I made a mistake today, an error in judgment. Yet it wasn’t all bad. Here’s what happened, what I might learn from it and a few lessons for all of us. Mistakes can sometimes become teaching tools, if we chose to learn from them.

The Background
In the last two months, I’ve started running. Well, more like jogging/walking. This is HUGE for me because even as of now, I’ve never run a complete mile in my entire life. When I was in high school, we could choose between chorus, PE or band. I chose chorus, three music classes my senior year.

Some say I’m blessed because I have a high metabolism and a long, used to be thinner build. I’ve never really had to exercise nor watch what I eat. Until 40. I’m 43 now and for a variety of motivations, I want/need to take care of myself.

In April I took Archie, our golden retriever, to the vet for his 1-year check up. He weighed in at 93 pounds. Our vet said Archie needed to loose about 5 pounds and he needed more exercise. She was right. Truth be told, so did I.

I started out walking in the mornings or afternoons, whenever I could find the time, and I probably got in a mile or two. Fast forward to run/walk/jog in intervals and I’m up to 3-4 miles.

Today’s Run
I woke up tired and almost decided to forego the run but then was determined not to loose momentum. I ate a light breakfast, had coffee (caffeine is really helpful) and drank plenty of water. After I dropped Morgan off at camp, I came home. Archie and I headed out at 9:37. It was probably already close to 80 degrees.

We started slowly, then picked it up and ran a bit. Walked a bit, ran a bit, etc. Before long, I started to get overheated. My skin was hot and red. My scalp and arms had that cold tingly feeling. So I slowed down and took a few rest stops along the way. I popped a couple of icebreaker sours in my mouth to get the juices flowing again and just remembered to pace myself.

Determination
Despite the fact that I was hot, really hot, I continued to push myself to make sure I didn’t quit/give up, call a friend and ask her to come get me.  I even ran a little bit up the second to last hill before I got home. And it felt good! Not physically, of course, but mentally/emotionally.

When I got home, my face, chest and arms were RED! I stretched in the cool of the AC, lay in front of an additional fan, drank lots of water and snarfed up a banana. Before long I was feeling great.

Lessons Learned

• Don’t delay your goals. With summer heat and humidity kicking in, I have to be more intentional about getting out earlier in the mornings.
• Be prepared. I wore heat wicking clothes, good socks and shoes and I had my cell phone with me. I took mints/gum to help with dry mouth. I even took Aveeno lip conditioner with sunscreen in case my lips started to dry out.
• Listen to yourself. I was in tune with my body and realized I was getting too hot.
• Adjust based on variables. Even though I started out with a decent pace, I had to adjust due to the heat/humidity. And I had to do this on the fly.
• Evaluate. As I reflect on today’s run, I can see what went well and how I can improve next time.
• Celebrate. Even little steps forward are progress towards the overall goal. Oreos and milk for afternoon snack!

What mistakes have you made recently and what have you learned from them? If you’re a runner, what other advice would you give me? Is any of this helpful for where you are with your own goals? Leave your comments below.

I just sat in on the first Twebinar thanks to Chris Brogan, Marcel LeBrun and many others at Cross Tech Media and Radian 6. What a GREAT first-time experience combining a webinar with the power of twitter to broaden the conversation. In case you missed it, here’s a summary of what stood out most for me.

• People are using social networks to find pockets of opportunities.
• Social networks/social media are changing search engine results, often highlighting obscure or sometimes less than ideal information above the fold. Companies must pay attention.
• Customers are having the conversations online about your company, your product, your industry, etc.
• Mom bloggers have power and LOTS of influence on the buying decisions, not just for their households.
• Businesses are seeing negative comments go down because they are listening.
• Companies doing social media/social networks well are doing so because they aren’t taking themselves so seriously. Loosen up corporate America.
• Loosening up melts resistance.
• Associations (non-profits, chambers and ministries/churches) have great opportunities to build community via social networks.
• Every business/organization needs to reach out to younger generations to continue in the future. Social media/social networks provides that platform.
• Use social networks/community to let your customers help you build your next product/service. They’re already your fans.
• Use social media/social networks to give people what they need to tell your story!
• Companies/organizations interested in controlling the convesation are not well suited for social networks.
• Pushing your marketing message is not well suited for social networks. It is far better to enable conversations (and let others lead the conversation/tell your story).
• We now live in three worlds: the physical, digital and virtual. (I would add spiritual to the list, but that’s a whole other post.)
• People have three lives: professional, personal and private (the part not on social networks).

