The Trump Foundation and why I will continue to follow the rules even when they don’t (or won’t)

This is something I never thought I would say  - I have something in common with Donald Trump. We both have started non-profit foundations.  Mine is a public non-profit and his is a private foundation, but we are in it to help a cause or causes, right? For me it is the case, but after reading an article from the Washington Post about the Trump Foundation's dealings, I believe the similarity is a tenuous one.

I am currently very angry with the news about the Foundation. It has to do with following the rules which are set up by the IRS and the government to ensure that money which is earmarked for charity is properly used, not for the people who run the charity's self-interest.

As a public foundation, the charity I founded, just like others who are 501 c-3's, spend a considerable amount of time and money to obtain our status and to keep our status. Every year, we need to file a federal tax return called a 990, as well as documents with the state. The more we grow our budget and revenue, the more documents we need to file. I am fortunate to have accounting help which keeps the costs for maintaining records and filing these documents down to a reasonable number.  But, every dollar spent on administrative costs is a dollar not spent on delivering our programs.

Besides keeping our financial house in order, we spend time discussing and understanding the rules for staying within the laws that were set up to prevent fraud. We need to stay within our mission, we need to have a review or audit of our records in order to maintain our non-profit status.  Again, this is time that could be spent on solving the problem that necessitates our having a non-profit in the first place.

I may not be jumping for joy to do these tasks, but I know it allows people, foundations and corporations who donate money to us, to know that we are above board and transparent with how we are using their money.

Private foundations, like the one Trump founded, are regulated as well.  One of the reasons they have rules is to prevent something called "self dealing".  Self dealing is a term meaning that you are using your foundation to your benefit, not the causes you claim to serve.  The government wanted to make sure wealthy people did not start these foundations as a way to shelter money from the government.

The Post article, which you can read here, as well as this other article from Talking Points Memo, which goes into further depth, shows how Trump used his foundation for personal gain. He used donated money to pay for his businesses' legal expenses and for two portraits of himself to be painted.  The sum total of these projects are more than my current budget.

So I am a bit hot under the collar about this subject.

Let me lay out what I could do with this money ov if the foundation had actually donated it to a charity. (And if you have a charity, just take out my numbers and descriptions and put your own in. You will see my point.)

This is my budget for 2015-16
Salaries and benefits $125K
Programming costs  $70K
Insurance  $3K
Marketing  $23K
Professional services $3
Travel $2K
Office supplies $2K

Total=$228K

I do not take a salary or receive other compensation for the work I do with my non-profit. I do this work, as do the staff (who should get paid more) and our volunteers, because we are passionate about creating a change.  We are growing quickly now and every week, I ask my staff and myself and my volunteers to do more and more because of the need. We make choices of what we can and can’t do because we have limited funds. We understand that this is the life of a non-profit.

So I am angry. Because there are so many of us who spend the time and the energy on changing our little piece of the world, when you find a person who has such disregard for what we do and how we conduct ourselves, it makes me angry.  When this person only seems to cares only about how he can serve himself and not others as he is supposed to, it makes me angry.  

But, even though he and his staff have no regard for the laws and the rules that govern non-profits, I do. I will continue to do this because having the trust of public is very important to me and to my staff.  Mr. Trump may think I am not smart, but I believe my actions speak louder than his words.

Addendum - Since I started this post, there is an update.  The Trump Foundation did not file the proper paperwork in the State of New York to start the foundation.  They have been given a cease and desist order. They have until mid-October to rectify this matter.

The Power of Vulgar Words and How We Use Them to Make Women Smaller

Warning : This blog post contains inappropriate language for children. These words are necessary to prove points cogent to the argument the writer will be making

Last week I was lucky enough to spend most of the week in the company of 26 pre-teen and early teen young women, as well as, many amazing women from the business and tech startup world.  The reason was the 5th year of TechGirlz Tech Entrepreneur Camp. As much as we spend the week concentrating on having the girls learn how they can be part of tech economy, their enthusiasm and excitement of seeing themselves as business leaders, is infectious!  I leave this week every year feeling energized and most of all, feeling hopeful for the future of these girls in the workforce.

And then I ran smack dab into this week. And it hit me hard.

I realized many of men can be still be truly disrespectful of women who are famous, accomplished and powerful. I realized words have power to shape how others view these women, and women who aspire to be like them.  I realized how, as women, we must educate men, that the use of these words must not be used.  

