Enjoy! 

AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert

Here's a very interesting article from the Business Insider regarding the near-inevitability of brands having to go "political" to remain authentic. What do you think?  

(h/t to my client, Frank Pleticha, for sending the article.)

Courtesy of: The Fact Site

1. Pinch your nose and drink a glass of water. An effective method to cure hiccups is to pinch your nose and hold your breath while gulping down a glass of water. It also work if you swallow a large amount of food at one time such as rice. If you still have hiccups after the first attempt, you should repeat the steps again. Usually, the hiccups will disappear with 2 – 3 attempts at most.
2. Eat one teaspoon of honey.Add one teaspoon of honey into a glass of water. Before drinking it, make sure you have already stirred it thoroughly. Honey has the ability to tickle the vagus nerve and put an end to your hiccups.
3. Use two straws to drink a glass of water.Fill a glass with water and put two straws in it with one of the straws pressing against the side of the glass. After that, you are to drink the water with the two straws. When drinking the water, make sure you gulp down as much water as possible.
4. Sip a teaspoon of spicy sauce.Some people manage to stop...

By Sandie Eggers

To conduct a thorough brand review requires much more than addressing the 3 problem areas I'm sharing now. However, as you begin thinking about these problems and their solution, you'll have a better understanding of the key elements of your brand, any problems with your brand, and solutions to those problem.

PROBLEM #1:  Do your customers/clients share the same brand image as you?

Some of the tell tale signs that they do not are customer/client comments like:  

• "Oh, I didn't know you carried that product/provided that service"
• "You say in your Values Statement you are  'X' but I've only experienced 'Y' with you.This seems inauthentic."  
• "I started doing business with you because of 'A' but, so far, I've not seen 'A'"

SOLUTION;  Develop a customer questionnaire to probe deeper and ask a few of your ideal customers to respond. You may want to give them a little incentive to do so, like a discount on their next purchase, a free...

When it comes to relaxing on the weekend, what is your beverage of choice:  

1. Coffee

2. Tea

3. Wine 

Go to our Facebook page, Your Life Abundant to weigh in. 

HAPPY FRIDAY! 

By Sandie Eggers

What does the auction house Christie’s and the shoe company Tom’s Shoes have in common? They are both “values-driven” or, more broadly, “purpose-driven” brands.

Companies like these have gone past the “Corporate Social Responsibility” mindset of past years, when it was enough for a company to contribute annually to a worthy cause. Instead, “purpose-driven” companies have baked "purpose-driven branding" into their very business models.

In her article, The Purpose-driven Brand for the website Target Marketing, Jeanette McMurtry discovered that Christie’s raised $58 million fo 300 charities in 2014 through its model of helping the seller of art contribute to a charitable cause, By being a “purpose-driven brand,” Tom’s Shoes grew from $9 million to $21 million in revenue in three years.

To better understand why this is so, we’ll dive more deeply into this...

Here's a unique approach to weightloss that, I bet, you didn't even realize you were doing:  

Banging your head against the wall burns 150 calories an hour.

BONUS TIP:  To double the calories burned, use a jackhammer.

 For many more fun facts, go to The Fun Fact Site.