Disqus - Latest Comments for thevmcoach

Re: Sample Letters to My Copyright Infringers, from Credit Requests to Payment Demands

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Sun, 12 Oct 2014 14:11:06 -0000

So kind of you to share these letters Alex. I have a situation right now in which using one of them as a template will be very helpful. It's people like you that make the Internet the place I love to be.

Re: Clipboard | Blog

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:13:24 -0000

I want to request with a loud voice that my clips be migrated immediately from Amplify to Clipmarks, with full formatting. I put an enormous amount of work into building my Amplify sites and I do not want to lose that work.

I got the invitation to "migrate" AFTER I had already come here to set up an account, so I want to be sure you understand I want to migrate all my Amp clips, not just become a new user here.

Meri Walker, thevmcoach@gmail.com

Re: http://renefabre.net/post/12628910005

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:01:18 -0000

Love this sharing, Rene. I can see you "ughing" under the moon in the too-soon-to-be-night-yet sky. Is this a new blog for you?

Re: Seeing Is Learning — Why Face Time Between Coworkers Is More Important Than You Think

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 17:51:14 -0000

I would be the first to say that virtual meetings will NEVER substitute for F2F meetings.

And, that said, we can "watch" one another in all kinds of ways in virtual meetings and our mirror neurons can be better supported than sometimes when we're in the same room.

Case in point: screen sharing with my clients allows them to "look over my shoulder" while I use various virtual meeting and social media tools. Then, when I switch places with them and "look over theirs" I can see clearly when they're mastering moves and when they're not. Much easier than I can do so hanging over their shoulder and crowding around a laptop.

I've got dozens of similar examples. And, I always would prefer to be in the same room with others so I can pick up ALL the intelligence they're sharing with me through my eyes, ears, nose, and touch... But we just can't always do this. Especially when the people we're collaborating with are in three places around the globe.

Re: Vision: How a Better Future Is Being Made Right Now | Vision | AlterNet

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:44:11 -0000

What a fabulous piece, Rebecca! My friend, Carolyn (the WhyWorryGirl) just sent me the link to read it and I am so pleased to see you taking this perspective with such grace! Of course this is true...and coming truer every week.

Re: The New “Freedom”

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:23:51 -0000

Love this post, love the image you've used and wonder where it came from. I want to use it to illustrate another perspective on freedom.

Re: Social Media Does Not Equal PR

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:28:25 -0000

What a fabulous piece, Stephanie! As a person who spent many years in PR, I so fully appreciate these distinctions you've made and the truth of them. I'm Amplifying this post right now. You've explained things better than I could in such a short space! Thanks!

Re: Identify the Right People to Manage Your Social Media Initiatives

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 11:23:38 -0000

What honest, clear advice, Steve!

And solopreneurs and small business owners (who don't have someone to assign social media to) need to heed this, too. When any of us has our "social media hat" on, we need to bring up these parts of ourselves and let them run our participation.

Re: Your Core Curriculum

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:37:16 -0000

What a tremendously useful post, Sean! Thanks a million for collecting all this information into one place.

I need to address my core this winter and now I've got a great resource. I'm going to Amplify this post right now and hope that some of my followers there will pick it up, too.

Great help!!

Re: Your Core Curriculum

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:36:12 -0000

What a tremendously useful post, Sean! I'm going to Amp it because I want to be sure I've got a record of it. Thanks a million for taking time to collect all this in one place.

I need to address my core this winter...and now I've got some great resources to help me!

Re: Autumn 2010

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 14:35:39 -0000

I love these colors, too, Rene!

Re: Friends with Benefits

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:55:10 -0000

Hey, I'm honored to be included in this crowd!! Thanks a million for spreading the word about my work, Sharon Drew!! You know I think you wrote THE book on understanding change management.

Re: BP, my Earth, and the Aliens

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Thu, 27 May 2010 11:06:36 -0000

You really inspired me with this post, Sharon Drew! It's so offbeat and "out there" and the fact that you had the guts to use your biz blog this way made me really think. So, what's come of that is that I got a lot clearer about what it is that I can do to help with this crisis right now, right from where I am (that is, without going down to the Gulf myself to skim oil...which is probably on the docket as soon as SOMEONE takes leadership and asks for volunteers...)

So, the truth of the matter is that I'm ALREADY COACHING smart professionals to make the transition from delivering all of their professional services face-to-face to working with people - whenever possible - using virtual meetings and Web 2 apps. It's not rocket science! But there are new skills to be learned - some technical and some communication skills. But I'm seeing a whole new level of flourishing going on in the lives of folks I'm working with!!

And until everyone is CAPABLE of doing this - service providers and service receivers alike - all our talk about "greening" our local communities, the nation, or our global economy is just fantasy. WE are all responsible for driving the level of demand for oil for travel that has allowed government regulators and BP to make dangerous, foolhardy choices about how to most profitably FILL OUR DEMAND. Until we can - and DO - exercise alternatives to jumping in cars or on airplanes every day to sit down in the same room with others people to work with them, we're all just blowing smoke talking about our "environmental concerns."