So what am I talking about.  Scott Baio was called out for a a picture of Hillary Clinton which he had tweeted early this year. The unfortunate position of Mrs. Clinton in front of the word Count, had her blocking the O.  You get the picture and if you don't, please refer to the definition at the end of this post.  See his response to the use of this picture in this interview.   His excuse - he didn't say anything about the picture, so it wasn't like he said the word. 

You may not like Mrs. Clinton, you may disagree with her liberal stance, but does that warrant the use of that word.  And you might feel that this word will only be used against her because you may not like her.  But if this word can be used against her, potentially the most powerful woman in the world, can it be used against me in the 

workplace if a coworker disagrees with me? Are we legitimizing the use of this word because a man does not like a woman's stance or work.

I have always found this word to be extremely distasteful and I refuse to use it. And if you read the warning that came before the definition on dictionary.com, it further cemented my belief that it should never be used in any circumstance.  

But on this reflection, it made me think of the other word which I use sometimes to describe myself and other women - bitch.  I will give the link to the definition since there are many attributes in slang.

In a conversation today with a coworker, we were discussing a hard conversation I was planning on having. As we discussed wording and tactics, he said "You can start off by saying  - I don't mean to be a bitch" and I realized that I had used that phrase myself, about myself.  I know he did not mean anything by it, but I said back that a man would never say in a difficult conversation. "I don't mean to be a dick" (dick being equal to bitch, but not as harsh). I said it is business and I should not have to excuse why I was having the conversation. I will not be using that word again when describing myself (or another woman) in a conversation again.

I know you may be thinking I am making too much of this issue, but these words paint a picture and degrade a women's worth. I refuse to be part of allowing others to use these words on the 26 girls I help shepherd to greater confidence in their abilities. It is part of how I plan to make it easier for them to be part of the working world. And I ask that you join me.

C**t - definition (and warning) from Dictionary.com

All senses of this word are vulgar slang and are very strongly tabooed and censored. The meanings that refer to a woman and a contemptible person are used with disparaging intent and are perceived as highly insulting and demeaning. There are many words used to refer to people in sexual terms. However, to call a person a c**t, especially a woman, is one of the most hateful and powerful examples of verbal abuse in the English language. 

noun, Slang: Vulgar.

1.

the vulva or vagina. 

2.

Extremely Disparaging and Offensive

a contemptuous term used to refer to a woman. 

a term used to refer to a contemptible person.

Reflections from the United State of Women Summit

I have had a couple of days to reflect after attending the tremendous summit that was the United State of Women which was sponsored by the White House. I did not really understand what the full event was going to be, but was a bit skeptical.  So many times you attend these large events aimed at women and it is a lot of platitudes with no real discussion on how to move forward.  I was not totally prepared to take in all the information that was handed out by President Obama, Vice President Biden, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, First Lady Michelle Obama and the host of women who spoke who are not household names.  

But before I dive into what I learned and what my take aways are, I need to discuss how this event fit into the context of world and personal events.  The two weeks leading up to the summit included news about the shameful sentencing of the Stanford rapist and the outpouring on social media, the continued “musing” of hate speech by the presumptive Republican Presidential candidate (it should be noted I will not be voting for him), the forgone conclusion our country will have its first female Presidential candidate, and the massacre of 50 people at a LGBT club. Couple this with my eldest son’s graduation from college, my niece’s wedding, and confirmation of TechGirlz working with 2500 girls in one year, and I am a swirl of emotions, both happy, sad, angry, and hopeful.

I began the Summit on Monday with a pre-conference on Entrepreneur Empowerment. This was about 150 women, so much smaller then Tuesday’s marquee event/ The sessions were very good, full of information, especially about how the SBA can help with providing funds. I am hoping to have a high level SBA representative come to talk to the Philly tech community. I don’t think this is really thought of as an option for funding. And if it is not a good option, I want to explore why.  I did learn the SBA is supporting women led funding groups with a two to one match.  It is called the SBIC program (Small Business Investment Company).

