Early on in our conversation, he began to tell me about an exciting prospect he was hoping would come together for him. It involved working with a very interesting and accomplished man on a fascinating project overseas.

Eric: This guy is amazing Gil! He has enjoyed a tremendous career and is a Prophet Western.

Me: (thinking .. huh.. a Prophet Western?) Excuse me Eric, a Prophet Western?

Eric: Yes, that’s right! I am really hoping that we get the opportunity to work together and that ….

Me: (totally befuddled now) I’m sorry Eric. I don’t understand! A Prophet Western? As opposed to an Eastern Prophet?

Eric: (now laughing heartily) Nooooo .. he is a Professor at the University of Western Ontario! A Prof at Western!

Me: (blushing a bit) I knew that!

As silly as this may seem, I have witnessed this type of misunderstanding on many occasions. Worse, I have also witnessed the results of not having the misunderstanding clarified. In the example above, had I not asked Eric to shed some light on my confusion, I might have assumed that Eric was embarking on some kind of deep spiritual journey. A Prophet Western evokes a very different mental image than does a Prof at Western!

Whether the word is spoken or in writing, if you don’t understand it, ask for or seek out its actual meaning. I have seen seasoned executives make catastrophic errors in judgment due to such misunderstandings often leading to loss of business and huge embarrassment. As happened with Eric, I would much rather blush a little bit by asking a question than to go off telling our mutual friends that I believe he will soon be working with a Prophet!

So, what does this all have to do with orange sandwiches you ask?

Some years ago, my wife my super fantastic and wonderful wife Colleen and I were discussing some things we needed to accomplish over the next few days. Neither of us was feeling very energetic as we were both fighting a cold at the time. When I suggested that we look after one of those things right away, the ensuing conversation took place.

Colleen: Why don’t we do that tomorrow?

Me: We should do it now. Tomorrow will have its own challenges.

Colleen: (beginning to laugh) What did you say?

Me: (wondering what’s so funny) I said, tomorrow will have its own challenges.

Colleen: (now in hysterics) Please .. umm .. HUH???

Me: (now laughing very hard but still not understanding why!) I said, tomorrow will have its own challenges. What’s so funny about that?

Colleen: (barely able to speak for laughing so hard) I thought you said, tomorrow we’ll have orange sandwiches!!!

Since that day, whenever we know that there are difficulties ahead, we lighten the moment by saying, “Yes, tomorrow we’ll have orange sandwiches!”

Postscript:

This is the first article I write since September 25th. Some of you have asked about that. I had been writing at least one a week, usually two! Well, let’s just say that there have been many days from then to now and many of them had their orange sandwiches!

Oh .. and speaking of orange sandwiches, just for fun, I thought I would see if there were any pictures of orange sandwiches out there before I sliced one and placed it between slices of bread for a photo shoot. Who knew! They actually exist and they look good too. Now, I’ll have to try to make one. I’ll let you all know how that turns out!

Photo Credits

Prophet from the MS Word Clip Art Collection – tweaked by me
Orange sandwiches – © Mourner / Vladimir Agafonkin

© Gil Namur, 2009

Until recently, I thought that the most difficult language to understand was legalese. Apparently, legalese is allowed to break all grammatical rules. Some of these documents have sentences that ramble on for an entire page without a period. Check it out sometime. Take a legal agreement, paste it into your word processor, and see what kind of reaction you get from your grammar checker. Mine complains by underlining everything!

Have you ever read the fine print on the back of credit card agreements? Holy Moley! Legalese outdone? I heard recently that a Professor of Law had given a copy of her credit card agreement to her second year students. She gave them all 20 minutes to read it and answer one simple question; what is my interest rate? Not one of them could figure it out. It’s no small wonder that the general population can’t figure it out either.

A few days ago, much to my amazement, the bewildering language of both lawyers and financial institutions were outdone by who I would have thought would be the least likely of culprits, philosophers. My wife Colleen and I were watching a show on TV that featured eight philosophers talking about the meaning of life. I love philosophy and have eagerly explored it all my life. I believe I have a good vocabulary and a reasonable understanding of many philosophical concepts. In all honesty, I understood perhaps 50% of what I heard in that show. Four of the philosophers were easy to follow. The other four, well, Colleen and I looked at each other with blank expressions and asked; “what are they talking about?”

