By Julie Rath, on Fri Nov 22, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET “I hate shopping, except for the part where I am back in my apartment with new clothes.”
Does that sound like you? A prospective client once emailed that line to me. It made me laugh, but I get it. Shopping can be tiring, stressful and frustrating. Planning an effective shopping trip takes strategic thought. While it should be easy, often things get in the way. But, take it from me, shopping can be a smooth and seamless process. Below are 9 of my best tools and tricks for a well-executed shopping trip.
 Here’s a dressing room snap from yesterday as I was getting things ready for a client.
1) Find a good salesperson. Some of my best relationships have resulted from following my intuition in a store and simply walking up to someone, introducing myself, and explaining what I was looking to accomplish. A good salesperson will make shopping hassle-free – without an overbearing salespitch (more on this in #6). They’ll also give you advance info on when the sales are and in many cases ‘pre-sell’ items to you – which means you get dibs on things before they go on sale to the general public.
Read the rest of…
Julie Rath: Secrets from a Shopping Pro
By Julie Rath, on Fri Nov 22, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Few things are worse than getting caught in the rain in your dress clothes. Especially if you’re on the way to work, and you know you’re going to spend much of the day in wet clothes until your outfit dries. My suggestion: check the weather before you get dressed, and make sure your wardrobe includes rainy weather gear. Below is my list of must-haves for soggy days:
 Raincoat – I spend a lot of time in peoples’ closets, and I’ve seen some pretty awful windbreakers masquerading as rain gear. Bad weather is no excuse to look drab and unstylish. Pull it together with a sharp raincoat. Two great options are a classic trench, or a more modern mac (above left and right). If you wear suits or sportcoats everyday, buy in a size that will fit over them.
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High Quality Umbrella – Don’t be that guy whose umbrella turns inside out and flies across the street poking someone’s eye out. Cheap umbrellas break easily, leading to wasted time and money (not to mention adding to pollution in landfills). Why not spare yourself the headache by investing in a high quality umbrella? Blunt and Davek are two of the toughest umbrellas out there, and they come in various sizes. Just make sure you don’t leave it behind in a taxi.
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 Overshoes – There’s a whole new generation of good-looking overshoes that are nothing like your father’s black rubber rain shoes. If you have nice shoes, it makes sense to protect them. I’m a big fan of Swims which come in a variety of colors including navy and olive green (which are nice if you only want to get one pair; if not, black goes over black shoes and brown over brown).
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One of the most important components of being well-dressed and having a well-rounded wardrobe is dressing appropriately in all situations, including bad weather. Fortunately, dressing to dominate the rain only requires three items. Does your wardrobe include these three things?
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Nov 21, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET
My health care rant, albeit a restrained rant with a reasonable solution offered. (It’s different from what you might think. Really.)
Something is just wrong when the level of customer service a person gets at a car dealership trumps –in fact dwarfs—the level of customer service that same person can expect when seeking medical services at a hospital.
I am not trying to debate health care policy or criticize ACA/Obamacare. I am trying to discuss something simple, relevant and useful that is really apolitical and patient-centric.
Recently I have spent time in the only place I approach with more trepidation than going to a hospital—car dealerships. And with the intention of buying a new car. All things being equal I would have preferred to check into a medical facility to have routine blood work done.
But here’s what I experienced to my surprise and despite my reservations about car dealerships. At the car dealerships I was treated with some the most extraordinary “customer service” I have ever encountered in any professional transaction in my life. The employees at the car dealership anticipated my ever question, concern and desire—or was at least tried to. And then respond to it. If I had to rank them for “customer service’ I’d give them a solid and well earned “A” grade.
By contrast, my experience recently with “customer service” at hospitals and related medical facilities has been just the opposite. Don’t get me wrong. The hospitals eventually got the job done, as they almost always too. And in their defense they are under extraordinary stress and are over-extended and customer service has been more of a luxury or afterthought in their business. But does it have to really be that way?
Oh sure, there are the incentive arguments about the hospitals’ customer really being insurance companies and so on and so on and the impact of various healthcare policies further distancing the patient vs healthcare provider relationship. But who said customer service can’t extend to the person being interacted with as well as the effective payor? No one I know of.
Besides, I have always thought of healthcare as different from other businesses and industries. There is a slightly different mission in the healthcare profession (or should be) than just making money. People’s health is at stake. A higher calling is assumed that would suggest customer service wouldn’t be limited in the same narrow, linear way that would be expected in, say, a transaction at a shoe store or fast food restaurant. In other words, more than just a direct interest in the immediate paying customer.
When we discuss, debate and argue over health care policy we always seem to focus on issues like access, choice, who pays, what will be covered, what policy, what system, how much research, what technology, and the like. As we should, I emphatically add! But can’t we also add excellent customer service to the long list of expectations we have from healthcare providers?