Tuesday was the big event.  I am not going to review the entire day. I recommend watching the videos the White House has put online or finding reporters versions of the soundbites and quotes. There were tons of statistics to support why we need to support women (like did you know women earn 79 cents on the dollar for what men make in comparable jobs, but African American and Hispanic women make significantly less than that?. I didn’t).  It was a bit of a commercial for the administration, but I did not realize how much this administration had done for the cause of women’s health, economics and family life.  Here is a good link worth exploring. There were talks on violence against women, not just here in the US, but also internationally, talks on closing the pay gap and the growing role of women in the workplace, the changing of culture to break down gender norms, and education for women.

I do recommend watching Biden’s speech as he talks urgently about violence against women. But, I urge you to watch President Obama’s speech which outlines the strides that have been made and the hope for the future of women in America. It is stirring and I will admit to crying at the end of it.

It is hard for me to describe the joy I felt during the day of being surrounded by 5000 women. It felt like a true sisterhood.

But, as I predicted, there were no actionable items you were left with, so what did I take away and what is my advice for other attendees as they come down off the high of such an event?

I came away reenergized to do the work that needs to be done to further women down the path.  I know that even though it was stressed time and time again that this is a great time to be a woman in the United States, there is still so much to be done.  I have my action items. It is to continue to slog it out on a day to day basis and do what I, and my team and my co- conspirators, are doing.  It is to continue to support each others work with words of encouragement, acts of kindness, and purposeful connections.  It is to make sure I am visible to other women to serve as an example and role model.  I do not say this in a narcissistic manner, but in truly understanding  that it is not just famous who are helping us make strides, but the ordinary women who are just as important as role models on a smaller scale.

I  also discovered that I could come further out of my shell than I ever thought I could.  Those who know me are chuckling because they think networking comes easily.  But it does not.  I was feeling so good about the idea of this event (and also happiness from the graduation just a few days before) that I think I unconsciously opened up. I came to the event by myself, I did know a few people, but did not have a safety net of constant companions.  So I made them at every corner, every line, every table, in the hallways. I easily introduced myself to others and made some valuable connections because of being so open.  Where I might be reticent about meeting someone who had a high position, I threw caution to the wind to talk to them.  I really did not know I had that type of spirit in myself and gaining this knowledge will make me less afraid in the future.  I gained so much by taking chances.

 What would I recommend to others? I will start with a story of a young women I meet while in the registration line. We exchanged who we are and what we do. She told me me about her work at a large company. She said she had been given a ticket at the last minute and was not sure what she wanted to get out of the conference. But she told me about how #BlackGirlMagic had inspired her to bring the African American women at her company together to meet once a month so they could support each other. I am not sure she truly understood how that one act was going to impact the group she formed. She did not think it was that big of a deal, I could tell by the way she had underplayed her role. Maybe it was because it was a newly formed group, But I know from experience that her reaching out to support other women and form a community, no matter how small, would be impactful.

The point of the story? Each of us can play a small role in creating change in your company, in your school, in your community.  You can decide what it looks like or what it is, but do something.  The speakers did not need to provide the tools, they provided the information of what needs to be done. Pick a small project, make a commitment to yourself to see it through, no excuses.  

 Change happens in little incremental steps, not in giant leaps.   

The United States of Women Summit - Pledge Your Next Action

Today I am preparing to attend the United States of Women Summit taking place in DC on Monday through Wednesday.  I am honored to be chosen for the work I do to encourage, inspire, mentor, and teach girls and women to consider careers in technology and tech startups.  I hope to spend some time with women in my regional community and meet some new contacts who are interested in the type of work I am doing. i also am excited to spend a day with likeminded women.  And if I get to see and hear Michelle Obama and Oprah speak, well, it will be a very good day, actually a really good day.  I am also speculating that a certain woman presidential candidate might make an appearance. I will have a lot to report back to my mom.

But I am all about what happens after a meeting, no matter what the size. Talk to anyone who has worked with me over the years and they will tell you I do not leave a meeting without action items. Otherwise, what was the point of meeting?  You talked to people, you learned a thing or two and then that is it.  And just as important as the action items is when the items will be completed.

When I look back on how TechGirlz moved from an idea in my head to the 5000 girls who have been through our TechShopz, when I think back on how Chariot Solutions went from a 10 person to 60 person company, when I see how the Women in Tech Summit has moved from our first event to three in one year, I know it was not just about the big idea, but the  many,small actionable steps we took along the way.

The next couple of days I will be making plans after I meet new people or reconnect with those I know. I will be listening, learning and then taking that information to formulate ideas with plans to execute on those ideas. I will have small steps to further the goals of my companies and groups I support.  

