Summer in Maine Bucket List

Hard to believe Memorial Day weekend is upon us – especially considering the “March-like” weather we’ve been having lately!  All the more reason to remind you that summer in Maine is a precious and fleeting thing!   So – it’s time for my annual “Summer Bucket List” reminder.   This is a Memorial Day tradition that I established a few years ago and I encourage you to give it a try.

Everything Speaks

This week a banker friend thanked me for something I said when I made a customer service presentation to his employees a year ago -  “Everything Speaks”.  To which I replied, “Don’t thank me – thank Walt Disney.”  Spend a day at Disney and you’ll see what I mean.  Everything is clean, well maintained, visually appealing and the customer service is the best there is! 

Listen to your gut

A man, I’ll call him Jim, called me seeking advice about how to file a patent for his invention.  That call saved him more than $1,000!  Before he called me he had called one of those “patent places” that he found on line.  He told them about his invention and they told him it was a great idea. All he had to do was send them the money and they would get the patent process started.  Can you say SCAM!?

Everything has a shelf life

I finally threw out the Children’s Nyquil that has been in my medicine cabinet since my nephew was one year old and visiting his Auntie Deb.  He’s almost nine now.  The Nyquil expired long ago and as we all know it’s never a good idea to keep things past their expiration date.  I’ve been on a Spring cleaning tear lately.  Going through every drawer, shelf and closet and getting rid of everything that has expired, that I no longer need and that is no longer working for me.

Is the Customer Always Right?

Ask anyone who works with the public and they’ll tell you that one of the keys to survival is having a good sense of humor and the ability to let criticism roll off your back.   I learned this lesson quickly when I operated businesses in Bar Harbor during the summer tourist season.  

Social Networking – Just Do It and do it Well!

The last time I checked the statistics - 350 million plus users are on Facebook.  By the time your read this that number will be even larger and growing!  If you’re not using Facebook and other social media sites like Twitter and Youtube to promote your business you’re missing a huge marketing opportunity and likely losing business to your competitors who are using social media!

“Farm Living is the Life for Me”

I recently attended a Bangor Greendrinks event that featured Maine farmers talking about why they farm, how they farm and how the rest of us can support Maine’s farms.  This event featured a great film documenting life on the farm from a large potato and dairy farm operation to smaller farms harvesting for individuals and farmers markets.   Produced for the Maine Farmland Trust – “Meet Your Farmer” is a must see!   This film will give you new appreciation for farm life and why we should support Maine farmers.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year

I love this time of year.   It’s the time for new beginnings and optimism.   I was reminded of this on a recent trip to Bar Harbor as I indulged in one of my favorite ice cream flavors at the Mt Desert Island Ice Cream shop on their opening day. 

Saving Lives and Landfills one Bar at a Time

The last time you stayed in a hotel - chances are you used part of the soap they provided and left the rest of it there.  Ever wonder what became of that soap?   Several years ago frequent traveler, Shawn Seipler wondered the same thing.  So he talked to his buddy Paul Till and together they decided to conduct a little research.  They discovered that each day in North America, nearly 2 million bars of soap and bottled amenities are discarded as trash - sending nearly 358 tons of soap and plastic bottles to local landfills on a daily basis.