Listen to Traci

I know – Thanksgiving was a month ago.  But this has been a pretty crappy year in a lot of ways (devastating floods, unstoppable wildfires, sexual assault revelations, starving polar bears, frightening politics), so I decided to wrap up 2017 with some gratitude. A multitude of research tells us that gratitude is good for both your emotional and intellectual well-being, and I’m a believer.  But rather than going into the scientific evidence and anecdotal proof, today I just want to talk about the things in my life that make me happy.  It’s so easy to get swept up in the negative.  I don't know about you, but I never wake up in the middle of the night and starts obsessing about everything I did right the day before (or week, month, year, lifetime before.  It’s fine, I’m fine, let’s move on).  So let’s talk about what makes me grateful.  My kids.  First and foremost, they’re awesome.  It’s true.  You probably think I’m bragging, and believe me, I am. Still, if you me

In my first office job, women were required to wear skirts or dresses, preferably with high heels.  No pants allowed, hosiery mandatory, flats frowned upon.  Yes, I wore oversized blazers that had shoulder pads augmented by shoulder pads, with shiny blouses and long skirts. On my break, I switched my tasteful pumps for Reebok high tops for a quick power walk.  I will also confess, just between friends, to a big floppy bow tying back my poufy hair.  See that outfit on the left?  I had one almost exactly like it.  Many years later (and I think you can do the math based on the outfit), I sit at my desk in jeans, a t-shirt, a sweater and boots.  My feet don’t hurt, there are no pantyhose to run (back in those days, I always kept an extra pair in my desk for emergencies), and I don’t have dry cleaning bills to worry about.  I think I look OK.  Although I am dressed casually, my outfit is color-coordinated and (I hope) stylish.  And, actually, I don’t wear jeans that often in the offi

There’s no such thing as a perfect life.  It’s filled with obstacles, start to finish.  From the time we are born, utterly helpless and dependent, to the time we die, however that death may come.  In between, we face challenges that span the mundane, the unique, and the tragic. Life is hard.  It just is.  What separates success from failure is how we deal with difficulties.  Success means working hard, training, learning, improving, figuring out what challenges you are up against and how you’re going to get around them.  Complaining means blaming someone else for your problems, and then sitting smugly back as though you’ve done your part.  If complaining is your coping mechanism, you’re bound to fail . Everyone complains, it’s human nature.  But what does it accomplish?  I’m not talking about sticking up for yourself, pointing out a wrong that needs to be righted, or asking for help.  It’s not complaining if you’re working toward a solution on which you intend to take

Recently, someone important to me died.  I have two brothers, and they’re pretty good, as siblings go.   But having Dyana in my life was what I imagined it would be like to have a sister.  We lived together, went to school together, socialized together.  When my favorite blouse went missing, I knew I could find it in her closet (or her bedroom floor, whichever). Side by side, we shopped for prom dresses and learned to drive. After college, we slowly grew apart, and ultimately I made the difficult decision that being her friend wasn’t healthy for me.  But I never stopped loving her or the relationship that we once had.  Because she was frequently in my thoughts, I occasionally stalked her on Facebook and asked mutual friends what she was up to. What none of this subterfuge told me, though, was that she was sick.  On July 6 of this year, she passed away from an extended illness.  Strangely, I had just made the decision to reach out to her and see if we could mend the rift.  I fi

When kids feel slighted or jealous, they’re likely to accuse their parents of favoritism.  I’ve let my children know, from the get-go, that I probably do have a favorite, but don’t panic.  My bias is fluid and easily won.  This is a carefully thought-out and tested philosophy intended to keep the young’uns on their toes and kissing up, which is right where I like them.  Now that I have access to the latest and greatest Plantronics’ offerings, it turns out that my choice of headsets can also be swayed.  But I’ve never denied being fickle. Not long ago, I waxed rhapsodic about the Voyager Focus, its superior noise cancelling, comfort, and the way it helped me concentrate and get work done.  Recently, though, I started using the new Voyager 8200 UC, and, well, be still my beating heart. The 8200 is Plantronics’ latest offering in the Bluetooth enterprise headset market.  It’s modeled on the amazing BackBeat Pro 2, and looks more like a consumer than an enterprise headset, w

“Setting a goal is not the main thing.  It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.” – Tom Landry You can’t have success without a mission.  To determine what your mission is, you need goals.  To decide what your goals are, you need planning.  To develop your plan, you need strategy and tactics. Let’s break that down, starting with the final destination and working our way backwards: Success :  Success is anything you want it to be.  Having lots of money, reaching the peak of Mt. Everest, providing fresh, clean water to a village in a third-world country.  But at its most basic, the dictionary definition is, “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.”  Achieving your aim or purpose is what makes you a success.  It’s up to you to define what that means to you, and to do that, you have to have a mission. Mission: A mission is big-picture.  While a goal can be winning a Super Bowl (or five), a mission would be to become the

I love spreadsheets One caveat:  by spreadsheets, I mean Excel.  It’s the only one I’ve ever used aside from Google Sheets.  Sheets is great because it’s free and cloud based, so I can access it from any device, any time, but let’s face it, Sheets is definitely Excel’s ugly stepsister. If I haven’t previously emphasized sufficiently what a huge geeky nerd I am, today’s blog is here to seal the deal. I was recently helping a sales rep with a large, complex order, and I asked him if he had a spreadsheet to keep all his data straight.  He didn’t.  Can you believe it? Secretly (OK, not so secretly, shut up), I was pleased, because it meant I got to build the spreadsheet from scratch.  Woo-hoo.  And I was generous with that thing, let me tell you, I felt like Oprah:  “ you get a copy, and you get a copy …” you know the drill.  When a similar order came in for the same customer a few months later, you better believe I whipped that thing out without hesitation.  Jus

