th at noon CST Topic: THERE IS SUCH A THING AS HEALTHY AGING
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25 FOR 25
| In recognition of my 25th year as a professional speaker I am going to attempt to list my 25 favorites of various categories over this year. One of my favorite quotes is from Yoda... "There is no try, only do."
So here goes... 
1. Jason Durishin (my son)
2. Barbra Streisand 3. Dolly Parton 4. Cher 5. Bette Midler 6. Jennifer Lopez 7. Michael Buble  8. Jon Bon Jovi 9.. Luther Vandross 10. Teddy Pendergrass 11. John Legend
12. Andrea Bocelli 13. Amy Winehouse
14. Adele 15. Bryan Adams 16. Diana Krall 17. James Blunt 18. Jason Mraz 
19. Jimmy Buffett 20. Mark Anthony 21. Pitbull 22. Rod Stewart 23. Sade 24. Trey Songz 25. Chet Baker |
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CREATIVE CAPTIONS
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I love creativity and as a wordsmith I love double entendres, alliteration, onomato... whatever the heck that one was. One of my quirky habits is collecting names of businesses that display any of the above. Here are two of my favorites:
Disgraceland (consignment shop)
There's Snow Business to Blow Business (snow removal service)
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SHOE-BE-DOO
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WONDERFUL WEBSITEings
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I come across so many and so many are shared with me that I thought I'd share with you.
Tripit.com
Turn all your hotel and rental car confirmation emails into simple, mobile travel itineraries just by hitting forward.
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MIKKI MOUTH:
QUOTATIONS I WISH I'D SAID AND SOME I DID SAY!
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Enjoy a quote each month from my new book - some funny, some poignant, some professional, some just darn cute!
"An optimist is a person who starts a new diet on Thanksgiving Day. "
~Irv Kupcinet
Order the book today!
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TITILLATING TRIVIA
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 We sure eat a lot of turkey. According to a study done by the National Turkey Association, Americans ate 690 million pounds of turkey during Thanksgiving 2007. That is equal to the weight of the entire population of Singapore.
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SOCIAL MEDIA GURU GUY
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Dave Nelsen
Dave's formal title is President, Dialog Consulting Group.
From 2005 to 2009 he was CEO of TalkShoe, a social media company now serving more than one million monthly listeners...and the fabulous company I use to produce my monthly teleseminars.
Handy Link Shorteners
Yesterday, a friend sent me a link to a video he thought would be of interest:
http://play.simpletruths.com/movie/10-rules-for-success-v/?cm_mmc=ExactTarget-_-FR-_-11.02.12-_-GOLSmovie&j=23707&e=JohnQPublic@gmail.com&l=3516_HTML&u=1034392&mid=7001668&jb=20
Since this was in an email message, it was easy enough to click, but beyond being big and ugly, there's a simpler and more powerful way to share links. This is especially valuable when we're sharing verbally, or otherwise require more concise communication. Twitter anyone? This link
alone (without any accompanying message) is 177 characters, far beyond Twitter's strict 140-character limit.
READ THE REST OF DAVE'S ARTICLE
You can find more formal details here:
wesocialize.biz
To contact Dave directly:
dave@WeSocialize.biz
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ECON RECON
| Introducing my newest columnist, the "economist with a personality" (my title not his) ...
Brian Beaulieu  is Vistage's chief economist, one of the country's leading economists, MY Vistage member, a phenomenal speaker, brilliant businessman and a special friend. CEOs worldwide rely on his forecasting as they plan their business year. And for anyone trying to understand the economy, Brian speaks and writes in English not in that foreign language called economicspeak. Enjoy!
Chinese Computers
$300 billion is a lot of money in anybody's world. The US Cyber Command estimates that $300 billion is the value of the secrets stolen from the US each year. Two firms in particular have gained notoriety in this area given recent hacks on the White House and in industry. The firms are Huawei and ZTE and they sell telecommunications gear globally. Huawei operates in 140 countries and ZTE is the fourth largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world. The US government says they have links to the Chinese government and that information is beaconed from their server equipment to China. In effect, they are spying on the US government and stealing from US businesses.
A bipartisan report from the House Intelligence Committee suggests that American companies should avoid sourcing network equipment from these firms and that they pose a national security risk. They also recommend the US government not buy any components from the two firms.
I learned today of a US firm who had $4 million stolen from them in a 30-second window. The trail led to Russian thieves using a virus implanted in a Chinese-made laptop. I have no scientific evidence of this, just an anecdote, but let the buyer beware as this firm had all the usual firewalls and safety protocols in place.
Businesses and nations need trust if they are to mutually prosper. Contracts and treaties are relatively meaningless without trust. Systemic actions linked to the Chinese government suggest that trust on our part may not be warranted and that your investments in China may be at risk. It may also mean that your domestic cash balance is also at risk. These headline stories suggest that we will continue to see re-shoring of manufacturing and other firms that have gone to China.
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 LIFE LESSONS...FUNNY, FIT OR FABULOUSSubmitted by John Godoy
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THE HAPPY COOKER
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That was the name of one of my businesses and oh, come on, I know guys cook, too.