There was so much information. Now I must digest it all. It’ll be interesting how the conversations that began in today’s session will continue on Twitter in both formal and informal ways, as well as in other conversations about marketing, business and life.

I apologize for not including names/companies/links for speakers. The twebinar went so quickly, I only had time to take notes. See the sidebar of Twebinar page for more information about speakers. Can’t wait ’til the next one! Good job guys.

What about you? Were you one of the 500 to get in the first one? What was your takeaway? What am I missing from the list?

As noted in yesterday’s post, for the last few months I’ve been telling people about Twitter. This morning an idea for a post started brewing in my mind and now the pot is finally ready. Here is a short list of tweople I recommend anyone using Twitter should follow, and why. (This could be part 1 of several, but for now, let’s enjoy the first sip while the coffee’s still hot!)

These are all people who have consistently enriched my life by their tweets and/or their blog posts. For new Twitter users, login to Twitter, then click on the links below and click “follow” to begin receiving their updates.

In No Particular Order

• @ChrisBrogan I consider Chris to be the master of social networks. Or maybe he just gets people and that shows up in everything he writes (and believe me, he’s prolific).
• @zappos Tony is the CEO of zappos.com and a genuis at building culture, both internally and externally. He’s using Twitter expertly! Hey, you could also win stuff.
• @michaelhyatt President & CEO of Thomas Nelson uses Twitter for business, to be sure, but what I like best is how he tweets about real life. Mike is approachable and he loves his wife and family.
• @craignewmark Founder of Craigslist.org, Craig is king of brief. His blog posts reveal his passions and often include only photos.
• @jnswanson Jon journals thoughtfully, takes great photos and sometimes reveals both on his blog - Levite Chronicles. Jon loves God, family and coffee.
• @ev Evan is the Cofounder of Twitter. I like to keep up with people who are smart in ways I can’t even begin to understand.
• @biz The other Cofounder of Twitter. It’s so cool to see what people can think up and then put into action.
• @dacort Brilliant programmer, Internet security expert and fun person to follow. I like to pretend I can speak his IT/security language.
• @sacca - A tech investor and someone with a witty sense of humor.
• @danportnoy - Brilliant. Funny. Just maybe a beautiful mind. The person who got me into this whole blogging thing to begin with. Working with The Sold Project - you MUST check it out too.
• @ronedmondson - Straight up guy who loves God and has a heart for people. The real deal.
• @getitdoneguy - Man, Stever is one of the smartest people I’ve seen. You’ll be smarter just by following him and gleaning from his insights.
• @alanataylor - On the cutting edge of technology. Writes for Mashable. Truly a digital native and a nice person to boot.
• @garyvee - Wine guy, passion personified. Uses social media to build his brand and has an amazing following. Gary has insane energy.
• @newmediajim - A real life camera news guy. Now when you see the stories, you begin to think of the people who actually film/make the news happen.
• @starbucker Because everybody needs a little music trivia every now and then. With Terry, the glass is always half full.
• @chriscree Chris is a heck of a nice guy who embraces the fact that we live in a collaborative society. Talk to Chris and you feel like you’ve known him all your life.
• @arickmann Because he’s a smart alec and hey, sometimes you just need a laugh. He’s also one of those people who speaks a language other than my own (web design).
• @frankmartin Knows marketing research, he recommends great reads and he is passionate about social media/social networking.
• @richmillington Incredibly smart! Never read a single blog post of his that didn’t make me stop and think.
• @beckymccray Becky understands small business in rural America and she understands blogging and community. And besides, how often do you hear grown women talk about kegs?

