English: Brand new title belt before it was presented to Jeff Hardy by Hulk Hogan during an Impact taping. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am a wrestling fan.  I have been for as long as I can remember and my kids like wrestling too, but they are no longer allowed to watch it since we noticed that the more they watched it, the more they blur the lines between what is seen on TV and what the wrestlers actually do to each other.

Growing up I wrestled with my friends and we didn’t need ads from the WWE (then WWF) telling us not to try these moves at home or at school because we knew it might hurt us, or we may hurt others.  This generation… No clue!

But this post is not about my children or the WWE.  It is about TNA Wrestling which I PVR to watch once everyone has gone to bed.  I’m of two minds about Impact Wrestling, not because they cannot make up their mind what they want to be called – TNA or Impact – but because when they try too hard to copy the WWE and they really cannot compete.   When they try to go it alone, they have potential.

At one point in time which seemed so long ago now, they had an amazing woman’s (Knockouts) division which was the highlight of their show but with bad booking and the release of a few of the women, that division is in disarray right now.

I have to admit, I really feel for the folks at TNA Wrestling right off the bat because “TNA” has always meant “Tits ‘n’ Ass” so they started their organization with a joke of a name which they changed to “Impact” Wrestling.  TNA also likes to bring in WWE rejects, give them title’s right away then let them fade into mid-card obscurity soon thereafter.  I’ve always felt that by doing that, it tells the wrestling fan that a guy released from WWE can easily win a TNA title.  Not very well thought out in the long run.

So instead of griping to myself, I figured I had enough bitching about TNA that would fit into a post, so here it is.

13 Things Wrong with TNA Wrestling:

13. The intro copies WWE.  I get it.  They like fireworks too, but come on… Maybe run down the show, or get right into the action, but the fireworks, then interview is capital “B”, boring.

12. Garret Bischoff and Brooke Hogan – Are there any more relatives of TNA wrestlers or owners who need jobs?    You’ll come in with great fanfare but will eventually fade away because once left on your own, your lack of true talent will shine through.

11. Eric Young as one-half of the Knockouts tag team champion. Might as well shelve the belts – or did Eric Young as a Knockouts tag team champion retire the belts???

10.  Jeff Hardy in general, to be honest – the face paint, the closing of his eyes, but that’s a Hardy thing and not a TNA thing.  The TNA thing that drives me batty is when they show segments where he is thinking, and his thoughts are being spoken for the show.   If I never see this again it will be too soon.

9. Gut Check and Gut Check as a show.  Where are the winners now???  Yawn.  If I wanted to watch journeymen wrestlers against TNA’s best, I’d rather watch a WWE Vintage episode to see Kurt Angle against Iron Mike Shapre or Hulk Hogan against Tiger Jeet Singh.  Or how about Matt Morgan… Oops, he’s with TNA now and still has no charisma.

8.  What they did to the Knockouts division.  Shameful.  Having every ex-WWE Diva come in and quickly win the title makes their division look bad, no?

7.  No continuity in storylines,  One week a guy like Bobby Roode is gearing up for a match with Jeff Hardy and the next week he’s in a feud with a no-name gut check contestant.  What happened to Austin Aries???  X-division champion for so long I thought he was never going to lose, then given the heavyweight title where his character stunk out the joint so bad they put him in a tag team.  And why is AJ Styles walking around unshaven?!?  So very confusing!

6.  Referee’s who hold up the count waiting for the wrestler to kick out or who count without looking.  It’s a TNA thing…

5.  Mike Tenay.

4.  What happened to the x-division?  really, where did it go?

3.  I fall asleep minutes into the show, and recently into a Knockouts match which says a lot about the excitement of their current programs…  Let the pigeons loose!!!

2.  Aces and Eights… What is their point any way?  Are they there to take over or just drink and cheat?

1.  The belts!  The belts!  Please someone do something about the belts!  Thankfully Jeff Hardy’s belt disappeared after Aries trashed it on TV.  Please don’t do it again.

Related articles

• Creatively Endeavored Thoughts On The State Of TNA Wrestling (creativelyendeavored.com)
• Aces & Eights Hackers Hijack Impact Wrestling Website, Facebook and Twitter Accounts (news.softpedia.com)

It was at this session where I met the Multiple Mayhem Mamma. Sam was nice enough to chat with me about the industry and even gave me some tips to getting better known. As a result, I have become a big fan of hers and I try to read as much as I can, not only does Sam blog but she’s on TV and active on other blogs including Huffington Post Canada.

