Why Golf is Still A Worthwhile Business Expense

I play golf. I don’t play nearly as much as I’d like or as much as I did before my wife and I started raising children, but I love the game and will play whenever I can sneak away to get in 18 holes. Heck, I’ll take 9 if that’s all I can get in. I’ll also play with just about anyone. Man, woman, senior citizen, little old ladies and little kids. I have friends I enjoy playing with, but I’ve never been averse to taking my clubs to the course alone and finding a group to play with. You always meet interesting people when you join others.

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Tags: build a relationship, business relationships, golf, Good Business, social media, The Office

Play Golf Minnesota Week Officially Underway

Monday was the official opening to the Minnesota golf season, marked by an opening tee off at Hazeltine National Golf Club.  Minnesota Section PGA professionals, Minnesota Golf Association members and members and coaches of the University of Minnesota men’s and women’s golf teams were on hand to ceremoniously kick off the golf season.

Photos by W.P. Ryan/Courtesy of MGA

Tags: Play Golf Minnesota Week

Getting Started in Social Media: It’s Not Too Late

So, where are you on “all this social media stuff?” It’s interesting to me how many people, both friends and business associates, have not plugged in to social media. Especially, since various forms surround us and many have no idea it exists. Consider a few examples:

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Tags: Blogging, Catherine P. Taylor, Domino's Pizza, Facebook, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Scott Meis, social media, Social Media Insider, Susan Boyle, Twitter

M Squared Group Principal Named to Wishes & More Board of Directors

M Squared Group, a Twin Cities marketing firm, announced that Jason Muhlstein was named to the board of directors of Wishes & More, a nonprofit organization with a mission of granting wishes to seriously ill children, as well as providing scholarships and memorials.

A volunteer with the organization for a number of years, Muhlstein also brought in M Squared Group to shape the Wishes & More marketing strategy.  Part of that marketing plan was to help the organization promote one of its major fundraisers of the year – a roast of boxing legend Scott LeDoux on May 3, 2009.  The event is expected to draw some of the biggest names in boxing, including Sugar Ray Leonard and is being held at the Marriott City Center in downtown Minneapolis.

In a time when many nonprofits are faced with the fundraising challenges a tight economy brings, organizations are relying heavily on marketing to share their message and leverage their existing efforts to engage those most likely to volunteer and contribute to their cause.

“We’re delighted to have Jason on our board,” said Karla Blomberg, executive director of Wishes & More. “Not only does he bring a strong business acumen, but also a sensitivity and compassion for our mission.  That’s exactly what every successful nonprofit needs.”

Muhlstein, of Minneapolis, is a principal at M Squared Group.  He is a graduate of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Local Television Station Pulls Story Idea After Public Groundswell

In the last week there have been a number of, what is believed to be, attempted kidnappings in Edina, MN and other Twin Cities communities.  Local media has covered these attempts extensively and throughout Edina and several neighborhoods there is a heightened awareness of children’s safety. To give you a perspective of the seriousness of this situation, this is a snippet of a news release sent from the Edina Police department on Monday, April 20:

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Tags: Edina Schools, Local television, sensational news

What Hannah Montana and Social Media Have in Common

I have a confession. I’m smitten with a teenage pop star. Yep, you guessed it, Hannah Montana (aka. Miley Cyrus). No, I did not just fall off the turnip truck and yes, I may have been born at night, but it was NOT last night. However, I did take my 6 year old daughter to see “Hannah Montana: The Movie” Sunday afternoon and in the end it was difficult for my wife to determine who liked the movie more.

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Tags: apple dumpling gang, Authentic, Billy Ray Cyrus, disney, Engaging, hannah montana, hannah montana the movie, marketers, martin scorsese, miley cyrus, Perry Belcher, Quentin Tarantino, Ron Howard, Twitter

Britain’s Got Talent Star Susan Boyle’s Supersized Dream

I’m inspired. In the last 36 hours I’ve watched the video of Britain’s Got Talent star Susan Boyle about a dozen times. I’ve posted it on Facebook, shown my kids, my wife, my friends, clients and anyone else who will take the time to watch. I think this may have reached an “unhealthy” level of viewing, but there are things worse to be addicted to (disclosure: when the movie Jaws came out I saw it 12 times in the theater!).

