Goodbye, English Language

The New York Times had an article on January 1 about Wordnik, an online database of words.  It was interesting to read about how Wordnik can show you references to words used online, both to provide a definition and a sense of relevance.  What it lacks however, is a filter. It is not exactly a dictionary for it excludes nothing.  If a word or term has been used – or made up – it gets listed.  The beauty of a dictionary is that lexicographers act as gatekeepers and give us an authoritative declaration as to which words constitute our language.  Without someone keeping tabs on our words and helping us form an agreement of what is a word we will end up with a blob of irrelevant words given equal footing to substantial words.  I don’t think we can have  a dictionary by popular consensus.  We need to protect our language from a flood of nonsensical words.  Otherwise, just because I say zqxd15hay is a word in this blog entry, Wordnik now lists it alongside real words.  Otherwise, it would make playing Scrabble tough!

I think words need to be vetted.  We want  a Darwinian approach taken – any word has a chance to exist but only the strongest shall survive.  It’s okay for new words to come up for consideration but just because someone coins a word doesn’t mean it should be in the dictionary.  Wordnik seems to make no distinctions, no judgments, but that’s exactly what we need.

Interestingly, the Wordnik founder is Erin McKean, the former principal editor of the New Oxford American Dictionary.  What a turncoat!

In order to value words, the masses need to be aware of them, accept them, use them properly, and encourage others to do the same.  The more words there are, the harder this gets.  Americans already have an underutilized vocabulary at their disposal.  Adding a lot of words at once – constantly – threatens the language itself.  These words will begin to replace one another, each with a far shorter shelf-life than the existing words of today. It may get to the point that a person in 2042 won’t understand what’s written in 2012.  Wordnik, if unchecked, will make our language obsolete.

Interview: Julia Baxter, McGraw-Hill Professional Marketing Manager, Business

1.      What are the most important things that you do as the marketing manager for McGraw-Hill? One of the most critical jobs I do as the marketing manager is to help position the McGraw-Hill Professional brand within the business information content space. MHP publishes content from some of the top experts across all areas of business, and we work with our authors and internal team to convey that message through the books and eBooks we publish, as well as the direct-to-consumer marketing we engage in everyday. Right now our competition is not just other publishing houses and imprints, but any resource that delivers trusted, vital information on business, so we have to ensure our brand comes across.

2.      What are the most important skills today’s book marketer needs to have? Book marketers need to have a knowledge of all things digital to compete in today’s fast-paced information marketplace. Many of the traditional promotional outlets no longer yield the results they once did, so we have to continually test and implement new tools to add to our marketing mix; and then make sure we have the ability to measure their results.

3.      What do you love about your job and being a part of the book publishing industry? This might be an overused answer, but primarily, it’s the people. My current and former colleagues are some of the brightest and most driven professionals I know. I think those qualities come from a true passion for the work – whether writing, producing, publicizing, or marketing great books – we all share a passion for sharing stories and vital information with the world.

4.      How do you work with your authors to either market them or get them to market themselves?  The first task involved in creating a successful book launch campaign is having the publisher’s marketing and publicity teams partner with the author. We bring to the table expertise in selling and promoting books, and our authors bring expertise in their particular industry – it’s only when we combine these strengths that we’re able to pursue every opportunity to get a book into the hands of as many readers as possible. As you can imagine, no book campaign is the same, but we do try to arm our authors early on in the process with general tools and information they can apply in their networks to become their own personal promoters. The ubiquity of social media has given us all the ability to exert influence on the people we work and socialize with, and many of our authors have successfully extended McGraw-Hill Professional’s reach into their own personal networks.

5.      Where do you see the book industry heading? We may come to a point in the near future where the content we publish is no longer doled out in discrete units called books, but in streams of continuous content, or short or long-form information. One thing that will not change, though, is that good content will become even more valuable in a world of information overload. It will always need to be curated and shared by a trusted source. That is where McGraw-Hill Professional and the rest of the publishing industry will become even more critical – finding, creating, and sharing excellent, trusted content that professionals need to excel in their careers.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

There is some good advice for being productive in Top Performance by Zig Ziglar.  Here you go:

The Seven-Step Goal-Setting Formula

·         Identify the goal

·         List your personal benefits for achieving the goal

·         Identify the major obstacles you must overcome to reach this goal

·         Determine what skills or knowledge are required to reach this goal

·         Identify the individual, groups, companies and organizations you must work with to reach this goal

·         Develop a specific plan of action to achieve the  goal

·         Decide on a realistic time limit for achievement.