Recently Sam posted an article on hyphenated last name, and what happens when children with hyphenated names grow up and marry other children with hyphenated names.

The article is below, so go read it and comment here and there. Please.

Monday Musings – Are Hyphenated Last Names For Kids A Good Idea?.

The end result as best as I can see it is here;

1. Last names made up of 4 names will not fit on the back of sports jerseys. So that’s bad.
2. Start talking about this now if you are newly married.
3. Do what your wife wants. Happy wife equals happy life.
4. Try something off the charts, and as we did, if it’s a boy, he gets my last name and a girl gets my wife’s last name,

What are your thoughts?

For those of you unfamiliar with this organization, Stanford Who’s Who, is an “elite organization of selected executives, professionals and entrepreneurs from around the world who’s members are hand selected from across the globe and invitation is granted only to those individuals who have demonstrated leadership and achievement in their occupation, industry, or profession.”

I got that from their Linkedin page.

After explaining to me a little about the organization and boosting up my confidence, he then needed to cross-reference information from me, which to be honest seemed like he was gathering information he should have known if I was really “one of Canada’s most influential people”, as he claimed.

“You should have done your homework” I thought to myself.

“I just need to verify this information for your biography” he quickly said as if he were reading my mind.

Then the questions started, and as I was answering them, a whole bunch of things entered my mind;

1) Who are Stanford’s Who’s Who? Certainly not part of Stanford University otherwise they would have mentioned that right away one would think, and the phone number would have identified that.

2) What specifically are they calling in regards to? Am I being recognized for my Blogging? Tax expertise? 20+ year Ball hockey career? Coffee expertise? For having a MBA? Really I’ll take any of those but should he have identified this right away so I don’t have to ramble!

3) How much is this going to cost me, because if there is a huge fee, I’m out. I started my own business 2 weeks ago so I need to be even more fiscally responsible over the next couple of months as my practice grows.

…

and so he continued… Pumping up my ego and making it seem like they were waiting to make contact with me for the publication.

There are some 100,000 people world wide in this publication, so it’s not as prestigious as they led me to believe right away, but heck, I can share the spotlight with these folks, right?

Then he said the magical words to me; “Well, based on the information you have just confirmed with me I would say you are definitely someone that will continue to have a large impact in your field and we would like to welcome you to the 2013 Stanford Who’s Who Canadian Section”.

As well as networking opportunities with tens of thousands of “like-minded people”, I just need you to decide between the Platinum and Gold packages, the first being $899 for five years and the second being $699 for five years.”

“I see,” I said, pausing ever so slightly so he would not think that I just dropped the phone. “Canadian or US dollars” I asked.

He paused… much too long for my liking.

“US Dollas” he replied.

“Oh” I replied, now looking at my watch and realizing that I had 15 minutes to get to a client who was 15 minutes away.

“Is it the money?” he asked.

“No, it’s not that at all” I replied. “I’m an influencer… You said so yourself. Money is not the problem, but time is. I’m scheduled to meet a client in 15 minutes and I have to leave now. Can we talk later today?” I asked.

“Does it seem expensive?” he said. “We need your decision today so we can meet our print deadline.”

“Um …” I said. “If I’m holding up the print deadline then either you waited too long to contact me, or I’ll have to wait and be in next year’s edition. I mentioned that I just opened my own practice and I’m going to be late for a client meeting if we continue. Can we speak later on? Is there a number I can reach you at?”

“I’ll tell you what we’ll do. I’m going to take the price down to $599 for the Gold membership AND you can upgrade to a Premium for free after three years if you choose to. But you can’t tell ANYONE about this deal we’re making.”

“Sure,” I said. “And I have my credit card in my hand, but I am pressed for time and will not be making any decision which requires me to give a credit card over the phone in 15 minutes because you are pressed for time. I have a client meeting to attend to and either we are able to touch base later or I’ll have to opt of of this version. Which will it be?”

“I’ll need an address to send your paperwork to,” he said. “Can you give me that? There’s some stuff you need to sign.”