No one said change would be easy or fast. The real work begins on Thursday.

What actions will you be taking to make your pledge a reality? Please add your comments below or let me know on twitter (@twelsonrossman).  Make sure to use the #stateofwomen.

Philly Tech Week Schedule 2016 - Will it all fall into place?

Philly Tech Week is certainly a highlight of my spring.  It is a great way for me to see and reconnect with a ton of people I know in the tech scene, as well as, meet new people.  Besides that, I learn a lot. 

Chariot has been a supporter of Philly Tech Week (PTW) since the first year. Philly Startup Leaders Entrepreneurs Expo was born during PTW and TechGirlz has also benefitted from PTW with the start of the Women in Tech Summit.  It is amazing how it has grown over the years. Technically Philly has done a fantastic job!

As I viewed the calendar this year, I knew I was in trouble.  There are a lot of events I want to attend.  I am perhaps over ambitious in my current schedule, but I thought I would share where I will be. I will also share the events I could not get to, but wanted to, due to schedule conflicts.  

I will also be seeing how Septa and Uber or Lyft will help me during the week. And hopefully I will have some time to grab some good food while I am in the city. 

Thursday, 4/28 - Through A Prism: Why Diversity Matters in Tech and Design - Great topic, since Technology is not just about coding. Good design impacts how software and hardware products are used.  

The Startup Crawl looks good if you don't want to trek out to the Navy Yard.

Friday, 4/29  - PTW16 Kickoff at Dilworth Plaza- hoping the weather holds out for this one!

Due to a schedule conflict, I can't go to Creative Mornings in Philadelphia with Todd Carmichael or Techniculture with Sree Sreenviasan, Chief Digital Officer of the Met.  I wish I could do both, sad I can't get to either!

Monday 5/2 - Philadelphia Health and Sciences Future - with Philly a mecca for the health and bio industry, I want to hear what the future holds.  It will help me plan some of Chariot's future direction.

Then off to - Let's Talk Tech run by my friends at Slice.  There is always more to learn about press and media relations

And then I am going to try and be in two places at once, but I don't think it is going to work.

TechGirlz is the beneficiary of the proceeds from the How Can Philly Be the Gender Equity Capital discussion at the Pyramid Club.  Beside the donation, I like a panel that is showcasing the how of change!

Now that starts at 6 and starting at 6:30 is the Mayoral Tech Town Hall.  I am always interested to see how the city government will be helping and participating with the tech community.  We shall see if I can do both. If not, Karen Stellabotte, TechGirlz Program Director, will be at this one and can give me a run down. 

Tuesday 5/3 another busy day has me starting at Transforming Tomorrow Today.  I love that this put on by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission discussing how emerging technologies are changing our region.
Then it is off to Curalate's open house (and maybe a quick stop at Hip City Vedge) before heading back to the Rad Girl Awards where they were nice enough to nominate me as Tech Educator of the Year.
There are several conflicting events that are too numerous to mention, so I suggest checking out May 3 for yourself. It looks like there are a few events that were added after I made my schedule.

Dev Days is on 5/4.  I will be manning the Chariot table at the Dev Days event (and Sujan Kapadia, one of our senior architects will be teaching Intro to Scala in the morning).   The evening will see me at the Women in Tech Soiree and PSL's Entrepreneur Expo. and the Dev Days Happy Hour.

Thursday 5/5 has me starting at my own office with our CTO, Aaron Mulder, teaching a workshop on Ionic for mobile apps.  The workshop is sold out. I would like to go to the Digital Health Evolution Conference or the Intersection of Poverty and Data, but those pesky "other obligations" are in the way. I will be headed to From Philly to DC: Building Inclusive Tech Communities followed by Mindful Startups, where Grant Hartman, a Chariot co-worker and mindfulness proponent, will be speaking.

I won't be at the closing event this year because I have an important family obligation, but you can't be everywhere.

This schedule is subject to change based on many factors including transportation, if my map planning skills actually are in tact, could I fit something else in the schedule and did I need to stop to eat!

Here's to a great Philly Tech Week! Follow my week @twelsonrossman on Twitter and Instagram.

For whom are you designing your website?

The TechGirlz team decided mid-year that we needed to redesign our website. We have been experiencing a good amount of growth as we were executing on our vision and strategy. This growth had us adding more pages to our site and it was becoming unwiedly. We needed a new design.