Formula for Top Performance Management

·         Show honest and sincere appreciation at every opportunity-make the other person feel important

·         Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain.

·         Make your cause bigger than your ego

·         Work for progress, not perfection

·         Be solution conscious, not problem oriented

·         Invest time in the activity that brings the highest return on investment according to the priority list of responsibilities-efforts alone doesn’t count’ result are the reasons for activity.

·         Fulfilling responsibility is a good reason for work; discipline is the method

·         Recognize and accept your own weaknesses

·         Make checklists and constantly refer to them

·         Always show the people in your life humility of gratitude.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.

The Art Of The Memoir

The other day I received copy of  The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing a Memoir.  At first glance I thought :  Do I really need a whole book to tell me how to write about myself? But then I realized the key is to write about yourself in ways others would find to be interesting and worthy of their attention.  It’s no easy feat to live an interesting life and it’s even harder to describe it in an equally interesting way, especially when you don’t want to sound self-centered, egotistical, or come off as a braggart.

The book features chapters about getting published, finding your emotional truth, how to use fictional techniques to write a memoir, the five golden rules of good writing, choosing the voice and tense  you want to write in, how to make a scene come alive, and how to go about revising your first draft.  It suggests having others read your pre-published book so they can offer critical feedback.  It also discusses key themes that may enter into a memoir – and how to handle them – including illness, relationships, business dealings, travel and adventure, and coming of age.

What to exclude from a memoir or book is just as important as what to include. But what’s most important is probably your overall writing style. If it comes across as too resume-like, the facts will bore the reader. Consumers want to read not about how great you are, but how you came to be.  They want to learn something, feel something, and find a blueprint to replicate your success.  When you hit rock bottom or suffer adverse conditions, people want to observe as a witness but not suffer the first-hand pains and loses that you went through.  They want a chance to see a train-wreck up close but not have a ticket on that train.

I found the chapter about truth telling most interesting.  It discourages making up stories, enhancing true stories, and the deceiving of readers. It speaks out against the use of composite scenes, composite characters, misstated chronology, the invention of quotes, and the falsification of the proportion of events. The memoir can be painfully personal, but it should only reveal the truth, no matter how embarrassing, hurtful or risky.

In the chapter about rules for revising a memoir manuscript, it suggests you write for readers who want to be surprised, discovering truth and meaning in life, and who want resolution to their own problems.

The book’s author, Victoria Costello, wrote her own memoir and has ghost-written memoirs for others.  I imagine writing about the life of another from the perspective of the subject of the book can be even more challenging than writing your own story.

The book contains tips for taking an inventory of your life and determining which parts are memoir-worthy.  The book marketplace is overcrowded but memoirs have a chance to grow because everyone’s life is unique for better or worse. Where other genres can grow stagnant (how many different ways are there to  lose weight or save a marriage?), memoirs can remain unique, vibrant, and incomparable.

If you can write about your life in an interesting way regardless of what happened to you, you will have won the battle for consumer mindshare.  Equally important: you’ll need to market and promote your story in a way that reveals and highlights your life’s appeal to others. People want to be you or be glad that they aren’t you.  There’s no in between.  A memoir must push buttons or it’ll just be bland and fall short.

Websites and Organizations for Memoir Writers

International Association of Journal Writers www.iajw.org

National Association of Memoir Writers www.namw.org

Women’s Memoirs www.womensmemoirs.com

AARP Memoir Writers Online Group (Public) www.aarp.org/online-communitygroups./index.action

Yahoo Groups Lifewriter’s Forum www.groups.yahoo.com/group/lifewritersforum/

Interview With Literary Agent Denise Marcil

Denise is the owner of the New York-based Denise Marcil Literary Agency, Inc. For more information, consult www.DeniseMarcilAgency.com   

1. As a literary agent, how do you help authors not only get a book published but to establish some kind of brand? The best writing is from the heart – whether an author writes genre or literary fiction, or narrative or prescriptive nonfiction. I’m drawn to authors who write with this focused passion. An author’s “brand” evolves from this passion and general belief in his or her story or topic. Therefore I encourage my authors to write from the heart – write what they need to write.