I know you already know this, Sharon Drew. And I know you've been training people for over a decade to USE THE PHONE RIGHT AWAY in the development of sales conversations. Your vision and your commitment to right thinking and right doing are what I love the most about you and your work!

And, it's just time for me to stand up TALL and LOUD and make my offer, too.
What I'm training people to do with virtual meetings can allow us to do from 40-50% or MORE of our work without ever getting in a car or a plane ... and save us the TIME we need to rebuild our personal health and the health of our communities! So, come on, sing along with me and Don Henley and Mr. Bob Dylan (celebrating his 69th birthday this week!) ....."The Times They Are A'Changing..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwsxX_3zljM

Re: BP, my Earth, and the Aliens

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Tue, 25 May 2010 19:54:38 -0000

I'm so happy to see you blogging about this, Sharon Drew!! I'm feeling so sad and hopeless and at the same time I'm getting angrier and angrier. I don't know how we can help...and I want to help. The Gulf of Mexico has been my sacred water since I was a little girl. I'm crying and crying inside and I haven't been abducted. Been talking all day today about what I want to do and I have no idea how to help. It seems to me the only fair thing to do is to helicopter the BP top team into the center of the mess and drop THEM into it and let them try to say afloat and alive in it. And then everytime they get near shore, take one of those scrapers and scrape them back out to the middle of the hole. Maybe they would decide to solve the problem - or at least ask for help from others - if it actually AFFECTED them personally. How about that? I'd help run the scooper that pushed them back out into the middle of the mess... Until I learn what I could do that would really help.

Re: Workshifting DNA is the new 401k

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:40:59 -0000

All I've got to say is a big Amen. You're so right.

Re: Learning to Use Virtual Meeting Tools is Not For the Faint of Heart

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Fri, 14 May 2010 17:26:35 -0000

Amen, amen, amen, Gretchen! The whole conversation about Powerpoint is so very important. Not about the technology, but about the mindsets we have just assumed. Like that reading bullets from a screen helps people learn or remember something we want to share, instead of confusing them by taking their attention away from the essential connection we're making when we're addressing a group ("speaking") using all the kinds of communication that's carried in the Voice. Like that a series of slides (either loaded with text or loaded with graphs) can - or should be - recalled, instead of used simply to foster a dia-logue (a flow between) people who have gathered to share their intelligence with each other. Ahhhh...there are so many assumptions we get to blow away now!

And yes, VM rooms give us tons of choices to make...how exciting!!

Re: Learning to Use Virtual Meeting Tools is Not For the Faint of Heart

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Fri, 14 May 2010 16:18:12 -0000

Yes, yes, yes, Cynthia! And yes again! Except the issue of less-than-optimum connection isn't laptops or desktops but that people need to be using current operating systems and have as much RAM as possible to use. Old equipment and older operating systems just won't keep up with the high-speed bi-directional flow we need to be fully interacting. Even a new $298 Acer netbook does better in this new "country" we're migrating to than an older and much more expensive laptop. RAM is so cheap now and so are new laptops and netbooks. We all need new gossamer wings...

Re: The Language and Culture of Virtual Meetings – The Madhatters Tea Party Launch

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Mon, 03 May 2010 21:11:02 -0000

Nika, I'm so happy to hear you hearing me!! It seems to be harder than I realize for people to make this distinction. The old paradigm of the teacher standing up at the front of the room, "owning" the blackboard and/or the textbook and pouring content into minds presumed to be "empty" before they receive the "presentation" (i.e., a dump of content) is dying hard. I must have been one of the luckiest girls on the planet. I really didn't have too many experiences like this compared to what others have described to me... So I guess I just take it for granted that when we "meet" over "content" that we're going to have a dialogic interaction... and lots of people still don't. The thing is, young people already HAVE direct access to all the content they ever want now. More than they can process alone...and they're already "talking amongst themselves" to make sense of all the access they have, using their phones and social media. It's mostly folks over 45 who are still trying to put new wine into old wineskins, I think. Poco a poco... minds they are a'changin'....

It's so delightful being in this ongoing learning conversation with you, Nika, because you get all this, too... already. Always looking forward to learning with and from you...

Re: Bringing the Whole Body/Mind into Virtual Meeting Rooms – The Madhatters Tea Party – Facilitator Review #2

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 15:03:57 -0000

You're a joy to work - and play - with, Gretchen. Such a fast study and so eager to extend your natural skills!

Re: When Choosing a Virtual Meeting Tool, No Magic Pills or Siskel and Ebert Reviews Work

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 23:05:20 -0000

I think this is where that modern adage applies: Information is free but experience is expensive. Thanks for taking time to comment, Julie!