Labor Day was created in the late 1800s to honor the contribution the American worker made to the strength and prosperity of this country.  Its intention was to gain favorable attention for the Labor Movement’s goals of fair wages and safe working conditions.  Although there are examples of colonial workers striking as early as 1636, it wasn’t until 1842, 206 years later, that Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw ruled labor unions were legal (Commonwealth v. Hunt). For a nation built on the premise of democracy, labor collectives were suspiciously unwelcome in the burgeoning capitalist territory.  Prior to Hunt, combinations of workingmen to raise wages or shorten hours were considered conspiracy and therefore illegal, overwhelmingly resulting in convictions. In 1886, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed as a conglomeration of trade unions, limiting its membership to wage earners.  It’s interesting to note that African Americans and women were excluded from the AFL. Fro

I have to confess that I'm a little behind in my blog for this week.  To tide you over, here's a recipe for super easy, no-knead bread that practically makes itself. You can make endless variations on this recipe (at least I haven't come to an end) by switching out some of the AP flour for whole wheat (not all of it, that makes for a pretty unpleasant loaf), adding nuts, seeds, grains, spices, herbs, a little sourdough starter, a touch of olive oil, etc.  You can even put in a scoop of canned pumpkin (decrease the water a little bit) and some cinnamon.  Or soak garlic cloves in olive oil, then brush the top of the loaf with the infused oil and sprinkle with sea salt and dried parsley before baking.  Once you get the hang of the basic loaf, the sky's the limit. If you add just enough extra flour to make the dough a little more stable, you can form a standard loaf, or rolls, or even braid it, if that's your heart's desire.  It probably wouldn't make a bad

Sales are slow and competition is fierce.  I don’t have to tell you what a serious problem this is.  So what are you going to do about it?  It seems obvious, but my own observation indicates that it needs to be said:  you can’t conduct business as usual and expect different results. First and foremost, be prepared to make some calls .  We all know that no one uses the phone as much as we used to, but if calling isn’t your thing, neither is sales. Identify who your customer is within an organization – what division/role (IT? Logistics? Operations?) needs what you sell?  Make it your mission to find the contact information for that person. Do your research.   Be the expert in your business, your products and your industry. Be a problem solver .  If you think of yourself as a salesperson, you’re subconsciously passing along the message that you’re pushy.  Decision makers are busy and don’t really want to deal with salespeople.  But someone who can lighten their load?  Som

There’s no room for fun in the workplace, right?  I mean, it’s called work, after all. It’s not supposed to be fun.  If you’re doing it right, you probably get paid for it, so you have a responsibility to fulfill a role for your employer, to be productive and efficient.  How can fun factor in that equation? But it should.  Psychologists long ago determined the importance of play on emotional and intellectual development.  It helps to form the prefrontal cortex, which is crucial for impulse control and decision-making.  Play also contributes to social competency and personal resiliency. It comes to us naturally. Spontaneous animal play has been observed in the wild, and who hasn’t played fetch with a dog?  Animals that you might not otherwise associate with play – crocodiles, kangaroos, and elephants - give each other piggy-back rides, benignly spar with the adults in their herd, and toboggan down muddy hills.  Rats who have been denied developmental play show intellectual def

I tend to mother people.  I know this about myself, and I’m not going to apologize for it.  This isn’t a habit I developed when I became a mom - I’ve been this way for as long as I can remember.  In the spirit of consistency, here are the motherisms I’m most likely to pass on to my children, or anyone else who might be within hearing distance of my nagging  nurturing.  Choose citrus that feels heavy for its size.  It will be fresher and juicier than the lightweight pieces. Always drive as if everyone else on the road is an imbecile, drunk, and/or texting. Red lipstick is a commitment.  Don’t wear it unless you mean it. Be nice to almost everyone, but don’t waste your time on those that don’t deserve your kindness. Embrace who you are, what you think and feel.  Don’t let anyone belittle you for being yourself, and don’t let anyone tell you who to be, not even the internet.  Let joy in.  It’s everywhere, but you have to meet it half way, at the very least. Do

A small business can have anywhere from 1 to 500 employees, but collectively, they’re a mighty force, accounting for 99.7% of all business in the United States.  Unfortunately, according to the Small Business Administration, 50% fail within the first five years. Given the limited resources of small business, your expertise makes you a valuable partner.  And while they’re probably more focused on budget than enterprise customers are, they're also more likely to be loyal.  Offer them personalized, reliable, trustworthy service, and they’ll consider you part of their team. Here are a few of the ways you can maximize your partnership and success with small businesses: Assist with a social media strategy – do you have content they can re-post, connections they can link up with, a tip to getting more followers, co-branding opportunities?  Smallbiztrends.com identifies mobile as the #1 technology that a small business should utilize, with 56% of all consumer traffic currently

Let me start by saying I like being a woman and I like the accoutrements that come with it.  I like high heels and makeup and the color pink and having doors opened for me.  I’m especially fond of wearing makeup and pink high heels while a door is being opened for me.  And I really like it if someone else removes the spiders that skitter up in my life.  I like doing things that are typically considered girly, like cooking, needlework, and taking care of my kids.  But professional chefs are predominantly men, you can probably name more male than female fashion designers, and my husband is an amazing parent, arguably better than I am. What I don’t like are assumptions.  Assumptions are, by definition, problematic, but for now I’ll focus on sexism and misogyny.  Don’t assume that because I’m a woman I’m stupid, or weak, or illogical.  In fact, I’m passably bright, I’m decently strong, and although I’ll admit to being on the left side of reason, I’m also very even-tempered and fair.