The problem is the overuse, or perhaps, the abuse of vocabulary. While I understand all of the words they used, the complexity of each spoken sentence will require me to watch this show several times to get a handle on what they are saying. This is unfortunate, as I really don’t have the time to do this but would love to know what they were presenting. Instead, my lasting impression is that it was all gobbledygook.

Let me give you an example. Which of the following two sentences do you prefer? Which one conveys to you all you really need to know?

The meandering and nebulous nature of the homily expounded by these cerebrally inclined orators initiated intracranial cephalalgia.

or

Listening to and trying to understand these well-educated thinkers gave me a deep headache!

I have mentioned lawyers, financial institutions and philosophers. Marketing departments often speak in confusing language as well. For example, in the article Product knowledge is essential to your success, I talk about ‘toning down the jargon’.

When speaking with your clients, please, tone down the jargon. Don’t expect your clients to know all the buzz words. Use simple words and avoid acronyms. For example, avoid this: “We use a SCSI drive backplane architecture with RAID level 5 to provide your enterprise with systems that are fault tolerant thus providing built in redundancies to ensure the availability of your mission critical applications twenty four seven.” Please, find a simpler way to say that. Don’t go too far to the left though. “Dude, our storage solutions really rock” is not a great choice either!

My point in all of this is simple. When trying to communicate an idea to someone, it is my humble opinion that using the simplest language possible is the best option. Showing off your great intellectual prowess is not the point. Successfully communicating the idea is what counts.

The other side of this is even more important to your personal growth and/or the success of your business. When someone says something that you don’t understand, don’t be afraid to say so. Ask for clarification. If none is offered, get advice from a friend or a colleague. Too many people in this world are guilty of pretending to understand things in order to avoid embarrassment. That’s just silly. You are depriving yourself of an opportunity to increase your knowledge. From a business perspective, in order to make good decisions, you need to understand what you are signing, before you sign it. You need to understand your strategies and business philosophies before you state them to your staff and potential clients.

All of that now said, I have a decision to make. Seeing as I recorded the show on philosophy, shall I go back and watch it again or shall I move on to the next article, which is also about communication and how we often misunderstand things because we heard them incorrectly? I already have a title for it…

‘Tomorrow, we’ll have orange sandwiches!’

I think I’ll write more, my cranium will appreciate the break!

Photo Credits

All pictures from the MS Word Clip Art Collection

© Gil Namur, 2009

Never ever, say to a customer; “I don’t know”.

I absolutely refused to follow this advice and the conversations that followed with my boss were not pleasant. I wasn’t fired, but he was clearly unhappy with me!

Here is much better advice. When a customer asks a question that you don’t know the answer to, the best answer is this:

I don’t know, but I’ll find out!

When you do this, you are telling the truth and operating from a position of integrity. You are also making a commitment to get an answer. When you follow through and get back to your customer with an answer, you are demonstrating your reliability to follow through on your commitments.

Never forget that building long-term relationships based on trust are critical to your success. Demonstrating your integrity and reliability will go a long way towards establishing trust.

There is another very important dynamic to this. The statement; I don’t know, contains within it the seeds of learning. Freelance Writer Michael Kwan has written an insightful article titled ‘You’re Allowed Not to Know Something’. I highly recommend that you read this fine article.

Photo Credits

Gil and son Andrew © Gil Namur

© Gil Namur, 2009

“Business initiatives are all about motion and momentum. When you are unresponsive, you stall or stop that momentum.”

It occurs to me that there is a very important lesson I have learned about this dynamic that I should share with you … as soon as I am fully awake!

I have come to believe that there is no such thing as standing still. We are all moving forwards, or backwards. There is no middle ground. Whatever your endeavors may be, motion and momentum are essential to your success.

A few times in my career, I have waited far too long for someone to get back to me or to complete a task that was central to the business I was working on. In both instances, the combined lost opportunity costs were significant. How did this happen?

By nature, I am an empathetic and forgiving person. This serves me well in my relationships. People gravitate to me and trust me easily. Many of my friends and associates call me just for personal advice or because they know that I will happily lend them a non-judgmental ear.

