ZKQ Blog

Woodstove Mailbox

Unwanted mail ends up on our woodstove. Here, the mail arrives in the woodstove!

Photo taken with Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 on loan from Olympus.

Images from Virginia Police Work Dog Tribute

 


  

 
  All photos taken using Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 on loan to me by Olympus.

 

Honoring Virginia Police Dogs

At the reception to honor Virginia Police Work Dogs, hosted by the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech, I sat with friend and sculptor, Larry Bechtel following the unveiling of the state's first-ever tribute of this kind. Larry was the artist chosen to create the sculpture to honor fallen police dogs.

I watched in respectful silence as officer after officer stopped by to shake Larry's hand and thank him for creating the exquisite statue of the German Shepherd who stands with his right paw lifted in salute. The names of the 12 dogs who have died in the line of duty are inscribed on the base of the statue.

One officer from Albemarle County stayed for a while telling the story of how Ingo, his K-9 partner took a bullet that saved the officer's life. It had been six years since Ingo's death, yet the pain and sadness of the loss remains sharp. "I spent more time with Ingo than I did with my family," said the officer. "My kids still have their dad because of Ingo. We still have his collar." Ingo died on October 24, 2004.

The tribute drew K-9 units from all over the state. The dogs and their handlers stationed themselves in a semi-circle at the back of the sculpture. Uniformed officers, all of them tall and strong, impressive in their dark-colored uniforms of black, blue or brown, carried a single, white, long-stemmed rose and placed it atop the base of the statue as the name of their fallen K-9 partner was read aloud by Virginia's Attorney General William C. Mims.

I don't know what it's like to lose a partner--someone you've trained with, trust, and respect--someone who is with you day-in and day-out and understands you with a single nod of your head or movement of your hand, but I witnessed the strength of this unique bond among the officers and their K-9 partners. Together they honored their fellow officers at a place where toughness and tenderness meet.

Related articles can be found on Handshake 2.0: Virginia Police Work Dogs To Be Honored and Virginia Police Work Dogs: "So that you may live, my life is yours."

Additional media coverage by WSLS: Memorial at Virginia Tech honors police dogs killed on duty | WSLS 10 http://bit.ly/4pDcHb

All photos taken using Olympus Stylus Tough 6000 on loan to me by Olympus.

NCTC Fall Gala Follow-up

I've been trying all morning to write a really good summary of The NewVa Corridor Technology Council (NCTC) Fall Gala held last night (October 15, 2009) at the Inn at Virginia Tech, but every time I sit down to type something else pops up -- good stuff -- not bad -- that also needs my attention. So rather than attempt a lengthy, reflective post, I just want to say that Cory Donovan and Bethanne Trexel did an outstanding job of hosting another fabulous gala.

Highlights for me personally were:

• I had a lovely time mingling with entrepreneurs and business professionals from many different industries.
• It's always a pleasure to see, in person, the people I have interviewed and profiled over the past year.
• I had a really good hair day (night).
• The meal was absolutely delicious. Kudos to the chef and company!
• Along with Allan Tsang, from 88owls, I was seated at the table sponsored by Cox Business of Roanoke. What a blast! We covered a lot of topics ranging from the telecommunications industry to consulting to college admissions to the economy to NASCAR. 
• Jerry Neal, co-founder of RF Micro Devices was the keynote speaker. He was lively, entertaining and stories of his early days as founder in a start-up were engaging. He's the author of Fire In The Belly: Building A World-leading High-tech Company From Scratch In Tumultuous Times.

My take-away from Jerry's talk that work is not work if you love it, it's more like play and, when it comes to playing, you don't want to stop.I did not want the gala to stop either!

Selling Lesson Number Four: When Selling Begins

The most important, make that pivotal-life-changing-lesson I ever learned about selling came months after I had gotten over fear of cold calling, managing follow-up, and could work comfortably without a script. It came during a conversation with my boss, following a demo I had given to a prospect:

Boss: "So, how'd the demo go?"

Me: "The demo went fine, but they said 'No'."