2.  Denise, what do you love most about being a part of the book publishing industry? It’s a toss-up between discovering and selling a first-time author, and seeing one of my discoveries succeed with stellar reviews and /or spectacular sales.

3. What challenges and rewards are you finding under the new publishing landscape? Most authors are faced with the extraordinary challenges of getting attention and awareness of their newly published books. Publishers insist on a wide platform either in the traditional media and the speaking circuit or via social media. Yet there’s too much noise in the social media world. I question whether social media, especially advertising on Facebook, Google, or other websites actually sells books.  The rewards are learning about new means of publishing, such as original ebooks and giving new life to reverted titles. I like being on the digital publishing vanguard.

4. Where do you feel the industry is heading? I think the industry is heading to further consolidation of the major publishers. We’ll probably have two or three large publishers eventually. We may see more niche publishers of print and digital books as well.

I think that e-book sales will comprise 70 to 80 percent of all book sales in a few years.

5. What are some of your recent successes? Which genres are hot – why? Sherryl Woods, who has been writing for years, has had 80 appearances on the New York Times bestseller lists since 2008. Most recently A Chesapeake Shores Christmas (Mira) was on the list on 11/2011. Peter Spiegelman’s Thick as Thieves (Knopf US/Quercus UK) has had rave reviews in the US and in the UK. A true brand is Dr. William Sears’ The Portable Pediatrician (Little, Brown). Written by Drs. William, Robert, James, and Peter Sears and Martha Sears, R.N., this is the Sears’ biggest and most comprehensive childcare book since The Baby Book which has sold well over one million copies. Little, Brown has developed a brilliant app of The Portable Pediatrician that’s searchable and so easy to use for middle of the night emergencies. Patricia Falvey’s first novel The Yellow House (Center Street, 2010) continues to sell, building the author’s fan base, especially in book clubs. Hot genres include women’s fiction, especially those focused on families and friendship.

See prior blog post:

Barnes and Noble looking to get out of publishing

The music industry might be publishing’s model

http://www.bookmarketingbuzzblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/musical-clues-to-publishing.html

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.

Musical Clues To Publishing

The music industry was the first in entertainment to suffer as a result of the digitization of its product. Then newspapers and magazines. Then television… and now book publishing. Well, the numbers are in and they ain’t pretty. From 2000 to 2010, revenue from music sales dropped 52 percent, according to the Recording Industry Association of America. But the good news is that the music industry showed a 3 percent uptick last year in revenue, the first time in seven years that sales increased. In 2011, for the first year ever, digital music purchases surpassed those of physical albums like CDs, as 50.3% of all units sold – whether singles or full albums – were digital, according to SoundScan. Is there a lesson to be learned for book publishing in all of this? Are we likely to see the same thing happen to printed content?

According to Nielsen BookScan, the number of printed books declined last year by 8.9 percent. Mass Market Paperbacks suffered the biggest drop – 23 percent. Trade Paperbacks only dropped 5.9 percent, the smallest decline of the varying formats. Audio Books dropped 12.4 percent. The combined drop in print sales from 2010 to 2011 doubled the decline of 2009 to 2010, meaning the pace of print sales’ decline is picking up.  

Barnes & Noble Looking To Get Out Of Publishing

Barnes and Noble is looking to end its 10-year marriage with Sterling Publishing, a publisher of nonfiction, children’s, crafting, cooking and self-help books, according to the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. One has to wonder why?

Barnes and Noble needs to raise money, so perhaps it needs to sell the publisher. Or perhaps it believes the publisher won’t make money and it’s best to sell now. Or BN wants to sell itself to someone else and it finds it needs to break up its units and sell each piece, one at a time. Will they spin the Nook sector off as well? You would think Barnes and Noble would be in better shape with its prime competitor, Borders, gone, but its prime competitor is now Amazon.