Becca, TechGirlz co-webmaster and graphics designer (of the many things she does), decided to take on the redesign. (As a note, Becca is also my marketing assistant at Chariot. She had recently taken on a project, under the guidance of my coworker, Ken, and wanted to expand upon her knowledge and experience). 

Before we have even looked at a new design, Becca started with a site map. She worked with the stakeholders on the TechGirlz team, since they are her clients, and clarified their goals and frustrations with our current site. Then she and I sat down to discuss the flow.

As we started reviewing the site map plans, we had a discussion about who would be using the site.  Understanding our audience and what their needs would be, helped us think through the flow of how one of the members of the different audiences would go go through the site.  

After 5 years of TechGirlz, we understand our audience is comprised of parents who want to have their girls involved in tech, people who want to volunteer, people who want to use our materials for their programs/organizations, potential funders, and press/media.  Most people assume because of our name, the girls would be the biggest audience for our website and that is not the case.

If you are a new service or product, you will have hypothesis of who your audience is. Talking to your clients, not only will help your sales and define your product/service, but will also help you understand what information you need to feed them.

After revising the site map, we went and had a review by trusted advisors and potential visitors to make sure we did not miss anything obvious (sometimes another set of eyes is a good thing to catch a really dumb mistake).  This second set of reviews also allows for some new ideas.  Sometimes, you think you know everything, but you really don’t. 

Even if you are hiring an outside firm to design and implement your site, they do not know the people you are trying to reach as well as you do.  Make sure that does not get lost in color and image selection, platform choice, etc.

New Year's Resolutions 2016

Last year, I wrote this post while drinking some very good wine at the bar at Abe Fisher's while waiting for my family to join me for dinner.  It is a little earlier in the day this year, so no drinks to help me get started, but I guess that shows I don't need to drink to help me get started writing. 

I have decided this is going to be a tradition.  After reviewing my post, I realized that writing down my resolutions did help me be more aware of most of them.  I did forget a few.  I can also go back and see if I did a decent job of keeping them or at least making progress.  I will go back to a word I used - accountability.  Resolutions and goals are useless without having someone to be accountable to, even if it is yourself.  I think I would add some new words - a plan of action - to help me do even better.

So, here is what I resolve for 2016:

-Being nicer to those closest to me.  I will admit that I can be flippant, short, not thoughtful, and take them for granted.  This was on my list for this year and I do not think I did a good job of making progress.  I am putting alot of thought into how I can be better.

-I am keeping not eating mediocre food on here again.  This is the third year for this one.  And this is not about going to the most expensive restaurant or the most sought after place to get a coveted reservation, it is about eating good food.  I believe food is to be enjoyed and paying for food that is sub par is just not something I want to choose to do.  At least if you are going to have a meal with me, you will be well feed.

-I will continue to say yes more often.  I read an article about Amy Poehler in June and she lived by this for improv.  Saying yes to suggestions keeps my negativity from talking me out of projects, ideas, events that can be great for me!  That does not mean I don't assess some of the risks, so don't ask me to jump off a building, but I may be more likely to not stay at home if you ask me to go to a concert on a "school" night or take that speaking engagement.  More experiences are better for me to grow as a person. I talk myself out of too many opportunities.

- I need to get back to learning French and now Italian.  I was not consistent in 2015 so back on the wagon!  I am going to try and find someone who wants to learn with me.

This is a pretty good list and I think I can stick to it.

Here is to a good, exciting, healthy, adventurous, prosperous happy New Year.

How Philly Can Be the Capital of Gender Equality in Tech

I was recently asked to write an article for Philly Magazine on Philadelphia and our role in creating a more gender rich tech community.  The original article is here, but if you are too comfortable on this page, below is the article

If you’ve been watching certain aspects of the news over the last 18 months that aren’t focused on the Pope coming to Philadelphia, the race for president, or the opening of Star Wars, you may have heard about the current and constantly increasing shortage of workers in the technology space. The U.S. Department of Labor has been forecasting a shortfall of 1 million technology jobs in less than five years.
Being part of the tech industry has made me acutely aware of the reality that supports the barrage of statistics. My company, Chariot Solutions, is a great example, as we can’t find enough experienced, top-notch software architects to meet demand.