What has moved me to write what is now my third post about this sensational video is the juxtaposition of the song “I Dreamed a Dream” from Les Miserables and the performer, who is also the dreamer. We’ve seen the early round model for American Idol. Grab the local fool and make a spectacle of him or her. They become the butt of all water cooler jokes the next day. It’s become such a farce that I think they’ve turned off a lot of would be viewers.

At any rate, the set up for this clip on Susan Boyle follows the pattern. She’s unemployed, nearly 48 years old (which is apparently WAY too old to have any talent), she lives alone with her cat, “Pebbles,” has never married and never been kissed. Add to that, the fact that she looks like a cleaned up bag lady and is from, uh, a uh, “collection of villages in Great Britain.” Here’s the real laugher, she wants to sing like Elaine Paige, the self proclaimed “first lady of British musical theater.” Ha, ha, ha, laugh, laugh, laugh, she’s a fool! Anyone who looks like “Susan Boyle” can’t sing, let alone reach the heights of Elaine Paige!!! The set up gets better and better. Then, she opens her mouth and out comes magic.

As the parent of young children, I see their dreams every day and reminded of my own and unfortunately dreams I have ditched. At some point in life you begin to dismiss your dreams figuring you don’t have the talent, the education or the connections. And there are supporters of your belief. People tell you that your dreams are not realistic, that you can’t make them come true. For some, it begins with their friends. “You want to be a what?” they ask in disbelief and then laugh. For others it’s parents and their seemingly unanswerable questions like, “How are you going to make money doing that?” The daring stare the obstacles and nay sayers in the face and figure out how they’re going to make it happen.

So, it’s personal. The beauty of dreams is when you work hard and take chances and try to make them happen. There is no shame in trying. No shame in putting everything “on the line,” including your pride, to make a dream come true. Before I wax poetic in the spirit of the great Kasey Kasem, the Susan Boyle “story” is moving because it is about dreaming a dream.

Who knows if we’ll ever hear another word of Susan Boyle. She may be gone from “Britain’s Got Talent” next week. But in just a few short days her voice has carried beyond the walls of the shows auditorium to an audience of 12 million people and counting. That’s success, I’ll bet, that was beyond Ms. Boyle’s wildest dreams.

Tags: Britain's Got Talent, dreams, Elaine Paige, Faceboook, I dreamed a dream, kasey kasem, Les Miserables, Susan Boyle, YouTube

Susan Boyle of Britain’s Got Talent is an Old Story Made New

By now you may have seen the YouTube video of Britains version of American Idol and the performance of 47 year old Susan Boyle.  If you’re like me, you were touched and moved to tears (okay, not a full fledged sob, but more a “welling” of the eyes). I was first turned on to the clip by a friend of mine on Facebook at 10pm Tuesday, April 14. At that time there were 4.4 million views. When I showed it to an associate at 9am, there were 5.4 million views.  By 7pm there 8.6 million views. In the last three hours nearly a million more people have seen it.  Is that remarkable or what?<;/p>

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Tags: Video of the week

Pitching the Media: Feeding the Audience

Several years ago U.S. Olympian and World Cup ski racer Bode Miller was at Buck Hill ski area in Burnsville, MN for an autograph signing.  Buck Hill is the little bump in the ground that produced world class skiers Kristina Koznick and Lindsey Vonn, by the way.  Nonetheless, as an avid skier and fan of the sport I was thrilled to learn, through a PR flack that Miller was going to be in town and available for interviews.

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Tags: AT&T, Buck Hill Ski Area, caribou coffee, Facebook, French Meadow Bakery, Kristina Koznick, Lindsey Vonn, media, Minneapolis, pitch media, PR, Twitter, WCCO-TV

Britain’s Got Talent Star is our Video of the Week

Whether you follow American Idol or any other reality “talent” show, you have to see this.  This clip of Susan Boyle from Britain’s Got Talent will leave you with your jaw dropped and on the verge of tears. Wow! Cheers.

Ed Heil is the owner and president of StoryTeller Media & Communications an inbound marketing and public relations agency and video production company based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Ed blogs on topics related to inbound marketing, social media, media relations, news media, video production and crisis communications.

Tags: american idol, Britain's Got Talent, Elaine Paige, I dreamed a dream, Les Miserables, Susan Boyle, Video of the week