It seems BN is going backwards. Amazon expanded into publishing books, not just selling them. BN should be able to run a publishing house profitably since it can easily sell its own books at its stores. These days, diversifying and getting into the business of others seems to be the formula for success so to see BN retreat this way is perplexing.

Golden Bubble

I spoke to one of my authors a few months ago when we were concluding a PR campaign for his business book.  It was the third book I’d promoted for him this decade. But it may be the last one.  He told me he’s invested heavily in gold and had more than doubled his investment (if he sold that day) – and was getting out of publishing for good. The riches calling him from Wall Street.  Since that conversation, gold has dropped nearly 20% (since reaching an all-time high of over $1900 per ounce).. I don’t expect him to go back to book publishing but I wonder which investment he’s contemplating next.

Sales Exclusivity

Brick and mortar stores struggle to compete with e-retailers.  In fact online sites struggle to compete with fellow online sites.  The competition in the marketplace is fierce and apps, Groupon, and other price-killers like Amazon and Wal-mart, will lead customers to commoditize every product or service.  So how does one differentiate?  They develop something that’s exclusively available only from them. What can you sell or do that people would want but that you will only sell from one location?  Price comparison apps such as Red Laser and The Fund have been downloaded millions of times this past year.  Few will be able to survive on price alone. It’ll take something extra to lure  a customer in - but what?

Media Monopolies Supported By FCC

The Federal Communications Commission is seeking to lift a ban on companies owning both TV stations and a local newspaper in the country’s top 20 markets.  If lifted, be prepared to see the news media decline further.  Rather than increasing the number of voices in the marketplace, it will shrink them  It will allow for a handful of already powerful people to dominate society with greater ease and legitimacy. Just as we have different branches of government – legislative, executive and judicial – to keep each other in check, the Fourth Estate (media) must have checks and balances – TV, radio, print, and online should not be monopolized and manipulated by a handful.  When competition, diversity of free speech, and the news media are compromised, we all lose.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.

Perfecting The Author Q & A

What can an author say in an online interview that would help sell their book?  That is the exact question all authors should answer when responding to a Q&A with a journalist or blogger. To merely give typical or expected answers is to play it safe, but when you want people to know who you are and to be given a reason to buy your book you’ll need to give an exceptional interview.  Anything less will not move the meter.

Here are some helpful hints to answering interview questions:

1.      Read through all of the questions before answering any of them.

2.      Do not give an answer that sounds defensive, protective, or flat.  Make bold statements – make predictions, support a cause, be colorful and descriptive.  Throw in some good, SAT words to sound smart but reference contemporary examples to sound relevant.

3.      Depending on your topic, be controversial, but not necessarily cruelly critical or aggressively bullying.

4.      Challenge current wisdom or the status quo.  At least raise a question if you don’t want to adamantly take an extreme position on a sensitive topic.

5.      Use about 125-150 words to answer a question.  Anything less lacks substance; anything more loses the reader’s interest.

6.      Don’t repeat any part of an answer for another question and don’t confuse two questions to be asking the same exact thing.  Chances are the questioner had something in mind that influenced exactly how the questions were crafted.

7.      Never attack or criticize the interviewer directly.

8.      If possible, reference the popular themes, pet peeves, or favorite things that the interviewer has commented on in the past so you can tie into a readership that is predisposed to accepting such a message.

9.      Read through all of your answers proof them, and have a second pair of eyes edit them before sending them back.  Do not assume the interviewer will edit anything out or clean up embarrassing answers.

10.  Don’t feel obligated to answer the questions truthfully but that doesn’t mean you should lie.  For instance, if someone asks you why you chose to write about aliens having sex with humans, don’t say: “My agent told me he could sell anything about aliens,” or “I wrote this just to entertain myself, never thinking there’d be a market for this crap.”  But you can say “I’ve always been fascinated with the idea aliens could exist and I wondered what the sex would be like, so, I just let my imagination flow wildly from there.  I don’t think we’re alone on Earth.”