In business however, I have had to learn to tone-down this aspect of my personality. This has not been easy for me. It’s hard to fight your own nature. In both the cases I mentioned above, I made the mistake of being far too forgiving of delays. What I should have done was set a hard deadline. If that deadline was not met, I should have politely disengaged those individuals and found others to move forward with. Part of my hesitation in doing so was because we had so much momentum. As well, they were friends. To engage new resources would have been a big step backwards. A detour … I hate detours! The thing is, as bothersome as a detour might be, it is the only way around an obstacle and necessary if you want to get to your destination. Stated otherwise, it’s much better to take a few steps back in order to be able to move forward again.

In both instances, I ended up resenting my friends. Sure, they let me down, but, I enabled them to do so. That’s my part in it, my failure if you will. When I regained my objectivity and had the time to evaluate what happened, I was much angrier with myself than I was with them. I knew better. I no longer resent these people. After all, I am a forgiving person. They taught me a very valuable lesson. Let’s hope I was a good student.

If you find yourself in a position where you are waiting for others to complete tasks that are central to your progress, don’t wait too long. If they are friends, be aware that there is a delicate balance between business and friendship. Set a deadline and have an alternative course of action available to you. If you don’t, you might end up authoring an article … just like this one!

Photo Credits

Motion and Detour from MS Word Clip Art Collection

© Gil Namur, 2009

“I only reply to messages from management”.

This strategy is, shall we say, flawed in the extreme! Our incoming e-mails and calls came from three sources; clients, staff and management. To answer only to management means to walk away from the client who is our primary reason for being there in the first place. Not to respond to our staff is to walk away from our responsibilities as a manager. Neither is excusable! In a microsecond, it became abundantly clear to me why so many of my e-mails to him had gone unanswered.

Remember these words; perception is reality!

If I e-mail your business and you don’t reply, my perception as a customer will be that you don’t care and that I’m not really that important to you. If a second e-mail goes unanswered, I will likely find someone else with whom to do business. As a manager, my perception of staff that are non-responsive would include words like un-professional and/or incompetent.

You might be guessing that this is a pet peeve of mine. If so, you are absolutely correct. Call me old-fashioned if you want, but to me, there is no excuse for unresponsiveness. I also consider it very rude.

“But Gil, I am really swamped and can’t possibly reply to that many e-mails!”

Really? How hard is it to write this?

Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for your note. I am pressed for time right now but wanted you to know that I have received your e-mail and I will get back to you within 24 hours.

Talk soon!

Cheers,
You

Or you could delegate like so:

(CC: Janet)

Hi Steve,

Thanks so much for your note. I am pressed for time right now but I have copied Janet on your e-mail and she will get back to you soon.

Janet is very capable and she is empowered to act on my behalf.
Her direct line is 1-555-555-5555.

I hope all is well for you. I will look forward to catching up with you soon.

Cheers,
You

You can have verbiage like this ready to copy and paste and within one or two minutes have a reply done and sent. Now your customer won’t ‘perceive’ that you don’t care. It’s not that complicated really. It’s called working smart!

Here are a few more ideas that can help you with responsiveness.

• When you are away from your office for an extended period, PLEASE use your e-mail auto-reply feature. Include contact information for someone that can reply immediately in case the need is urgent.
• Change the message on your phone when you will be away and as with your e-mail, include contact information for someone that can reply immediately if necessary.
• If you have staff sending you too many long e-mails, coach them to be brief and succinct. I have done this with all my staff in the past and it has saved me countless hours of reading. If you need more detail, you can always ask them for it.
• Also with staff, if everything is coming to you, perhaps you need to learn how to delegate more effectively.
• Be professional in all of your outbound communications. How you respond, or your style of response is very important and I will cover that more thoroughly in a separate article soon. For now, remember to start your e-mails with a “greeting” and end them with a “cheers” or “best regards” or “sincerely”. E-mails are NOT instant messages! They are a reflection of your professionalism or lack thereof.

  This last point is critical. Be sure you understand it!
  

• If the reason you are not replying to someone is because you are not interested in pursuing the business, politely let them know so that they can move forward by engaging someone who is interested. Your customers or associates will appreciate your candor. They may be disappointed, but they won’t be angry. Business initiatives are all about motion and momentum. When you are unresponsive, you stall or stop that momentum. A loss of momentum can crush an initiative and the lost opportunity costs can be substantial. This will not put you in a good light. Never forget that bad news travels much faster than good news and you want people saying good things about you.

Being responsive will set you apart from many of your competitors. It is a key differentiator for you and for the company you represent. Taking the time to work out a strategy that ensures your responsiveness is time well spent.