“I’m sorry, I just don’t have the time right now…”

Click.

And so the conversation ended. They hung up on me. Can you imagine? I’m an influencer. I’m a somebody. Or in reality, I’m just like everyone else looking for an edge over our competitors and peers and clicked through an ad on LinkedIn prompting the flattering phone sales pitch.

Would I ever give my credit card over the phone? No.

Would I sign up for something that seemed too good to be true without reading the fine print? No.

Would I want to be recognized for something special, sure, who wouldn’t but there is a price I would be wiling to pay and it would have to be something legitimate where they want me to read the fine print before taking my money. Once the hard sell starts, I walk away, and so should you.

Have you heard of Stanford’s who’s who? Have you bitten on their offer?

My iPad has a timer we use for the children’s math drills. I named it “Math Drill” because that is what it was for. Then I opened it…

Did you know that today, May 1st, is Doctors’ Day here in Ontario.

The Ontario Medical Association is asking Ontarians to help celebrate this day by sending a personalized thank you card to their doctors. The cards can be created on this website, http://thanksdoc.oma.org/. Once submitted, the OMA will deliver your thank you card directly to your doctor.

When was the last time you thanked your doctor?

As an added incentive, everyone who submits a thank you card is eligible to win an iPhone5 and Fitbit One™ Wireless Activity & Sleep Tracker.

You can even thank you Doctor on Facebook, or send a kind note to the OMA through Twitter for taking care of their members.  I have spent numerous hours on their Facebook page reading articles which as a parent are important to me, such as the OMA asking to have antibiotics removed from livestock feed in Canada and the alarming amount of sodium in restaurant food.

As a special thank you for posting about a wonderful cause, the OMA is offering you, the reader, and opportunity to win a $25 Sport Chek gift card.  All you have to do to have an opportunity to win is post a comment on my blog or Facebook page of the direct link to their thank you on the website (example: http://thanksdoc.oma.org/#367)  just to be sure that you have actually participated in this day of recognition.

On May 15th, I will take down the names of all of you who took the time to comment, put them in a hat and have one of my children draw a winner.  The winner will be notified via email.

I’m off now to send a thank you to our family doctor of 13 years who adapted her style to meet our needs when she realized that we prefer to try natural remedies first before getting to the antibiotics for us and our children.  As a result, she offers us all solutions and we greatly appreciate that!

Thanks Doc!

Related articles

• OMA calls for crackdown on antibiotic use in farming (cp24.com)
• Ontario’s doctors say province needs to address its ‘drinking problem’ (globalnews.ca)

The Headache Network of Canada is running an event in Toronto on Wednesday May 1st, at SilverCity Yorkdale at 5:30 p.m. At this event, guests will:

• Learn more about chronic migraine and treatment options from specialists, including Dr. Gary Shapero, one of Canada’s leading headache and pain specialists, and Valerie South, Executive Director of Headache Network Canada
• Enjoy a movie presentation of The Big Wedding starring Robert DeNiro, Dianne Keaton, and Robin Williams. This will be presented in a Chronic Migraine friendly environment where the brightness and volume levels have been adjusted so guests can enjoy a night out with peace of mind

Guests who come early can mingle and get a Glam Photo taken by an expert stylist and fashion photographer.

The event is free and there are still seats available, but you have to RSVP first, and the RSVP link is located here: http://chronicmigrainefreezone.eventbrite.com

For more information on chronic migraine visit: http://mychronicmigraine.ca

Chronic Migraines are a debilitating disorder that affects more than 370,000 Canadians.  People who suffer from Chronic Migraine often dissociate from the world around them and have a tough time finding help.

What Canadian Parents Need to Know:

Meningococcal disease is a sudden, aggressive, rapidly progressing and life-threatening illness that manifests as bacterial meningitis – an infection of the membrane around the brain and spine – and sepsis – a bloodstream infection that can lead to death within 24-48 hours of the first symptom.  Survivors may suffer permanent brain damage, learning disabilities, hearing loss, and limb loss.

Meningococcal disease is dynamic and unpredictable as the bacteria causing the illness can mutate and shift over time and vary by country and region.