Boss: "Kelly, selling does not begin until they say 'No.' Until then, you're just taking orders."

Talk about an Aha! moment. Up until then, what I thought was selling had been easy. I had been lucky. People liked me, like the product, and, apparently, were ready to buy. Yep, looks like I was really good at taking orders.

My boss and I discussed various strategies to employ for follow-up, not with just that one prospect but with anyone who turned me down or was not ready to make a decision. I learned that how and when to follow up are key to converting a "No" into a "Yes."

Realizing that things like the potential customer's buying cycle, their fiscal year, and their cycle of need for the type of services we provided were critical to planning when the next level of contact should take place. By understanding the impact of these factors, I could begin to build a targeted communication strategy that met the prospect's level of interest and gave me a better chance at making the sale.

My boss taught me this lesson during what can easily be seen as the appropriate "teaching moment." Had he tried to teach me this earlier in my training, the wisdom would have fallen on deaf ears. Now, whenever someone says "No" to me, I don't turn away or think that somehow I failed, instead I think "Let the selling begin!"

Why I do What I do

I'm of the mindset that if you bring the right people together, problems will get resolved. I'm also of the mindset that our lives are enriched by the people we know and if I know someone wonderful then maybe that person will want to know others who are also wonderful.

With that in mind, I invited some women I knew to be wonderful to join me for wine and sushi at a local restaurant in our town of Blacksburg. I knew everyone. Some had met before, but now we all know each other.

There was no particular problem to solve or an agenda to follow, yet problems we did not know existed or how to solve, got solved. Business relationships were formed. The seeds of friendship were sowed and a much needed sense of community among women in business was born (at least, that was my take away).

It's amazing the resolutions a corporate trainer, an executive director of a nonprofit, a social media entrepreneur, a mediator, a hyperlocal business entrepreneur, a writer, a financial planner, and a marketer can produce.

Left to right:  Mary Johnson (HHHunt), Gail Billingsley (YMCA at Virginia Tech), Anne Clelland (Handshake 2.0), T'aiya Shiner (BetterAgreements), Monica Hebert (NRVHub), Z. Kelly Queijo (me), Sara Bohn (Northwestern Mutual).  Not pictured: Melissa Farmer Richards (Virginia Tech)

Photo taken with Olympus Stylus Tough 6000, on loan to me by Olympus.

Design Preference: A Survey with Style

My first introduction to Caroline Di Diego, co-creator of InclineDesign--an international residential design firm with corporate offices at Lake Tahoe--was through the open Twitter forum known as #blogchat.

Caroline (@CASUDI) was an active participant the night of July 27, 2009. Her insight and comments were admirable and her Twitter avatar, depicting her sense of style, was just as memorable. What began as mainly a bunch of folks who, with a few exceptions, had never met in person, resulted in a series of connections and conversations that have continued long since we said goodnight at the session's end.

Through my online conversations with Caroline, we have shared ideas and exchanged information and have each implemented "take-aways" from #blogchat. One enhancement Caroline made to her web site was the addition of a survey, but not just any survey--Caroline's survey has style.

Posted on the INCLINEDESIGN web site (www.inclinedesign.info), the Design Preference survey is subtle and elegant, asking the user to look at the four designs on the page, choose their favorite and post a comment. Different from a poll where statistical results may be revealed, the comments section is open-ended, encouraging participants to share reasons or feelings behind their choices. "It's been very interesting," says Caroline, "People like to see what others write, how people answer, as so many survey's are closed and just give the tally. I think people don't respond if they don't like any of our designs and don't want to make a choice."

A Wordpress template was used for the survey web page which, according to Caroline, automatically provided a mechanism for the comments section, making it very cost-effective to set up. "I was really pleased," she adds, "that we were able to carry our website design aesthetic through on the survey."

Comments from the survey have provided unexpected insight. "The fact that Island Retreat comes out on top is no surprise, however a 10 year old Pied a Terre design comes in second and since this property will be marketed next year, it gave us a really good idea of the demographic to target which is quite different then the marketer was proposing."

