BECCI's BLURB

“The fellow that can only see the week ahead is always the popular fellow, for he is looking with the crowd.   But the one that can see years ahead, he has a telescope but he can’t make anybody believe that he has it.”   - Will Rogers The concept of crowdsourcing is not necessarily a new idea.  Although, when many people think about it, they believe it started with social media and the Internet.  Not true.  Actually, the basic concept of crowdsourcing has been around for hundreds of years.  Bloomberg Cities tells the story of how the British government used “crowdsourcing” to resolve their issue regarding navigation at sea in the 1700s.  Obviously, this was just a few years before we had social media.  That being said, people use crowdsourcing campaigns for various reasons today.  Sites like GoFundMe and Kickstarter have been created so innovative, remarkable, genuine, and sometimes deceitful people can change the world.  Or mayb...

“A key to a healthy relationship is being present.” ( The New York Times , 2017)  - James Roberts, author of “Too Much of a Good Thing: Are You Addicted To Your Smartphone?” My husband has a terrible habit of losing his keys, wallet, and/or his cell phone. For the life of me, I can’t understand this. For someone who is so attached to his phone to lose it so often, I will never understand. So, for Christmas two years ago, I bought him Bluetooth tracking devices for his phone, wallet, and keys. At the time, I meant them to be somewhat of a joke but also because I was rather tired of replacing these items all of the time. I’m not sure he saw the humor in the gift as much as I did because it took him over a year to use them. I am not sure how well they genuinely work, but he is doing a much better job keeping track of them now (knock on wood). I tell this story because it amazes me how easily my husband can lose something that he and countless others have become to rely on ...

“Put all your eggs in one basket… the handle’s going to break.  Then all you’ve got is scrambled eggs.”  - Nora Roberts  (2010).“Hot Rocks,” p. 183, Penguin Any experienced financial planner worth their salt will tell you never to put all your eggs in one basket.  Sure, the market looks great right now.  But when everything comes back down, and it eventually will, because it always does, you need to have a balanced financial portfolio, so you do not lose everything.  We can apply this same advice to various other examples other than financial planning.  The same can be said about our use of technology and social media too.  It is officially 2020 – the start of a new year and a new generation.   And d igital media is everywhere!   Traditional media such as print newspapers, the yellow pages, local radio stations, and television stations are being replaced by faster, digital mediums that we can acc...

“So, your kids must love the iPad?” I asked Mr. [Steve] Jobs, trying to change the subject. The company’s first tablet was just hitting the shelves. “They haven’t used it,” he told me. “We limit how much technology our kids use at home.” (Nytimes article, Sept. 10, 2014)”    ―  Nick Bilton   ( https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/technology-addiction ) W e have no one to blame but ourselves.   As a society, we have turned our children into little monsters, and now we, the parents, teachers, grandparents, waiters, etc. are suffering the consequences.   Our son began the “change” the day he graduated preschool.   That’s right, you heard me, preschool.   That is the day he received his first tablet.   We bought a tablet for a five-year-old because he graduated preschool and officially introduced him to the world of technology.   As a consequence of this, he hasn’t been the same since that day. As a society, though,...

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!   Or does it?    Perhaps an all girls weekend got a little crazy after your eighth shot of tequila.   You and your girls make your way to the Viva Las Vegas Wedding Chapel, where you marry a sexy dancer from the Thunder from Down Under show.   To make the occasion even better, an Elvis impersonator officiates the wedding ceremony and your girlfriends are your impromptu bridesmaids/witnesses, snapping pictures with their phones and posting the images to social media faster than you can say, “I do!”   It was a magical night until you wake up the next morning and realize you are lying next to a complete stranger in your hotel room.   It couldn’t possibly get any worse until your mother calls you screaming because she just found out you married a total stranger in Vegas, and it is all over social media.   Oh boy, what have you done? A crazy situation like this might sound a bit extreme, but I am...

“The media, like anything else, can be bought. Everything, it seems, has its price. Even the free press.”   ―  Lance Morcan,  The Orphan Conspiracies: 29 Conspiracy Theories from The Orphan Trilogy    ( https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/free-press ) Money talks.  We all know that.  Now, money may not make you a happier person in the end, but it sure does help pay the bills.  So really, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that traditional media is slowly dying a painful death.  “Traditional media” as we know it is being replaced by the sexier, much cooler, considerably more cost-effective new guy, the Internet. Traditionally, newspapers were extremely partisan and geared toward their voters who subscribed to the papers, because that was how they stayed in business.   However, around the turn of the 20 th century, advertising was responsible for the majority of the incoming revenue of most American news organizat...

"I think the currency of leadership is transparency. You've got to be truthful. I don't NYC Skyline - view from Statue of Liberty (picture from vacation in 2017) think you should be vulnerable every day, but there are moments where you've got to share your soul and conscience with people and show them who you are, and not be afraid of it."      - Howard Schultz   Over the last nine weeks I shared many stories with you and we have traveled through the world of leadership and communication together.  Although these topics may not have been what I would have thought to write about originally, they have actually given me a little inspiration to get started, or the push I needed to continue writing the personal blog I have been wanting to write for some time now.  I wanted to start a personal blog about my thoughts and share stories, even if no one reads it, so that I can begin to heal.  This leads me to my point this week.  Transparency. We ta...