Pumpkin Pie with Toffee-Walnut Topping
Crust
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons chilled solid vegetable shortening, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 3 tablespoons (about) ice water
- 1 large egg yolk, beaten to blend
Filling 
- 1 15-ounce can pure pumpkin
- 2/3 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
- 2/3 cup whipping cream
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 2 large eggs
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted, chopped
- 1/3 cup English toffee bits (such as Skor)
For crust:
Blend flour, sugar and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening and cut in using on/off turns until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 2 tablespoons ice water; process using on/off turns until small moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dry. Gather dough into ball. Flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill 30 minutes. Position rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 375�F. Roll out dough on floured surface to 12-inch round. Transfer dough to 9-inch-diameter pie dish. Fold overhang under, forming high-standing rim. Crimp edges decoratively. Freeze 15 minutes. Brush crust all over with yolk. Bake until crust is set but still pale, about 15 minutes. Cool slightly. For filling:
Whisk first 12 ingredients in large bowl. Pour into crust. Bake until filling is set, about 55 minutes. Transfer to rack. Sprinkle nuts and toffee around edge of hot pie, forming border. Cool pie completely. (Can be made 6 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.)
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HE WHO LAUGHS...LASTS!
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Just in case you eat too much for Thanksgiving...  |
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MIKKI'S MANTRA
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Be outrageous...
it's the only place that isn't crowded.
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INSPIRATION
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From a Zen Bhuddist master:
"Masters in the art of living make little distinction 
between their work and their play, their
labor and their leisure, their mind and their
body, their information and their
recreation, their love and their religion.
They hardly know which is which.
They simply pursue their vision of excellence at
whatever they do, leaving others to
decide whether they are working or playing.
To them they are always doing both."
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VISIONARY VOLUNTEERISM
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Visionary - adjective (esp. of a person), thinking about or planning the future with imagination or wisdom
 I speak of volunteerism is my speeches. I tell stories to inspire and challenge audiences to volunteer as individuals, as responsible business and community leaders. as parents/grandparents, and to get their children involved early. By the way, volunteerism is the number one way to raise self-esteem. What are you doing in this visionary effort? Each month I will give you a link to a site where you can volunteer. Please send me a link to your favorite volunteer opportunity to post.
www.socialgoodies.com now recoup.com
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MIKKI ON THE MOVE
|  Check out where Mikki will be speaking and piggyback your company or association event. Or just invite her to dinner or shopping! Click here for her calendar: Mikki On The Move |
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The next Speakers School is in session on
February 7-9, 2013 in Chicago
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Why Should You Come to Speakers School? |
Day One: Presentation Skills
Day Two: Learning Lab
(Your opportunity to practice what you learned in Day One. You must have completed Day One to participate.)
Day Three: Getting Booked
Speakers School is for people at all levels; novices, wannabes, CEOs, professionals or anyone who needs to improve their communication skills.
And who doesn't?
REGISTER NOW!
OR...BRING SPEAKERS SCHOOL TO YOUR COMPANY.
IT'S A GREAT VALUE.
EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION IS THE CORNERSTONE TO SUCCESS.
Help your employees improve their presentation skills, whether they're
speaking in front of a group or in a one-on-one situation.
Successful business people know it's important to have an edge these days, and Speakers School provides that with Mikki's how-to techniques you can use, not theories you'll forget. Excellent communication skills set you and your staff apart and help take your business to the next level.
CALL NOW FOR MORE DETAILS: 312.664.8447
OR SEND AN EMAIL TO REQUEST MORE INFORMATION.
Upcoming Speakers Schools:
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| To book Mikki for your next event as a keynoter, emcee, panelist, seminar or workshop leader (she doesn't do floors or windows) or for more info on Vistage, Speakers Schools, Coaching or Consulting or anything else that's on your mind, contact Mikki or Samantha |
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MIKKI WILLIAMS, CSP
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Mikki Williams, CSP (certified speaking professional, an honor bestowed on less than 600 speakers worldwide) specializes in business dynamics and human potential. She has been named one of the top speakers in the country by Meetings and Convention Magazine along with Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins, Colin Powell, Lou Holtz and Mike Ditka. Mikki is also one of the top tier speaker resources for Vistage International, the world's leading executive organization, and Group Chair of two of their peer advisory boards in Chicago.
Her company Mikki Williams Unltd. produces Speakers Schools in Chicago three times a year, a monthly ezine: Hair She Is...!, a blog: Mikki Williams' Blah Blah...Blog and a monthly tele-Conversations series: Mikki & Friends. She is sought-after for business, life and presentation skills coaching through her firm Coaching, etc... She also facilitates The Mikki Mouth Club, an annual subscription-based presentation skills coaching membership.
If you need other speakers she can book you the best through her Outrageous Orators...speakers who rock, an uncommon speakers bureau.
To hire Mikki or learn more about any of these services:
CALL ME: 312.664.8447
FAX ME: 312.664.8460
E ME: mikki@mikkiwilliams.com
SEE ME: www.mikkiwilliams.com
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 Thanks for spending time with us!
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All contents � 2012 Mikki Williams, except where indicated otherwise. All rights reserved worldwide. Duplication or reprint only with expressed permission from Mikki Williams. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. All contents provided as is.
In our extensive research we've made every attempt to be accurate in attributing quotes, poems, jokes and the like, and want to apologize in advance if we have not given proper credit or given it erroneously. If you are the owner of the rights of any of this content, please contact us so we may arrange for appropriate permission and give credit.
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