Having recently learned how to create surveys using Google Forms, my take-away from Caroline's experience is that when less is asked for, more is often given.

A Year in Freelance

Today, October 6, 2009, marks the one year anniversary of my life as a freelance writer. While I've had many periods of my life where freelance writing was on-going, this past year was the first time when freelancing was the only job I held. I'm really proud of all the work accomplished and grateful for all that I learned during the process. What follows are a few of the lessons learned and observations made along the way.

10.06.08 Fly, Click or Drive: How will you get to your next meeting? was my first published article, written for the Blue Ridge Business Journal. In it, I provided an overview of online meeting software tools and how some local companies are using these tools in lieu of on-site travel to save money and, in most cases, work more efficiently with their clients. I can't provide a link to that article because it is no longer available online. That was one of the downsides to writing for a publication whose revenue model is driven solely by print advertising--either my article was not published on the journal's web site or, after a site crash, was not reinstated due to a format change.

The new format that emerged was an online page-turner publication which is about as effective as appearing only in print since none of the content is indexed on the web, meaning the content can't be found by search engines. It made me sad that my good work could not be found and read by the larger audience elsewhere on the world wide web. 

That was the downside. The upside was that I worked with really good editors and I was challenged to push myself to "get the story" and to write about topics that were totally outside my realm of first-hand knowledge. That was, perhaps, the best thing that happened to me while writing for the BRBJ. I covered a diverse range of topics related to business, technologies, and education. I met innovators, entrepreneurs and people driven by their passions, something I plan to continue to do throughout my life.

A little over a week ago, I notified the editor of the BRBJ that I was withdrawing my name from the pool of regular contributors due to my own entrepreneurial ventures. Yesterday, I learned that the BRBJ had laid off my editor due to reorganization by the parent company, The Roanoke Times. I was also told that most of the writing would be done in-house which, of course, means that there are now several really good freelancers and an editor looking for work.

During my time there, I met and interviewed the amazing researchers, teachers, and entrepreneurs that make our region rich with knowledge. There's always a good story worth telling in the Roanoke and New River Valley regions and now there are more writers ready to do so.

As for me, I continue to freelance for other online publications and my own blogs while working toward the launch of a new business. So, keep reading. There's more to come.

Update on Forms: Google adds Page Breaks and Logic

Just 13 days after I posted Easy Forms with Google Docs to this blog, Google announced two really wonderful changes to its Forms tool: page breaks and logic branching. The page break feature allows for the creation of online forms with multiple pages. Before this feature was implemented, all questions appeared on a single web page.

Logic branching, with respect to forms, equates to "form intelligence" which means you can control what gets displayed next based on the response to a question. For more information on these features and to see an example, please visit the Googleland blog.

Hokies for Hooters: Walking for the Cure

My friend Kiley McMichael is doing it again. She's walking and walking and walking--60 miles in three days to be exact--to raise money to cure breast cancer. On October 9, 10, and 11th, she and the Hokies for Hooters team will be in our nation's capitol for the DC Breast Cancer 3-Day, benefiting the Susan G. Komen for the Cure non-profit organization.

Kiley began walking for the cure in 2006 and she has not stopped because breast cancer is still out there. The American Cancer Society reports that over 40,000 women will die of breast cancer this year. Kiley, like me, like most of us, have had to say goodbye to way too many wonderful women--grandmothers, moms, sisters, loved ones and friends--due to breast cancer even as recently as last week.

As of today, October 2, 2009, the Hokies for Hooters team has raised 84% of the $20,000 they set as their team goal. You can help them reach that goal by making an outright donation or through the purchase of their team-branded items available through CafePress. All proceeds go to the fundraising efforts of the Hokies for Hooters team.

So, come on, Hokie Nation! Help fund the cure for breast cancer by showing your support for Kiley and her team of Hokies: DONATE NOW or BUY A SHIRT. It's that simple. Either way, you're helping your team. And, even if you're not a Hokie by choice or degree, your support to find a cure is genuinely appreciated.