Photo Credits

Woman at keyboard from MS Word Clip Art Collection

© Gil Namur, 2009

If you are thinking about starting a new business, the following list of articles will offer you some guidance and provide you with information that can help you avoid early mistakes. Existing businesses and businesspeople can also benefit from these articles. Some of the articles are basic. I call them “business 101”. Though fundamental, they present concepts that are vital to your success. Other articles are more philosophical in nature. They will stimulate your thinking and perhaps spark your imagination.

This list will evolve over time. The articles already written appear as links. The ones yet to be written are shown in red. When the articles have been written, I will change their titles to a link to let you know that they are available. Please note that the titles may change as these are working titles.

Will these articles guarantee your success? No, but they will help you get started on the right foot. Don’t read them all at once. Pick one, read it, print it if you like and spend time thinking about the information presented in the article. Make sure you understand the concepts and consider how you will apply them to your business.

If you have a pressing need for an article I have not completed, send me a note using the contact form and I will do my best to prioritize it.

If you have a question or a comment about any of these articles, please leave a reply. I’d love to receive your feedback and will do my best to answer your questions.

Whether you are starting a new business or trying to re-energize your career, I sincerely hope that you will be able to benefit from these articles and I wish you every good fortune!

Business 101

Starting a business? What does it do and why?

Seeing the windows of opportunity

What is your value proposition?

Know your competition!

The difference between Margin and Markup

The difference between Gross Profit and Net Profit

Do you have a Business Case with detailed projections?

Product knowledge is essential to your success

Is ‘Cold Calling’ For You?

Sowing Seeds and Planting Flags

Sell them what they need, not what you want them to have.

Are You Working Smart?

Be willing to walk away from business that does not make sense.

Setting and managing your customer’s expectation levels

How well do you really know your customers?

How are you doing in your customer’s eyes?

Ask for references

The three Ds of good management

Cell phone & e-mail etiquette

Be Responsive!

Be Prompt!

Your website is only as good as your web-host
(Useful if your business will have an online presence)

Have you clearly defined your market?

Seven Problem Solving Tips

How to approach your market

Breaking the ice
(Tips and ideas on how to ease into sales pitches & presentations)

Look after the little things

Know your weaknesses and leverage your strengths

Play to win. Playing ‘not to loose’ doesn’t work very well

Bring solutions, not just problems

I don’t know but I’ll find out!
(The best response when you don’t know the answer to a customers question)

The 80/20 law

Are You On A Long Journey? Then Share the Driving Duties!
(By Catherine Novak – making the best use of your staff)

Waiting for others can break your momentum!

More Advanced Concepts, Inspirations & Motivations

If you can’t find a job, try creating your own opportunities.

The Re-Birth of Excellence

The mixed blessings of corporate metrics

Are you in the center of your own vision?

Be passionate about what you are doing

Over time, things can slip on us

Learning from failure

Building a sales team.

Personnel Management 101 or how can I help…
(By Chris Holt – effective strategies for managing your staff)

Earn the right to engage by building relationships

The Sting of Self Doubt

A crisis of conscience

Have courage and don’t be derailed by critics

Identify your challenges

Business Writing is Difficult for 6 Reasons
(By Jan Wall)

My philosophy of business writing is geared to today’s executive
(By Jan Wall – Ten reliable guidelines you can use immediately to make your own business writing more compelling, more credible, and easier to read.)

Photo Credits

Sapori © chrisholtphotos

© Gil Namur, 2009

Some quick thoughts on Personnel Management 101.

I am often asked about my management style because after 30 years of managing people in a variety of environments I’ve run into it all. There are some basic principles of personnel management that make sense to me and that I have seen work time and again. I want to focus on one aspect on positive people management as opposed to “personnel” management.

Just as background to give this some context: I have managed from one person to more than 40. Not 400, not 4000…that’s a different ball game.

I have been a manager in the advanced education system, the environmental movement, social services, health care, non-profits and the technology industry.

My work in the environmental movement was to work with Greenpeace and I managed a staff of up to 40 anti-authoritarian, anarchistic rebels; but did so with the ability to have most of them achieve their goals and fulfill the goals we set to achieve as an organization.

I also managed a union workforce for about nine years and never had one grievance filed though the larger organization was hit with a strike.

My first principle is a simple one: No matter what the position, or who the employee – treat them as a professional. This is my golden rule. It is the place where I will meet all my staff whether they are an intern student or a masters degree clinician.

