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Finders keepers …

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Remember how great you felt the last time you found something you thought you had lost? Might be a favorite shirt … Grandma’s cookie recipe … that CD with the one song you love that somehow ended up in a box in the basement?

This week I had the experience of helping someone else find something they loved again. And it was so cool!

Some time ago at a concert I met the friend of one of my wife’s coworkers. As we were talking, it came out that I was a musician and that she had sung backup in a bar band many years ago. I suggested we ought to get together and “jam.” She scoffed, claiming she hadn’t sung in years, she was rusty, and she wasn’t that good anyway.

I pursued it, though, and the other night we finally got together around her kitchen table. I played guitar and sang, and she joined in on harmony on songs by the Beatles, John Prine, etc., as well as some of my originals. Our shaky, where’s-the-key version of “All My Loving” probably ranked as musical homicide, but otherwise we weren’t half-bad. It was a lot of fun.

At one point I glanced over while I was playing. She had her eyes closed and one hand to her ear, searching for the right note. I was struck by how happy she looked. True joy, you know? Totally in the moment, rediscovering just how good it felt to sing again.

Here’s hoping you have a moment soon where you rediscover something you love!

Steve Hall owns Good Story Marketing (www.goodstorymarketing.com). He hopes his crappy TV is the reason Stephen Colbert’s eyes appear satanically black onscreen.

Life-long learning

Friday, November 7th, 2008

“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend,” Groucho Marx once said. “Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”

Over the years, plenty of books have, like trusted friends, given me great advice for my life or helped me see things in a new way. That’s the premise of ebooks from Good Story Marketing. We write and publish positive, useful information, told in an engaging, conversational style, by experts in what they do. 

The model for what our ebooks should do is our first, “How to Leverage Your Networking,” by Tony Scelzo, founder of Rainmakers. I defy you NOT to learn something from the guy whose ideas created one of the fastest-growing business organizations in the Midwest.

Recently I interviewed Tony for another ebook and was struck by how he referenced ideas from five or six books in the course of an hour-long conversation. Thinking back, I realized he had mentioned five or six different books each time we talked. He must be a voracious reader.  I’m sure that intellectual curiousity and openness to new ideas have played a huge role in his success.

I’ll do my best to make sure the offerings from Good Story Marketing help you learn something new or steer your life in the direction you want. Maybe one of our ebooks will become your best friend, too.

Steve Hall owns Good Story Marketing (www.goodstorymarketing.com). He once received a call from Mickey Mouse - which was just plain goofy.