Bacterial meningitis is one of the most common forms of meningococcal disease and needs to be treated immediately at the onset of symptoms which include fever, nausea, headache, feeling of unwellness, neck pain and vomiting.

The majority of meningitis cases occur in otherwise healthy people particularly infants and adolescents, who are at the greatest risk and also represent the greatest unmet need for protection.

Adolescents, who often socialize in groups, can harbour and transmit the bacteria that cause meningitis to each other, their family members, and their communities, often times while sharing lipstick, cigarettes or drinks.  A dormant case in one person could be a live case in someone else.

Meningitis B is responsible for 80% of meningococcal cases in infants under one year of age in Canada, and 62% of the cases in adolescents.

Meningococcal disease caused by meningitis B remains an important public health challenge, since there is currently no effective vaccine available, however Health Canada is currently reviewing for approval and use for Canadians, the first meningitis B vaccine. This vaccine would be the final piece of the meningococcal meningitis vaccination puzzle.

Up to one in five survivors suffers from devastating, life-long disabilities such as brain damage, hearing loss, or limb loss.

We cannot emphasize enough the truly devastating impact this disease can have on families and the facts are, when it comes to meningitis – KNOWLEDGE IS POWER.

Please watch this great World Meningitis Day video

For more information on meningitis please visit http://www.menifo.ca.  Or http://www.meningitis.ca for information on meningitis research.

Meningitis Disease – Myths and Facts

1. There is only one type of meningitis.

MYTH – Meningitis can be caused by different germs including viral, bacterial and fungal.  A viral infection is less severe and can typically be treated at home. Bacterial meningitis occurs when bacteria enters the blood and migrates to the spinal area.  Given the rapid progression and severity of meningitis, medical attention should be sought immediately if someone suspects meningitis.

2. Meningitis has flu-like symptoms.

FACT – Early symptoms of meningitis are similar to flu symptoms, including fever, headache, stiff neck and vomiting. Other symptoms can include confusion, light sensitivity and no interest in eating or drinking.  If you notice these symptoms, seek medical attention.

3. Meningitis is easy to diagnose.

MYTH – Because early symptoms are very similar to symptoms of other illnesses especially the flu, cases of meningitis can be overlooked and misdiagnosed initially. It’s important at the onset of symptoms to seek immediate treatment.

4. Meningitis will go away on its own.

MYTH – Bacterial meningitis requires quick and aggressive treatment and can result in devastating consequences including varying degrees of blindness, deafness, paralysis and intellectual disabilities or death.

5. Canadian children and young adults are most susceptible to meningitis.

FACT – Children under one year of age and adolescents (15-19 years old) are among the age groups with the highest incidence of meningitis.  College and university students are also susceptible to contracting meningitis because of their increased likelihood of sharing items such as drinks, utensils and cigarettes.

6. Meningitis can be contracted by casual contact.

MYTH – Meningitis is spread through direct contact with an infected person through the droplet route by means of respiratory secretions when air or liquid secretions are shared.

Take the Survey!

I encourage parents to take the Meningitis Awareness Survey, which will be live until April 29^th. This survey will provide insight into Canadians’ current perceptions and awareness of meningitis (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/5BJRTDY).

At first I thought this character was terrible. Then I thought it had potential because of the wrestler behind the character. Then the feud with Chris Jericho helped put him over, but it was the crowd at RAW in New Jersey – who sang along with his theme song and made me roar – which put Fandango into the spotlight.

Now, my children hum his theme song ChaChaLaLa through the house, making the finger pointing dance moves and saying… “It’s FAHN-DAHN-GO” or yelling “SAY MY NAME!!!”.

My son recently named his fern “Fern-dahn-go”.

LOL.

Dance, anyone?!?

In light of this panic, I thought it would be a good time to post this article which had been sitting in my draft folder for over a year.  The 13 Most Common Social Media mistakes which can either damage your brand or cause others to look at it and then move on to someone else.

Back in the day, your handshake was your word, and if you shook someone’s hand and then didn’t follow through or did so with the intent on lying or being deceitful, it was your name that was ruined.  Fast forward, and it’s your brand.

13. Having Incomplete Profile(s)

Having profiles which are not completely filled out, or are filled out in a comical way, or through false credentials is meaningful to the person / organization looking for you.  It means that you are either:

• Extremely unqualified that you do not have enough background information to fill a profile up.
• Very lazy because you don’t have one hour to add all the information into your profile.
• A joker who cannot take anything seriously, or
• A scammer who has to make things up in order to cover up for something you must be hiding.