All people want to do a good job, to excel and to please their boss, clients, or stakeholders. It’s why we do the things we do. Even the person hired in a retail environment at minimum wage wants to do a good job…whether they are capable, whether they are given the tools, whether there are competing elements are all beside the point. No one lasts at anything for very long if the only motivation is the money. (This is not necessarily the case in many economies around the world where extreme poverty, lack of education and slavery dominate, but is generally true in Western economies.)

It’s your job as a manager to recognize the inherent drive residing in every person. They want to achieve something, to move forward, to exercise their skills and fulfill their passions. Each staff person is unique even though they may do the same job. They will want different things out of that job and a good manager will be able to identify, observe and query those differences. By finding out what people want to achieve and helping them, you will get better and better productivity and more positive work attitudes from each and every person.

Imagine how you would like to be treated at work: As a professional. Ie., you don’t want someone telling you how to do your job unless you ask, you don’t want to be micro managed, you don’t want to work for the clock but for the task, you want feedback on the work you do and a sense of appreciation. You work has meaning even if it’s only cleaning the bathroom. You can still be the most conscientious cleaner around and work towards owning your own cleaning company, or managing staff or being rewarded because you are trusted to do it well.

That last statement brings up the subject of trust which underlies all that I’m talking about. Yes, as a manager you have to trust your staff…If you don’t, it actually speaks more about you than it does about them. In order to be able to trust though you must be trust worthy yourself. If your staff can not trust you to be fair, accountable, supportive, interested, humane and compassionate as well as inspiring, knowledgeable and productive, then you can’t expect it in them either because you can’t see it.

Yes, there are always problem staff. I have fired, laid off and reassigned; but those are always the exception, the anomalies. They should never define how you run a workplace because then your workplace will encourage the very things it seeks to discourage. Professionals love the work they do that’s why they chose it; but even if you have people working in jobs because they need to make a living and didn’t choose it, to be treated as professional in that capacity will often make the difference between enjoying your day at work or hating it – both for the manager and for the staff.

Take care and have fun…

Visit Chris Holt’s BLOG – Intuitech

Photo Credits

Team work © chrisholtphotos

Article © Chris Holt, 2009

© Gil Namur, 2009

I recognize that maintaining things is not one of my strong suits. Building something is a much more fulfilling expression of my creativity and a far better use of my particular skill sets. Once I have built something, I like to move on to the next thing. For me, how long that cycle takes has everything to do with creativity. So long as there is a creative element to what I am doing, I will embrace it with great passion. The moment that ceases to exist is the time for me to move on.

I am currently building a new entity. I can’t tell you too much about it just yet but I can use part of the team building process to illustrate the value of knowing your strengths and weaknesses. In building this new venture, I have identified it’s major key ingredients. Here are a few of them.

• Drive & Vision
• Sales & Marketing
• Administration
• Human Resources
• Finances
• Technology
• Branding
• Public & Media Relations
• Social Media Strategy

Because of my background, I have some strength in all of these areas, but I am by no means an expert at all of them. Vision, drive, sales and marketing are my strong suits. And so, in this new venture, I will take the roles of President and CEO and handle the vision & drive components. From a thousand feet up, I know exactly ‘what’ needs to be done. I see the big picture. When I start to drill down to the specific details of ‘how’ each task needs to be implemented, my weaknesses become apparent.

I will give you three examples:

We will need a shareholders agreement. Having owned a few companies, I know a little bit about this subject. Enough to know its clearly not one of my strong points. I could read a few books, speak with a few accountants and handle it myself but how good a job would I do? Would I properly factor for growth or for an eventual sale of the company? Would it ensure that we always have functional control of the company? Would the share structures allow for incentive and reward through stock options? It is far better to empower someone who has experience and knowledge in this area to make these critical decisions.

What about technology? I have lots of experience in this area, but I am by no means an expert in some critical areas. Sure, I can build websites, deploy WordPress, record and engineer music so I suppose I fit the label of ‘power user’. My synapses get a bit foggy when it comes to what’s going on under the hood on the server side of things, and what the requirements are to scale a system to handle millions and millions of hits and page views without crashing. Could I figure that out? Probably, but I’d make mistakes. Could I recover from those mistakes, yes, but at what cost?