One way to ultimately resolve the shortage of tech professionals would be to get more women into the field. Stats show that only 27 percent of women in science, engineering, math and tech careers are women, while those women who are software engineers clock in at around 13 to 15 percent. If you consider women are currently more than half of the workforce and earn 57 percent of the bachelor’s degrees, there's a major mismatch.

The lack of gender diversity is not just a social-good issue, it's an economic one. Tapping into this pool to expand the region’s technology and innovation workforce will allow our region’s businesses to grow and thrive. And, remember, technology isn’t just “coding.” It’s game design, cyber security, robotics, multimedia, smart fabrics, medical devices and a multitude of things that we haven’t even discovered yet.
The Philadelphia region is already set up to be a leader in gender equality in tech. A recent study showed Philadelphia as the 9th best city for women in tech, with women filling over 30 percent of the computer occupations and having the smallest gender pay gap. Our community has an incredible amount of resources for women who are looking to be involved in tech, including the largest chapter of Girl Develop It in the country, the Women in Tech Summit, LadyHacks, and of course, my favorite, TechGirlz. Contrary to what we hear about other cities, our tech community is extremely generous and welcoming to anyone who wishes to join.
 

 But more needs to be done. There are not enough girls coming up through schools to fill the rapidly growing number of positions created by technology. So, what can Philadelphia do to continue to be a leader in gender diversity in tech?

• Inspire our large tech workforce to share their skills and expertise. TechGirlz is not lacking for girls who want to learn, we are lacking for instructors who have the knowledge to teach our materials.
• Educate our parents and teachers about the variety of career options available and also why being proficient in technology makes you more employable, even if you think technology isn't part of the career path. This group has a profound influence on the career decisions of young people.
• Encourage K-12 schools and universities to take a hard look at how they are educating young women around tech. The education system needs to incorporate a curriculum that teaches technology, not just the use of iPads and computers to deliver courses. The curricula must also be inspiring and resonate with girls and young women. This is an issue we hear time and time again from our attendees and volunteers.
• More collaboration between organizations, for profit and not for profit, whose goals are similar. Sharing resources — space, curricula, volunteers, constituents, marketing — allows us to create stronger solutions. No one person or group owns the problem. No one owns the ultimate answer. One reason for the current success of the girls and women in the Philly tech community is due to our ability to work together.
• Create more internship and learning opportunities. Although it is an investment for businesses, having internships and hiring less experienced employees will create the next generation of experienced workers. Where else are they going to learn the skills?
• Work smarter to retain the women who are coming into these tech careers. Companies should look not only at their culture to see if it supports biases, but also at their benefits, work environments and flexibility to keep women in their employ.
• Women who are in the tech field already need to be much more visible. Philadelphia women in tech should be more proactive and take the initiative to start speaking at more local events, attending events and being mentors.

Philadelphia already has the means to support gender diversity in tech and be a leader in the innovation economy — it just needs the support from a workforce that can execute. We already have all the building blocks in place. Now we just need you. The tech community cannot create this change on their own. We need business leaders, educators, parents, government officials and community organizations to join together and take the actions, those outlined above and others, to spark change. Let’s make the Philadelphia region the envy of other cities by having a large and inclusive tech workforce that drives our economic growth and success.

Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/business/2015/12/29/philly-gender-tech/#3VqCFf0E5vmgCq7Z.99

Everyone Sells

The other day as I was leaving my local Target store, I was asked by 3 young men to help them pay for their college education. They were clearly selling something that was contained in the binder they all held, but I had no idea what it was.  I politely declined before finding out what they had, it could have been something I was in need of.  As I was walking towards my car, I thought about turning around and give them some advice on how to better frame their sales pitch. I figured they may not be willing to listen to unsolicited advice, so I drove home.

But, it got me thinking.  If I had given them some advice, what would I tell them. Even though it was a short ride home, I kept thinking that some of my points could be used in many situations since almost all of us is selling something at some point.  Just because you are not making a living in sales, does not mean you are not selling an idea to your colleagues, a raise to your boss, a change in curfew to your parents.

Tell people what you are selling
Seems simple, but sometimes we forget to state the obvious.  What is being sold.  By starting their sales pitch without letting me know what they had to sell, they had lost me from the start.