Who enriches your life with their tweets or posts, and how so? Add their names in the comments section below so they can enrich the lives of others as well!

In recent months, I’ve talked with dozens of real-life friends and business acquaintances about Twitter: what it is, why and how I use it and why they should as well. Twitter updates can be found on my Facebook page, my Plaxo Pulsestream and on my blog. I’ve spoken about Twitter in presentations and conversations.

Here’s My Take
I’m not the expert. In fact, I’m still learning. And maybe that’s precisely the reason I felt compelled to write this post. I’m an average person seeking to understand this whole new twitterverse and what the implications are for my business, my family and friends, my community/country/world and my faith. So far, I’ve discovered at least six ways you can use Twitter today:

1. Level the Playing Field. You can use Twitter to follow decision makers of online shoe stores, major publishers, wine retailers, technology companies and business owners. You can follow famous authors/speakers, sales gurus, coaches, politicians, entertainers and some of the brightest marketing minds anywhere. No gatekeepers. No barriers.
2. Find New Ideas. Some of the smartest, most creative and innovative leaders in the world are on Twitter. You can ask questions and get a variety of responses from people based on their areas of interest/expertise. You also have access to thoughts and conversations that are different from your own or those of your peers/colleagues. You can even use Twitter for online brainstorming.
3. Catch Breaking News. By following @breakingnewson and @cnnbrk and others, you can learn about earthquakes across the country/world, tornadoes in your backyard, primaries and concessions (or not) and more. And you can get this news FAST - typically before it’s available through traditional media outlets.
4. Research and Identify Trends. When you read updates from more than a handful of people about a particular product or subject, you see emerging trends. You can also use Twitter to determine if trends are isolated to people within a certain geographic region, demographic, psychographic or market segment.
5. Generate Visibility. Use Twitter to gain additional visibility for your business (or personal brand) and generate traffic for your website. This has happened for me when “tweople” with small, moderate and large followings have tweeted about @CherylSmith999.
6. Enjoy the Water Cooler. While working from home has many great advantages, solopreneurs can sometimes feel isolated or disconnected. Twitter is like an online water cooler or break room, providing you with a venue for conversations about daily happenings.

What Others Are Saying
Social media expert Chris Brogan has written five posts specifically related to Twitter and dozens more that touch on the subject. Read Chris’ Newbies Guide to Twitter or How he uses Twitter. Check out Rafe Needleman’s comprehensive newbie’s guide to Twitter. From the C-Suite, Thomas Nelson’s President & CEO, Michael Hyatt, has a great 12 Reasons to Start Twittering post. People all across the blogosphere, the twitterverse and even main stream media are talking about Twitter. Just maybe Twitter is more than a novelty or geekfest.

Not yet using Twitter? Try it out. It will probably feel awkward at first but chances are, in no time, you’ll get the hang of it. Who knows, you may even come to rely on it.

Already a believer? How do you use Twitter? When people ask you for info about Twitter, where do you point them? Leave your comments here and broaden the conversation.

Photo credit: Leo Reynolds - Creative Commons: Attribution, Non-commercial, Share alike.

The summer after Peter and I got married, we invited some friends over to give us their ideas for renovating our 1950-60-something ranch-style home, complete with bomb shelter. Tim, an engineer and Melanie, a chemist, (or maybe the other way around) think linearly and we wanted their feedback.

We ended the tour outside on the deck, where we talked about ideas. It was dusk and Little Bit had just had her bath. She came outside in her long, white cotton slip/nightgown, complete with a ruffle at the bottom. Her hair was still wet and amazingly, she was quiet (the girl can talk!) as we discussed design ideas.