11.  Reference things that buy you good will in a passing way, such as your family life, pets, hobbies, charitable work, connections to famous people, and things that you like.

12.  Sprinkle your answers with thought-provoking ideas or questions.

13.  Inject humor into your answers.

14.  Avoid issues that divide – religion, sex and politics – unless your book connects to them.

15.  Express values that most people would admire, helping to show you think like them and that you understand them.  You need to be humanized.  People buy from those they trust and like.

16.  Try not to give the same answers to similar questions asked by others.  Vary your words and sentences and keep each interview unique and fresh.  Most of all have fun being interviewed.

Always respond on time. If no deadline is given, ask for one.  Once the interview posts, share it with your peeps via Twitter, Facebook, etc. and let the interviewer know you circulated it.  If you can return the favor, interview the interviewer for your blog.

Lastly, keep these things in mind when being interviewed by a blogger:

1.      The blogger may possess special knowledge -- or at least a passion -- in the area he or she writes in, but not necessarily special training as a writer or as a journalist. The blogger does not necessarily adhere to the same standards as a professional member of the media.

2.      Some bloggers will send you 10 or more interview questions -- but only use half of them. This means you need to answer each question as best as you can and not rely on the answer to one question to carry you through the others.

3.      Realize the interview will live forever online so be mindful of what you say.

4.      Bloggers want great quotes from you, interesting stories, and good ideas shared. But they also want you to state facts, so double check whatever you say for accuracy.

5.      Bloggers don't want you to come across as overly commercial and promotional but they do welcome you offering something of substance or value for free to their readers.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.

Marketing Is Personal

A friend of mine is doing some consulting work for a company looking to push a service that helps computerize one’s handwriting so that what appears to be personal notes can be sent out in mass.  I’m not so sure if this service will work.  For one, the recipient would need to think it’s really handwritten or the gesture will fail.  For another, it needs to be priced right.  But it made me think about how personal marketing and selling must be in order to be effective.

Customers want to be treated as individuals. When you solicit them you must come off as if selling only to them, as if you feel their desires, understand their needs, and have the ability to fulfill their goals. When you make a sale, they want a personal follow-up or note of appreciation.  In a world where everyone sells everything and competitors will undercut prices in the click of a second, personalized  service that customizes, caters, and accommodates is what will be the differentiator as to which company gets the business.

So when you’re selling your book to a person, a company, a store, or a group, take into consideration what they need, want, and desire.  Cater to their expressed wishes but also to what they don’t share with you.  You’ll need to make many assumptions or educated guesses as to what they really like and hate. Put yourself in their shoes and begin to see life through their eyes.  What pressures, challenges or fears do they deal with?  How do they see your competition for their mind and wallet?  What will inspire them to say yes to your book?

Whatever the answers to these questions, I assure you that your attempt to personalize your outreach and follow-up will go a long way to netting a sale and developing a relationship with a customer.

And should you make a sale, send them a personalized thank you note, even if it’s computer generated.

Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more important when discussed in the third-person.

The Blog Essentials

It’s the new year and you probably declared how you will fulfill a number of well-intentioned resolutions. If you have a book to promote and market, chances are you declared you will blog more often, be a better blogger, or begin to take up the craft of blogging. So if one really wants to have their blog take off, just what should it include?

I have to admit I see two sides to every aspect of blogging. And even when I feel like I found the right formula or approach, I run out of time, energy, or focus to execute the things I believe I should be doing. Blogging is like being on a diet: I don’t always do what I know is the right thing. That’s ok; most people fail at dieting. Still, if you want to explore how to put out a better blog, consider these things:

The frequency in which you publish depends on a number of things. Do you do it weekly? Daily? Less often; more often? I have found I like posting every work week day, except for holidays, vacations, or whenever I just couldn’t get my act together. I am addicted to writing it. The ideas just flow naturally and I enjoy getting the thoughts out of my head and onto paper -- er, uh -- a screen. But for some, even natural writers, they feel burdened to blog at all, let alone with any great frequency. Whatever time frame you choose, be consistent. If you publish once a week, pick the same day and time of day to do so. Readers come to expect your content on a schedule. You will end up getting into a rhythm as a result. But if you truly feel like writing a blog is a chore or that you have nothing to write about, don’t do it. Blogging is important, but it should only be done willingly.