On the public relations and communications side of things, I also have some strength. I can write and have been told I am pretty good at it. I have excellent people skills and when I am passionate about something, I am an engaging speaker. However, we need to make sure that the message we give to the market is properly distilled and conveys ‘exactly’ what we want that market to hear. If I imagine a writer as a center on an NHL hockey team, I am at best a 4th line center. I want a first line center to lead the charge because that’s the best thing for the company.

I have built an excellent team and each member of that team is empowered to do what they do best.

Of course, I will have input in the decision-making processes as will everyone else. Earlier, I mentioned I would handle the vision and drive components, but even though that will be my primary responsibility, I won’t do it in a vacuum. To do so would only deprive me from leveraging our collective knowledge, experience and instincts.

Whenever I have experienced this dynamic in a team, great things have happened. Regardless of the size of your team or the magnitude of your venture, remember to:

• Be honest with yourself and recognize your weaknesses
• Leave your ego at the door
• Leverage your strengths
• Trust and empower others to do what they do best
• Work as a team

Doing so will allow you to reach the highest levels of excellence!

Photo Credits

Team pictures from MS Word Clip Art Collection

Aristotle – Wikipedia Public Domain

© Gil Namur, 2009

I peeked around youtube to see if there were any interesting pieces by Jack Canfield and I found several.

Jack Canfield is best described as an understanding, compelling, empowering and compassionate coach who has helped hundreds of thousands of people achieve their dreams.

In this 1 minute video, he talks about the importance of acknowledging that we often create our own fears. If you have never heard Jack Canfield speak, this short video clip will give you a glimpse into his style and his compassionate spirit. Moreover, it is EXCELLENT advice!

Length: 1 minute

There are many Jack Canfield videos at youtube.
Click here to see more:

About Jack Canfield:
(Be sure to watch the video clip at the top left of the page)

Do you feel safe? Is this person acting rational? Isn’t there a better way? After all, you can drive too, and then maybe at least one person can get some rest (because you can’t sleep if you are worried about your driver nodding off and plummeting down the hill).

On a road trip, it seems sensible to share the driving and make sure that everyone arrives safe and refreshed. But wait – there’s a business analogy behind this road trip scenario as well.

Face it – owning a business is a lot like going on a long road trip. You’ve got goals, a timeline and yes, passengers in your “car”. They are often your employees, or other people important to bring on the journey. It’s true that nobody knows the car like you do, and you’ve been driving it a long time. But sometimes giving the wheel to one of your trusted fellow passengers can be an excellent business decision as well – especially when they know the area they are travelling in at least as well as you do.

A business woman I respect did exactly that a number of years ago, when she and her husband ran a recycling business. They had a group of employees working for them. Most were in their 20s, and they were the route drivers, the frontline people, the sorters, and the business developers. Between them, the employees managed the day-to-day affairs of the company. But the owners’ business colleagues still shook their heads when the policy decisions of the company were handed over to the employees to discuss and implement, in a weekly staff meeting where the staff literally made the rules. “You are giving up that much control over how your company is run? What are you, crazy?” “They are just kids – what do they know about running your company?”

In fact, the owners thought it was the best business decision they’d made for that company. Their staff felt more than listened to – they actually had real input, and could make a positive difference in their work environment. The staff knew where the inefficiencies were, and found ways to become more productive. Staff turnover decreased (in a demographic rather notorious for staying at a job only as long as necessary), job satisfaction increased… and so did profits. The owners sold that company a few years later for a substantial sum of money. And they attributed much of their success to the input and improvements generated by their employees.

So much lip service is given to the idea that “our staff is our greatest resource”. If you believe it to be true, tap into that resource – and do it often. Not only will it free you up from some of the burden of solitary leadership, it will bring new ideas into your business, improve the skills of the people who work for you, and probably bolster your bottom line.

And you might stand a better chance of getting where you want to go safely!

About Catherine Novak:

Catherine draws from over 25 years of communications and adult education experience. A graduate of University of Victoria, she’s lived and worked in locations as diverse as London UK and Lillooet BC, and returned to Victoria – her spiritual home – in 2004. Catherine is owner of WordSpring, specializing in working and social media consulting. As well, she teaches social media strategy and tactics in independent seminars and at Royal Roads University.

Visit Catherine Novak

Photo Credits

Woman driving from MS Word Clip Art Collection

Article © Catherine Novak, 2009

© Gil Namur, 2009