It is not about you, it is about them
Because the young men in my story started their pitch with “help me pay for college”, they had lost me from the start. They looked like nice young men, but why did I want to help them?  As good as most people are, when we are buying a product, service, etc, the seller needs to understand the benefits to their customer.  Even if you are trying to get a raise, there still needs to be a benefit to the person you are selling the idea of the raise.

Sometimes you need to listen and ask some questions
Now if these young men had completed a few of these steps, the next piece of advice is to listen to the person you are selling to and make sure you ask some questions. Understanding what motivates someone to what or need what you are selling makes it easier for you to sell it to them.

These are just a few basic things to consider when you are looking have someone buy from you.  I forget about them from time and time. When I review why a sales situation did not go as well as it could have, many times it is because I did not follow my own instructions!

Conversations with your customers & audience through social media - Why you need to be engaged

I know I am treading on already discussed ground, but since I recently saw examples of communication failures by companies and organizations around their social media conversations, I guess it does not hurt to look at this topic again.

Recently I cut my 8 inches of my hair to donate to Patene Beautiful Lengths program.  The program takes hair donations and creates human hair wigs for women cancer patients.  Most people are familiar with Locks of Love, another great program, but their donations go to wigs for children.

Now, it took me around 5 months to get my hair to the desired length, I had a pretty good start on it. I don’t tell you this because I want to brag about myself, but to illustrate a point.  A lot of time and effort went into this endeavor, as well as lot of conditioner!  When I told people about my plans, almost everyone asked me if I was donating to Locks of Love. I chose Beautiful Lengths for two reasons, they only require 8 inches of hair versus 10 inches for Locks and I like that the hair goes to women.

This is the second time I have made this donation. I did it about 7 years ago, before social media was a thing. Beautiful Lengths is not as well known as Locks of Love, even seven years later. This time when I visited the website to find the address to send my donation, I notice they had a hashtag.  Being the good social media person I am, I knew I would Instagram, Tweet and Facebook my transformation and maybe get a couple of women to think about a donation of their own.

A bunch of pictures were taken of the actual cutting process and of course of picture of the final product, and I was good to go. My hairdresser is on Instagram and of course I gave her a shout out.  She responded on my post. Nothing from Patene.  I posted on Facebook so my friends were not too surprised of my new look. I received a lot of likes and comments. I posted on Twitter. More likes from friends.

But total silence from Patene.  Think of the conversation they could have had with me.  Besides a thank you, we could have discussed how easy it was to grow, what a great experience it was, why did I do this, how much conditioner I used.  The company is doing a great thing by spearheading this initiative.  They have a great web presence, but if people do not know about the program, how many donations of hair will they get.  I had a story to tell and they missed out on the conversation.

I contrast this with two experiences I had in my business life. The first is at Chariot Solutions.  My marketing assistant posted a picture of one of our employees dogs with a cute saying and the #officedog.  We are trying a campaign to attract employees by showing our culture.  Imagine our surprise when Purina, retweeted the photo, with a new caption.  It was a fun way to engage with us and our audience in an unexpected way.  The photo was then taken by one of the dog’s owners and put on Facebook for an extended reach.

The last is about the non-profit I lead, TechGirlz.  I manage the twitter account, I still can’t let that go. We get a decent amount of mentions and retweets.  Most of the time, I am retweeting or liking others posts, but there are many times when I am answering a question or participating in a group conversation.  Recently, I had to answer one of our parent’s questions and their disappointment about their child not being able to get into one of our TechShopz.  After a little cyber stalking, I realized I had a chance to appeal to him to be a potential teacher.  We had a good conversation on twitter, which drove home the point that TechGirlz has too much demand and not enough instructors. 

Our conversation allowed him to understand why his daughter was not able to get a spot and convinced him to help us out! Without engaging him, this never would have happened.

These are just examples using Twitter. Knowing that there are multiple social media outlets can make this daunting, but having a plan, a process and a "voice" to your responses and engagement should help.

Some items you might want to consider:
-How time sensitive do you want to be in your responses?  A product or service that is needed by your customer may need you to monitor your notifications more often
-Does your social team need advice from experts in your organization before they answer?
-Can you create stock answers to frequently asked questions?

Do you have other suggestions?

Thoughts on the passing of Dave Goldberg, Sheryl Sandberg's husband

It is funny, I did not know the name of Sheryl Sandberg's husband until this weekend when the news of his sudden passing hit my news feed on twitter.  Up to that point, all I knew of him is Ms. Sandberg's recounting of how important his support of her had been in her career and how her advice of choosing the right partner had been a key to her ability to lean in.