12.  Inconsistency among networks

Imagine this.  You are looking to do business / connect with someone and you think you have found them on Facebook, but when you check on Twitter, they have a name and email address, which is different from Linkedin, and from Pinterest.  So now you Google these names and email addresses and all kinds of stuff comes back to you.  What are you thinking now?  Probably that they’re hiding something, or that they are very disorganized.   All these micro-networks that make up your overall network should be as consistent as possible as a consistent image is key to building a memorable, identifiable brand.

11.  Using Social Media to make money after building a significant network.  

For this mistake, I am thinking about the blogging world where bloggers attract a significant following due to their writings, then they realize they can pitch products to their networks which eventually turns their brand into an advertising site.  Those are a dime a dozen, and readers often wonder if the blogger is endorsing a product that they actually use and support, or because they are getting it for free.  The message becomes lost.  There is a fine line between doing what made you popular, and losing credibility among your readership.

10.  Audience participation.

Have you ever wondered why you have invested so much into your brand, and get so little in return?  Could it be that you are not meeting the needs of your readers / customers?  It is important to make sure that you engage your base whenever they take the time to reach out, for whatever reason they have chosen to reach out.  Talk to them, not about them.  Also, have a look through your Twitter feed and see how many of the last 30 tweets engage others, and how many are just random posts to your entire network.  Successful brand-builders don’t just tweet and re-tweet.  They also respond, engage, ask questions, and answer questions.

9.  Not Interlinking Your Profiles

The simplest mistake to fix.  Take 10 minutes, make sure all your social network profiles link to one another because the more touch points that exist to connect with your network, the better.  Your next best connection might be a die-hard Google + user, but you might only use Facebook and Twitter.   Make sure you have all profiles linked.

8.  Being impersonal 

Connections are gold in this day and age, so don’t take a potential connection for granted and allow the service you use to send out a generic stock message when trying to connect.  Linkedin, for example, provides a stock message that reads “I’d like to add you to my professional network on Linkedin.”   Take some time and put some effort into a greeting which makes that person want to connect with you.  Surely you have 30 seconds to include your name and a personal message.

7.  Stay on-topic as much as possible

A first-time visitor to any of your social media outlets should be able to instantly tell “what you are about”.  Don’t mistake frequent posting with relevant posting or think that everyone you are connected to is reading each and every post.  Every once in a while, logout and review your posts as if you were a visitor to see if you messaging is “on-brand” and if it’s not, get back in there and fix it!

6.  Automated Direct Message

The automated direct message on Twitter is the biggest personal branding disaster that seen on a daily basis.  It says, “You’ve just met me, and you want to spam me with your blog or product?”  Epic fail, and a sure way to lose followers quicker than you gain them.  Instead, send them a personalized direct message or @reply with someone’s actual name and a message relevant to their area of interest.  This one message may lead to a lasting connection that might not have occurred otherwise.

5.  Tunnel Vision

Have you focussed your brand-building on you and you only?  The 90/10 rule of social media brand building generally states that

90% of what you share should be made up of personal insights and thoughts along with a heavy dose of helpful links, while 10% should directly benefit you.”

Keep this rule in mind the next time you want to Tweet about your site or product.  I guarantee that the 90% of the time you take to help others will increase the attention paid to the other 10%.

Also keep in mind that a successful social media / brand building campaign takes into consideration the views and opinions of others.  For every organization which has a social media manager, there are probably 10-20 other employees who have ideas, thoughts and suggestions about the business which, if implemented, will help the business grow and get recognized.  To ignore this dedicated internal network is a crucial error that many organizations suffer from.  The silos have to be broken down in all areas of the business in order to improve the brand, and relying on one person to know the ins and outs of every organization is not possible.

4.  Don’t forget the impact of your word

In the age of social media it’s easy to forget that what you say to someone on the phone or in person can still come back to bite you in the ass.  You may not be sending an email to someone because you don’t want what they say to have a living trail, however as much as people save emails and forward emails, people also take what you said and post it on social media, and this negative messaging can mess with your brand.   So make sure when you are dealing with others that you are prepared to be upfront and honest because there is nothing worse than having them erode your credibility over a matter in which you chose a less than professional approach to.