At one point in the conversation, my 6’5” husband looked down at Little Bit and said tenderly to her, “You want that; don’t you?” I hadn’t realized it at the time, but Little Bit was intently eyeing at least one firefly that was just out of her reach. Peter saw the desire of her heart and without any effort at all, reached up, cupped the firefly in his hands and lovingly gave her the tiny light.

The look on her face was priceless! She was so elated to have the very thing she wanted, and she entertained herself with it for the next while.

The lesson here, though, is not about the joy of receiving unexpected gifts, or being the recipient of someone else’s abilities. Rather, the lesson for me that day was about the love of a father for his child. Specifically, I witnessed firsthand how my husband loves his little girl and when he has the ability to do something nice for her, he does. It’s that simple really. No effort required.

That night, I believe Peter painted me a picture of God like I had never seen before. Peter showed me that God is like a Father, who loves His children, and desires to give good gifts to them. And for God, it’s no big deal to provide such gifts.

I’m thankful that Little Bit and her brother, as well as Sweet Pea and Ninja Boy have a living example of a loving father/stepfather, who is painting a beautiful picture for them of our own Heavenly Father.

One final note, I’m currently reading The Shack and was struck by a thought in the book when Mack, the main character, wrestles with why God is so often referred to as father. He didn’t have the best fatherly example of God. The author says that sense Creation is so broken, the need to point people to a loving Father is all the more important. You’ll have to read the book to get the full picture.

I’m blessed today, and every day, to see a loving Father relate to our four children in a way that paints a beautiful picture of God.

Happy Father’s Day, Shmitty!

I’ve recently been reminded of the importance of the basics. My sound advice has not come from the halls of Harvard, the offices of Google, the C-suite of Wall Street, nor the pages of The New York Times Bestsellers List. No, my teachers are 10-year old boys - specifically my step-son and son. Though both boys posses above average intelligence, I don’t ordinarily think of them as child prodigies of the business world. On the contrary! Lately my husband and I find ourselves saying things like,

“Did you wash your hands?” (yes) “Did you use soap?” (no)
“Did you brush your teeth?” (yes) “Did you use toothpaste?” (no)
“Did you wash your hair?” (yes) “With shampoo?” (no)
“Did you take a bath?” (yes) “Did you use soap?” (no)

You see the pattern here? For some unknown reason, truths that were at one time clearly obvious to these boys, are now nowhere to be found in the recesses of their minds. Honestly, if I didn’t know better, I would swear aliens landed in our yard, entered our house in the middle of the night and did a mind wipe, at least on the topic of personal hygiene.

I’m Guilty Too
Sometimes I’m just as bad. Not like THAT! I use soap, toothpaste, shampoo, etc. But on occasion, I still forget the basics of business. Reminds me of the stories I’ve heard of great UCLA basketball coach, John Wooden, who is said to have started the first practice of each season teaching freshman players how to put on their socks and tie their shoes to offer the best support. I suspect we all need reminders from time to time. Here are a few I keep learning.

Business Basics
Make the sales calls.
Do the follow up.
Write.

Personal Basics
Have my Quiet Time.
Exercise.
Date Night.

Can you relate? What are the basics you sometimes need to remember? How do you get reminded?

If you’re in business, you’ve heard the phrase “under promise, over deliver” more times than you can probably count. After a particularly poor customer service experience at a Chinese restaurant, I even explained the concept to my 10-year old son. The ability to exceed a customer’s expectation(s) is a vital aspect of providing superior customer service. The topic is one component of CultureSmith Consulting’s half-day workshop, Select Squared.

Late last night Twitter made a huge promise on their blog. With the opening of Apple’s 2008 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) and Steve Jobs’ highly anticipated keynote address, (and possible new iphone announcement), Twitter is expecting ten times the traffic today on their site. Given the fact that Twitter has had dramatic downtime over the last few months, they’ve “made some plans to accommodate this dramatic surge.”

They’ve also set some pretty high expectations for reliability in the minds of users across the twitterverse. Time will tell if they have under promised and can over deliver. Or if the reverse is true. I hope they can pull it off!