His passing at such a young age made me think about a few items which I think are important for all women who are married, especially with children.

First, I want to reiterate Ms. Sandberg's position on having a supportive mate.  My husband, Steve, is my second biggest supporter. (Sorry, hon, my mom is still number one.)  All kidding aside, Steve's mindset of sharing child rearing and home responsibilities has allowed me to pursue my career aspirations.   He has also supported my career choices, varied as they have been.  We have both made sacrifices, and trust me, it has not always been easy raising two children with two working parents, but his support has given me the opportunity for choices.

But here are some points that will not be discussed when recounting Mr. Goldberg's death and how it will effect Ms. Sandberg's future - we can be positively certain she will not need to worry about money and her financial future.  This may be crass to discuss at this time, but tactfulness has never been a part of my upbringing.

So take this opportunity to discuss frankly with your partner about life without them.  Do you have a will? And if you have one, does it reflect changes that may have occurred since you first put it together?  When was the last time you looked at your insurance policies? Do you have have enough replacement income to maintain your current lifestyle, not to mention to pay for your kids' college tuition?  Have you looked at your spouse's benefits at their work and are you named as the beneficiary?

And there are probably items I have not even thought about myself.  Trust me, I have put calling my lawyer and insurance agent on my to do list this week. Since I live with my accountant, I will ask him when I get home.

Discussing death is not a topic we want to think about. It is scary and hopefully we will all be celebrating our 50th Anniversaries with our spouses while our children and grandchildren. But, there are some items that are not worth putting off.

Periscope vs Meerkat Bake Off

It is not often that you get to do a truly side-by-side comparison of two new tools, but Gloria Bell (@gloriabell) and I (@twelsonrossman) got the perfect opportunity to do just that with Meerkat and Periscope at the Philly Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise Conference (#PhillyETE) last week.

We used both apps at various times throughout the conference, but at the Day 2 Keynote, we did an actual side-by-side comparison.

The reason we wanted to try live streaming at the conference is a no brainer, this has the potential to be a great marketing tool . The ability to reach more people with good content, is really exciting when you run a lot of events like we do.  

Here are the pros and cons of each with our “Bake-off” winner (and the reasons why) below.

Meerkat

Pros: Easy to set up an account

Easy to give the stream a name / title  

                       Ability to tweet comments in the stream

                       Can schedule a stream

            Ability to save broadcast

                       Can target smaller, more direct audience because no auto link to Twitter

Cons:       Cannot zoom in or increase volume

                      Need a built-in audience to gain viewers  

                      Lack of direct connection to tweet the stream makes it harder to gain audience

                      Hard to manage the chat and hold the phone

                      Need a good cellular or Wi-fi connection to make it work

                      Hard to understand the metrics for viewership during the broadcast and post

                      Lack of documentation on how to use it

           Really need a tripod for a good recording

           No post-viewing metrics

Periscope

     

Pros:

                    Setting up the account was easy

         Ability to save the broadcast

                    Connecting to and broadcasting via Twitter was easy

        Ability to tweet comments and likes in the stream, but can’t easily add

        other Twitter names in the tweet

        Easy to “title” - just like a tweet

        Direct link to Twitter makes for a larger audience but also more possibility for spam

        comments

Cons:        

   

         Can’t switch between Twitter accounts

                    Can only have one account associated with the app

                    Need a good cellular or Wi-fi connection to make it work

         Hard to manage the chat and hold the phone

                    Lack of documentation on how to use it

                    Few metrics - post view metrics much easier to see on an iPad

         Really need a tripod for a good recording

There are a lot of limitations with both apps and we are hopeful there are more features coming that will address the issues we outlined above. Both seem to be good, fairly easy-to-use tools for livestreaming, especially at events. For right now we give Periscope the edge due to its seamless integration with Twitter.  This feature alone will make it an easier-to-use social marketing tool.

It is a slight edge, though.  Even with the limitations, we see these apps as a great tool for events and smaller conferences with small budgets. The video and audio quality will not be great, but these apps will allow for broader distribution of events.  

Check out our next experiments at the Women in Tech Summit on April 18th and Chariot Solutions’ talk on Angular JS on April 22nd.