Re: Creating Meaningful Experiences – Using Real-Time Virtual Meetings

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 15:11:46 -0000

Yes, it all depends on what you're trying to do. I'm really not much interested in selling in large organizations so I'm not concerned with corporate languaging. I suppose it's fairly obvious to most of my colleagues that I've given up the corporate "look and feel" since I moved up here to southern Oregon. Both my business blogs have been colorful, to say the least. ;^) Since the first of this year, I've made a firm commitment to helping independent businesses, nonprofit consultants, and cultural creatives get a handle on what real-time social media (and especially virtual meetings) can do to help them deliver much needed services as "thinking partners" without having to be co-located with clients. So, my focus is small business - particularly women-owned small business - where relationship and service are part and parcel of each other and costs must be tightly controlled in order to stay competitive in these very volatile times.

For me, virtual meetings cross the categories in Patty Anklam's social media schema. They're at once enterprise and personal media tools. I've never used them for "narrowcasting" because I personally resent sitting in a very uncomfortable chair (any desk chair) and being harnessed to my monitor (even now that I've got an iMac) to "participate" in something that should be a video. I use them for dia-logue, a back-and-forth flow of information and work between two or more parties, in real-time.

Re: Creating Meaningful Experiences – Using Real-Time Virtual Meetings

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:52:36 -0000

Yes, Harold. Establishing "subject matter networks" is a decent equivalent. Thanks for the articulation. On the other hand, that kind of label still doesn't quite get at the relational issues. Networks are a lot colder sounding to me than something like "Scavenger Hunts." What do you think? The inquiry is the thing...

Re: The Paralympics

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:18:29 -0000

I hope he gets his Gold, Sharon Drew. Sounds like you've already got yours!

Re: Aging, The Beatles, and Me

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:31:41 -0000

Happy happy 64, Sharon!! And many many more!

Re: Wikipedia: a blessing and a curse

The Virtual Meeting Coach — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 10:44:12 -0000

I hear your frustration, Sharon Drew, and I empathize with your desire to keep things clear in a conversation you've begun that has a game-changing foundation. I'm not an attorney (TG!) so I'm in no way qualified to talk about the ins and outs of intellectual property rights. What I do understand is that the new terrain we're in - where you have introduced a new model for thinking about sales and other kinds of change - won't support you "educating" about your model in a non-commercial/public space as long as you hold the model as a brand. You get to "pay" to build up your brand recognition with this blog and other commercial activities you choose to engage in (including commerce you give away). Now that your brand is being used more in "conversation," if you want to steer or manage the conversation, you get to invest your time and money clarifying the definition of "your" model. And that's a commercial activity. In the end, you can't do anything about people using the term "correctly" because you've put it out there as a product and consumers get to use things any way they want to.

Think "Kleenex" and the entire spectrum of "tissue" knock offs. I'm sure the designers of Kleenex never intended a tissue paper to be used to wash windows. It's not designed to do that very well at all. Another disposable paper product is more appropriate for that function. But some people do wash windows and mirrors using Kleenex (or another tissue knock off). The window washing isn't going to be particularly high quality (lots of little bits of paper stuck on the surface, lots of streaking, probably not much grease removed) but it works well enough that some people think they did the job and are satisfied with the results.

Now that you've put the model out there, you get to sell books and give speeches about it. And continue blogging about the best use (according to you) of the model, but consumers get to do what they please with what they consume from you. And Wikipedia is not the place to have the clarifying conversation about the highest and best practice of "buying facilitation" because either those are just TWO English words stuck together that have an unarguable meaning or they are a symbol for a model you created and promote a very specific practice of. In the latter use those two English words are a brand that you've staked out a turf around and you get engage in a commercial conversation that is about advocating and defending a string of behaviors that you promise people will get a certain results from engaging in - if they perform those behaviors "correctly." If not, well, then they're misusing your model - your product.
Kind of like washing windows with Kleenex.

I hope that the time I've taken to articulate this distinction is of some value to you. I get a lot of value from your thinking and have enjoyed your books. And I'm quite certain that I don't now - and may never - understand or use your model "correctly" because the complexities of your thinking and the complexities of helping individuals and groups to make change using your "model" of your thinking are simply too numerous to manage like you would - because I'm not you. It's okay with me that I'm not doing it "correctly." In the end, you can continue to offer clarifying suggestions to people, but you can't DEFINE the skill for anyone but yourself.

Again, I offer my thoughts here because I respect and appreciate your contribution to our collective thinking about how to most effectively, quickly, and respectfully help others get more of what they want more of.

I help people get more of what they want out of interacting with others using virtual meeting tools. I have a model for that, too, and I sell a little book about it on my blog just like you sell your book here. I coach and speak about how to most effectively use my model, too. But I can't make people use it "correctly." And I can't register my "brand" and also use the encyclopedia to "define" it.

Gotta go coach someone live about how to use my model... Ciao!