It is true…..Ken just broke up with Barbie using Twitter. I could not believe my ears when my 6 year old daughters latest Barbie DVD was playing in our car during our last family road trip and those exact social media and more technical phrases were being referenced as common place.

Uncommonly, I began to pay extra attention to the dialogue that was taking place and the references of Twitter, email, texting and Facebook kept repeating themselves throughout the story line. I can only imagine what it must be like to actually watch these activities take place on the screen.

We are losing the art of conversation and I am just as guilty of this crime. What is worse our kids are going to completely be conversing via technology and losing site of traditional methods. How can we help keep the art of conversation alive and well, especially with ouryouth?

One good thing from the Barbie video is that one of the characters spoke and stated “you don’t break up with someone using Twitter….that is wrong!” Perhaps this a step in the right direction.

I have been using Craigslist.org for many years to sell and buy many things (I never use Ebay or StubHub aymore). I have been successful in finding new employees for my companies and tenants for my rental properties. Needless to say I am a HUGE fan!

My admiration for CL grew even greater, a few weeks back when I was in a crunch. My family and another family were traveling to the Boston area to spend the weekend at the Life Is Good Festival (great time BTW) and around 9pm the night before we were informed that the third family that was suppose to join us had a family emergency and would not be able to go….immediately I thought how can I get these sold and not lose money before tomorrow at 11am since they were still selling tickets at the event. Fortunately the CL microchip that has been implanted in my brain (years ago) kicked in and said  “Post them on Craigslist”…..so by 11pm that evening sitting in our hotel room on my iPad I had the tickets posted slightly under the sales price.

By 8am the next morning my phone and my wife’s phone began to ring with calls and text messages of people wanting the tickets and even through Sunday people were still wanting to see if we had them available. We ended up selling them to the first person that called us.

I did not make money selling the tickets however, our losses were less by putting a simple free ad on Craigslist.org.

So before you do anything…..try Craigslist first, you might be surprised.

Flying in earlier in the day to Minneapolis via Southwest from a 2 am wake up and a 6:15am flight, Mike and I arrived 2 hours early from a great day of Internet Marketing meetings to catch our 7:15pm flight to Milwaukee. Mike being Mike Frey our new CEO personally discovering my explanation of a typical power meeting day.

Thinking that we were continuing Southwest to our next destination we returned our Hot Rod and proceeded to the closest terminal to check our golf clubs. Once hitting a dead end around the ticketing counter for Delta airlines we were instructed by a very confident traveler from Seattle to take the tram which we never knew existed to another airport.

Reluctantly Mike and I boarded the tram, which lead us to a train to terminal 1 to hit ticketing for Southwest and after leaving the train and up an elevator and over an escalator through an overly hot abandoned parking lot (which by Mike’s estimation appeared to be a par 7 away) with luggage and golf clubs in tow we hit another set of
elevators that took us ultimately to the Southwest area. As we approached the terminal I was looking at the departure boards and commented to a mike that I was not seeing our flight destination or time on the boards.

We arrived to the ticketing counter perplexed and pulled out our itinerary only to reveal  that we were to catch a Delta flight and not Southwest. I immediately began to roar with laughter since we were at that counter 20 minutes and several modes of transportation earlier. I then told Mike I am going to the bathroom….I will be back.

When I returned, Mike was smiling and the back of his shirt revealed a nice soaked image in the outline of his backpack that obviously stood out once he took off his back pack. We both got another chuckle from his sweaty back as we were contemplating our next brilliant move. Mike was advised that we could take a cab at this point as opposed to reliving the last 20 calorie burning minutes…..due to time restraints we elected to take a cab.

Arriving at the cab stand the first cab was not able to accommodate our golf clubs, fortunately another cab was close by and we loaded up and headed out. Despite the cab driver knowing exactly where we needed to go we began to question him when we actually left the airport and got on a major highway. He assured us that he was heading to the correct location. Sure enough after a 10 minute cab ride we were back to Delta.

Once we got through security we rushed to the gate and upon arrival realized that our flight had an hour delay…..laughter once again erupted and we were fortunate enough to have had a bar next to our gate of which we needed desperately and utilized fully.

Needless to say we made our flight and the trip was a success and we truly maximized our early arrival time at the Minneapolis Airport(s).

So there I am sitting in the airport bar waiting for my flight after a few jammed filled days of appointments and sales calls. I am surrounded by various other people in the same situation and the last thing I want to do is disturb any of these business professionals in their last few hours of “down time” prior to getting back to their office and families.

But then it happens….I pull out my iPad and almost like a switch heads pop up and necks begin to turn towards me as if they are on some country road and pass a herd of deer. I am the deer!

Most people go back to their cocktail and chicken wings as they rumble under their breath…..I gotta get one of those. However, there seems to always be a bold few that venture towards the deer for a better look. Typical questions are, is that the 3G version and how do you like it? After I respond my natural instincts take over and I ask….”so, what do you do” and after they respond I tell them what I do and how I  use the iPad for my business. This usually turns into further dialogue about our respective businesses, a couple more comments about the iPad and typically ends with the exchanging of business cards and all of a sudden…..BAM, a new prospect added to my pipeline that I can stay in touch with to see when they finally take the plunge and get an iPad.

Aside from the traditional value props of owning an iPad….the contacts I have made by having an iPad have more than paid for the product.

If you have not seen one of the newest Nike commercials that is often running on ESPN… please make a point to watch it (see below).

The background song “Ali in The Jungle” by The Hours is the most crucial part. The primary lyrics to the song is that “Everybody gets knocked down….how quick are you gonna get up?” And of course being Nike it has highlights of some knocked down athletes such as LaDainian Tomlinson and Maria Sharapova.

As I am watching the commercial and then putting the song on my Iphone I am quickly reminded of how practical this song applies to businesses… especially now. Often I am talking to businesses who state “We are waiting for the Economy to turn around” or “times are really bad, right now” and just about every time my response is…

What the hell are you waiting for?

Your competition to keep outranking you? The Government to give you a personal “bail out”? Stop waiting and start doing!

Bottom line is if you are planning to stay in business and increase your cash flow now is the time to put a plan together and immediately act upon that plan. Seriously, every business got Knocked Down in the last couple years… the question truly is, how quick are you gonna get up?