Next up: length. How long should your blog entries be? Some like to write a few hundred words; others closer to 500 or 1,000, and yet others even longer. If you post daily, you probably don’t want the entries getting too long, but the way to determine length is simple: Ask yourself if the piece your are penning is interesting. People will read as few or as many words as they feel holds their interest. No set number of words has been determined to be the ideal blog post.

The subject matter of your blog can vary wildly too, though the ones that tend to have a specific theme or cover a target genre or industry will likely get more reader loyalty. Even if you narrow it down to a specific topic – such as book marketing – you can still go in any number f directions. Is your blog going to be mainly full of opinions – yours? Facts and stats? Reviews? Interviews? All of the above? Find the style that fits your comfort level and that meets the needs of your readers.

The voice of the blog is the key to your success. How do you come off to readers? What persona will you embrace and put out there? Will you use humor, philosophy, questions, arguments, declarations, observations, religion or some other approach to give your blog entries a personality or perspective? I like to make observations, raise concerns, share opinions on what I see in the news media and from professional experiences, and to draw connections between what goes on in the world to how we market books. You should develop your own style. Seek to be different or better than others. Don’t just settle for being as good as everyone else, just as you wouldn’t do so with the writing of your book. It’s hard to sound special, new, or unique, but try to. Or, go the other way. Just be a copycat and an aggregator and quote what you see out there and serve more as an editor of what is out there online.

There are many other things to consider for making a better blog. For instance, how decorative do you want to be with the design of your blog? Will you use art and photos to enhance the look of the blog? Will you allow comments to be posted on your blog? Will you invite guest blog entries from others? Do you have an editorial policy or a mission statement?

Whatever you do with your blog, enjoy it. And remember why you are blogging. For some, it’s to build up their media resume. They are establishing their online voice and creating a brand. For others, it’s to share their views and be heard. Many use the blog to sell something. Whatever the reason for your blogging, let that guide you as to what your blog’s look, contents and frequency of publication will be.

Seek to make 2012 your best blogging year ever!

Marketing For A Happy New Year

BookMarketingBuzzBlog wishes everyone a happy, healthy and fulfilling new year. May 2012 bring you joy, success, and strength. No doubt there will be new challenges and opportunities that will arise today, tomorrow, and beyond. But with a grounded sense of what you are doing and a feeling of purpose driving your thoughts and actions, you will likely experience a level of achievement.

It all starts with having a goal, a game plan to reach it, and the inner fortitude, drive, conviction, confidence and courage to persevere against all odds, setbacks, fears, shortcomings, losses and roadblocks. When you can find a happy-go-lucky approach and put yourself in the frame of mind that you have nothing to lose, you will prosper. The No. 1 impediment to success is not outside conditions – the economy, competition, weather, family, politics – but your inner conditions – your frame of mind, your convictions and drive, and your emotional state. If you control what you can control you will be able to overcome the things that are not in your control.

Your ideas, skills, connections, finances, experiences and health will be factors as well. But focus squarely on your deeply-rooted passions and the rest will flow from there.

Call it inspirational marketing or marketing mojo. Whatever it is, it is a state of mind that leads to a state of being. Marketing a book takes savvy, time and resources - -and luck, no doubt, but all of it is founded on your heart – your ability to strive in the face of the unknown, of adversity, of setbacks, of potholes.

Interestingly, marketing seems both unlimited in its potential to catapult a person, product, a service, an idea, a book, and yet collectively, there are limits here. We all cannot market a book successfully – we’re competing against one another and there is a finite amount of consumers with a budget of time and money available to consume books. But, still, there is room for growth and more authors can become more successful in 2012 simply by getting their marketing mojo in gear.

Keep at it and do your best. I am certain that you will find the new year to be a wonderful time to market and promote your book with success. Dig in and be ready to battle your doubts, your fears, and the negative whispers of those closest to you. Marketing a book is not rocket science but sometimes you may feel you need to go to the moon and back in order to take the right foot forward. Start today. It can be an amazing journey.

Here’s to 2012!