Month: December 2015

Strong Partnerships Helping Cancer Patients

Know someone who’s healing from a cancer diagnosis? You might want to check out your local YMCA. LiveSTRONG and YMCAs have had a strong partnership since 2008. This partnership underscores important knowledge about healing from cancer: cancer patients need community support and healing cancer is a long-term process.

Riding past my local Y last week, I was glad to see this sign promoting the LiveSTRONG at the YMCA program. This program is “designed to help adult cancer survivors reclaim their total health.”  Participants in the program meet twice a week “to regain their physical, emotional, and spiritual strength.” That’s why I love the idea of this program: there is an acknowledgment that cancer patients need to heal on a number of levels. Cancer affects every nook and cranny of a person’s life and LiveSTRONG at the YMCA aims to address a variety of challenges cancer patients face.

This 12-week program, offered at no cost, also benefits every family member of the cancer patient as it includes a complimentary membership for the entire family.

Printed material sums up this program:

Participants work with Y staff trained in supportive cancer care to safely achieve their goals such as building muscle mass and strength; increasing flexibility and endurance; and improving confidence and self-esteem.  By focusing on the whole person and not the disease, LIVESTRONG at the YMCA is helping people move beyond cancer in spirit, mind, and body.

Restoring strength and physical stamina is important; equally important is the need to restore self-confidence, address relationship issues, and stresses and life changes associated with cancer diagnosis and treatment.  If you know someone who could benefit from this program, please connect with your local Y or LIVESTRONG.

Strong Partnerships Helping Cancer Patients was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Relying Too Much on Technology? Maybe Low Tech is the Way to Go.

While traveling last week, I decided to rent a bike to get some exercise and take advantage of the warm weather. What a valuable lesson it turned out to be. The only bikes available while equipped with old-school baskets and kickstands were lacking in handbrakes and gears. I hopped on this beauty of a bike and took to the bike paths with a fresh perspective.

Yes, I must admit, I missed the idea of my bike and its 30 gears. Had a bike similar to the one waiting for me at home been available to rent, I’d have chosen it. Lucky for me, I had no choice other than this sweet low-tech beauty. I also had no need for any of those 30 gears I’ve become so accustomed to dependent upon when I ride my bike at home. A lesson learned here: how much tech power do we need? Do we make things more complicated by using technology because it’s available rather than because we need it.

I think about how we as a society invest our resources – time, energy, funds – pretty frequently. Usually it’s in the context of healthcare. Are stronger, more expensive drugs the answer to the culture of dis-ease? Or do we need to take a step (or many steps) back and get closer to nature to heal so many of the chronic illnesses that seem to be the result of poor choices?

Do yourself a favor, take a ride on a yellow low-tech bike and have a colorful salad for your next meal. Then make a habit of choosing these options. You just might find yourself feeling a bit better than you thought possible.

Relying Too Much on Technology? Maybe Low Tech is the Way to Go. was last modified: December 1st, 2016 by Deb Nelson

Right Brain + Left Brain = Magic for Your Brand

Traveling from Maine to Florida today offered up an opportunity for me to delve into a book I’ve had on my nightstand for a couple of months now. Tracy Carlson’s What Great Brands Know: Unleash Your Right-Brain Genius to Stand Out and Make Customers Care was more than entertaining or enlightening. While reading this book I felt as though I were in a private class learning from the master. And, in fact, I was.

what great brands knowWith more than 20 years of experience as a marketing strategist, Tracy Carlson has worked with a wide variety of businesses to build their brands. In her book, Carlson shares what she’s learned in a straight-forward fashion that makes you feel as though you’re having a conversation with her in your kitchen or living room. She takes the mystery out of branding success stories, providing case studies along with tactics that businesses of any size can implement TODAY.

As the title of her book implies, Carlson introduces the importance of including the right brain in branding strategy. Yes, the analytical left brain and its statistics are important in measuring the impact / success of a brand; but statistics alone aren’t enough to make us sing the praises of a brand. Carlson doesn’t intend to denigrate the importance of the left brain in the world of branding, nor does she imply that the right brain alone should rule. The magic happens when the right brain and left brain work together.

Left-brain challenges can be invaluable at certain times, and they can make us feel more secure, but they are rarely the gateway to magic.

Don’t despair if the thought of entering the touch-feely world of the right brain makes you break out in a cold sweat. Carlson lives up to the promise she makes at the book’s outset. She identifies six principles that brands know and use to make an impact. For each of these principles, Carlson provides:

  • An overview of each principle.
  • Three dimensions of each principle: what it is, what it isn’t, and why it’s important.
  • Brand spotlights where she illustrates how each principle has been put into practice via case studies.
  • Getting started – suggestions and ideas to take steps to implement each of the three dimensions associated with each principle.

The framework outlined in this book removes the anxiety of walking on the right side of the brain and encourages each of us to engage in holistic thinking. As Carlson notes:

We are not just bundles of data waiting to be charted, guys. We’re still people, with dreams and quirks and passions. We’re much more complex and interesting than you think. Only a few brands and companies really get this and meet us where we are.

Thanks to Carlson’s book, you can be one of those few brands and meet your customers where they are. You’ll be glad you did.

Right Brain + Left Brain = Magic for Your Brand was last modified: December 1st, 2015 by Deb Nelson