3.  Un-friending, Un-following, Un-linking

All of these connection removals can have disastrous impact on your brand, especially around timing and how seriously the other person takes your connection.  If, for example, a friend from highschool removes you from Facebook, you will certainly get offended and you might even ask why.  If a follower on Twitter removes you, you probably understand that they may have followed you expecting something but got something else, or they disagree with your views, the frequency of posts, or possibly they need to remove people in order to be able to add others.  If, however, someone on Linkedin removes you, the severing of the business network goes much deeper because what that message says is that they never want to use you as a connection in the future ever again and that all those other people who are connected to both of you as 2nd or 3rd degree connections can get caught in the middle.  Imagine if a 3rd degree connection was ready to connect, then found themselves no long part of your network, but choose to reach out using their previous connection as the link, unbeknownst that this connection ended badly.

As well, people forgive and forget, so to remove someone right away may potentially sever that relationship for good, and you never know down the road when you might really need them!  One should never cut off their nose to spite their face in this day and age and to do so without proper thought often comes back to bite someone in the behind.

2.  Keeping your marketing and social media objective quiet – internally and externally

You build a business / brand through communicating internally and externally your message so that not only will your network be engaged, but also your customers, clients, friends, family, colleagues, etc.  Keeping them in the dark, or only focussing on external networks does not take into consideration that employees have lives outside of the office or social networks of their own.  The faster the message gets out and to the greater number of people, the better are the odds that your business / brand will be successful.  To not tap into that network is akin to advertising a businesses services on a telephone pole.  Sure the message gets out but only to those who see it and tell others.  If this was the chosen method to advertise the business, would you not want every employee to post advertising flyers on telephone poles near where they live?  That already increases the network and the chances that your business is going to get customers.  To do otherwise, just doesn’t make any sense.

1.  Not having a Social Media plan

Not having a social media plan, including ways to promote your brand is the biggest mistake that an individual / organization can make.  By just signing up to multiple micro networks and using them here and there demonstrates a poor social media plan just as much as signing up for multiple social media platforms and never using them, or worse, using them to connect with networks outside of your desired market.  In the few seconds that someone checks out your profile, they are deciding whether to stay and browse some more, or go back and look at one of your competitors.  If they choose to stay and see empty networks or random connections they quickly come to a conclusion about your brand and social media plan, that you don’t have one, and they will move on.

Know beforehand what your social media plan is going to be and share it, along with the do’s and please don’t, so they can be on board and help grow the brand.  To not have a plan in this day and age, or to make one up on the fly is going to lead to issues, inconsistency and confusion for everyone involved.

WordPress Logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Congrats to all the 2013 Bloggie Finalists and Winners!.

The link is to a really great post from Michelle W., who writes for WordPress.com, about the 2013 Bloggies, specifically the 11 WP bloggers who were among the finalists and winners.  Please read the original post.

“The 2013 Bloggie winners were announced on March 24, and we were excited to see eleven WordPress.com bloggers among the finalists and winners.

Now in its 13th year, the Bloggie awards accept blog nominations for everything from Best Craft Weblog to Best-Kept Secret Weblog, winnowing down the nominees through rounds of voting until five finalists remain in each of its 30 categories.

The Urban Daddy was a daddyblogging juggernaut, picking up nominations for Best Canadian Weblog and Best Parenting or Family Weblog.”

“Of the other nominees, 80 are self-hosted sites running the free WordPress software available at WordPress.org – which means that a whopping 68% of this year’s Bloggie finalists and winners are powered by WordPress!”

Nominations for the Bloggies generally open on January 1st of each year, so if you did not see any of your favourite blogs among this year’s finalists, make sure to nominate them (or yourself) in 2014 here.

Congratulations to this year’s nominees and winners!

How awesome is this!!!

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• Congrats to all the 2013 Bloggie Finalists and Winners! (homezonemedia.wordpress.com)
• Congrats to all the 2013 Bloggie Finalis (atlantahomestore.wordpress.com)
• Congrats to all the 2013 Bloggie Finalists and Winners! (en.blog.wordpress.com)
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