I have really come to value Twitter as a business resource. I can’t say that I’ve come to “rely” on it completely, due to the aforementioned downtime. But I really want to!

When is the last time you were pleasantly surprised by customer service? How do your customers want you to succeed? Have you set the bar too high for your own organization and left your customers with unrealistic expectations of your ability to deliver?

You never know what might happen when you take the time to handwrite a note. The other day I wrote to Chris Brogan, thanking him for the impact he’s had on me at this phase of my business. I sincerely appreciate his willingness to share information, not to mention the fact that he’s a genius! I expected nothing in return. On Friday, Chris surprised me with a blog entry about the CultureSmith notecard and even included the above photo. Already, it’s generated some additional traffic to my website and helped me add a few more followers on Twitter.

St. Patrick’s Day Meeting
On March 18, 2002 I received a handwritten note that changed the course of my life. Just the day before, on St. Patrick’s Day, I was returning to Lynchburg from Dallas after presenting at a statewide conference for chamber of commerce professionals. My itinerary included a brief layover in Pittsburg.

It was there that I first noticed a tall man with two small children. When I say “noticed,” I mean because he was 6′5″ tall. I’m 5′11″. It’s not every day that I see men I have to look up to. I wasn’t really thinkin’ anything else. I mean, he had two small children with him, right?

On the flight to Lynchburg, said tall man and two small children were seated in the row in front of me. Come to find out, his son was four and daughter, 18 months old. I love kids, so I played peek-a-boo with the toddler and occasionally caught the eye of the four-year old. All three of them had beautiful blue eyes.

Baggage Claim Isn’t All Bad
When we arrived in Lynchburg, passengers from our very full flight gathered around baggage claim awaiting their luggage. And then there were three. We waited…and waited. No luggage.

I’ve never been accused of being shy. My extroverted personality and customer service training, paired with networking advice from Harvey Mackay’s books and my experience in the chamber industry compelled me to introduce myself. There was a drug rep and the tall man, Peter. He and I had a brief conversation:

“Thanks for playing with my kids,” he said.
I replied, “no problem. It made me miss my own. I can’t wait to see them.”
He said, “Are they with your husband?”
“Ex-husband,” I offered.
“Yeah, me too. It sucks doesn’t it?” was his reply. I nodded.

Shortly after that, we moved to the ticket counter and filled out the necessary paperwork so that hopefully, our luggage would be returned to us in a timely manner. I recognized the lady at the ticket counter as someone with whom I used to work at Belk, a family-owned department store. We chatted for a bit and I left to go get my babies (at the time Sweet Pea was 6 and Ninja Boy was 4) from my ex.

The next day a green bag similar to mine arrived at my office. The name on the luggage tag was - you guessed it - Peter. The last name started with an M. There was a phone number, so I took a chance. I called the number and left a message saying I had his luggage at my office. Before he had a chance to return my call, someone from the airline returned with my luggage and reclaimed Peter M’s bag.

The Note that Changed My Life
On the outside of my luggage was a green envelope with the logo of one of Lynchburg’s major employers and the words “Strictly Private.” Someone had my attention.

Evidently, Peter remembered my name and that my friend worked for the airline. He went back to his office, penned the note, went back to the airport and asked my friend if she could give the note to me along with my luggage. Thankfully, she did!

A few days later, Peter Smith and I met for coffee at a Givens Bookstore. He was in the middle of a tough divorce and I had been there, done that. We talked for what seemed like hours. We shared stories and began a great friendship. Who knew four years later, we would end up married? (Part Two coming soon.)

You Never Know
Rather than click “send” the next time you want to make an impression, why not get out a pen and a note card? In our very high tech society, a handwritten may just be the personal touch you need. Postage stamp or not, handwritten notes have the ability to go farther than you might think.

How did you feel the last time you received a handwritten note from someone? When was the last time you took the time to write a personal note? Was it effective? If so, how?