A client’s (or patient’s) personal needs, wants, concerns and fears may not be as urgent or as weighty as the issues that surround all other services being delivered in the healthcare industry. And many, I will concede, do an admirable job with customer service already. But I doubt that most hospitals do as effective a job at customer service as the local car dealership just down the road. Or the nearest family restaurant. And that is disappointing. And I would contend that closing the customer service gap in healthcare facilities and expecting customer service that is almost attentive and patient/customer-focused as when we get our oil changed isn’t an unreasonable request. It is not about politics or policy. It is just a simple request for better service. Please.
And whoever realizes this in the healthcare industry and acts on it first and forthrightly will likely dominate the industry in the coming years regardless of who the most direct payor is. It’s just good business for the bottom line, too.
And because in the end, it is–as it should be– about the patient, not the insurer. And it is that person not their payor who is the real and most important customer.
By Michael Steele, on Thu Nov 21, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki met with President Barack Obamain Washington on November 1st, and leading up to his visit, White House press Secretary Jay Carney put his best diplomatic smiley-face on it by noting “the visit will highlight the importance of the U.S.-Iraq relationship under the U.S.-Iraq Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA),” and that Obama “looks forward to discussing with Prime Minister Maliki efforts to enhance cooperation in the fields covered under the SFA, and to coordinating on a range of regional issues.”
Of course, after the two-hour meeting, President Obama remarked, “The United States wants to be a strong and effective partner with Iraq.” No doubt. Maliki came seeking more weapons and the president sought a “strong and effective partner.” While this face-to-face meeting may have served to raise Maliki’s diplomatic profile, in the eyes of many it diminished the profile of the United States and its professed commitment to justice, human rights, and international law. The president should have refused this meeting.
No one should doubt, least of all Prime Minister Maliki, that he owes his position to the United States, which sacrificed its blood and spent billions of its treasure to pave his way to power. But Maliki’s failure to be a true partner with the U.S. and his cozy relationship with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, as well as his recent actions, have created more problems than solutions for the United States.
On September 1, 2103, at the apparent request of the Iranian Mullahs and on the orders of Nouri al-Maliki, Iraqi security forces attacked and killed 52 Iranian refugees (and kidnapped seven, including six women) at Camp Ashraf in eastern Iraq.
Camp Ashraf was settled more than 25 years ago by 3,400 members and sympathizers of the principal Iranian opposition known as the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). The U.S. military disarmed Ashraf City in 2003, and in 2009 turned over control of the camp to the Maliki government in Baghdad. At that time, the United States assured residents of Ashraf City that the Iraqi government would treat them humanely in accordance with international law. As refugees, members of the opposition and their families are protected persons according to the Fourth Geneva Convention, and should not be subject to harassment, much less kidnapping and murder by the military forces of Iraq.
Last year, some 3,000 residents of Camp Ashraf were forcibly transferred to Camp Liberty, near Baghdad. 52 of those remaining at Camp Ashraf would meet a different fate.
In the attack, most of the murder victims were handcuffed, identified, and then executed with a bullet to the head, according to a statement by the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq. Some were slaughtered in Ashraf clinic where they had been taken for medical treatment. All of these individuals had signed an agreement in cooperation with the United States, which had guaranteed their safety and protection until their final relocation. The U.S. failed to keep its word.
While the United States, the UN, the European Parliament, and Amnesty International all condemned the massacre and kidnapping, world leaders have been hesitant to affix responsibility, particularly in the face of reports of “coordination” between the Maliki and the office of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khameini.
As Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats noted in a statement, “The Iraqi military is murdering unarmed refugees, and there is every reason to believe Prime Minister Maliki, at the behest of the Iranian Mullahs, ordered these criminal acts. Come what may, Maliki will be held responsible for this reprehensible slaughter of civilians in his own country.” Likewise, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee made clear “I hold the Iraqi government directly responsible to protect the community, to investigate this matter thoroughly, and to prosecute the perpetrators of this heinous act.”
Which makes Maliki’s visit to the White House that much more problematic.
For Maliki, the man whose cooperation with the Iranian clerics was crucial to carrying out this atrocity, to enjoy the prestige of a personal meeting with President Obama is totally unacceptable. For many Americans, let alone Iranians, Maliki has clearly betrayed the trust that the United States displayed in him; and has undermined the very safety and security the United States had promised to those refugees.
No political consideration or calculus to compel Maliki to release the hostages is immoral, misguided, or unacceptable. The lack of meaningful action by the U.S. in support of the hostages and the failure to hold accountable those who slaughtered 52 men and women is inexcusable.
Maliki’s visit presented the perfect occasion for President Obama to honor the commitment made to protect the refugees now at Camp Liberty; a commitment that can only be ensured by moving the refugees out of harm’s way and returning them to their homes.
Moreover, the visit afforded the president the opportunity to make it clear to Maliki that there will be no more U.S. aid, no more arms sales and no further political support unless the 7 refugees taken hostage at Camp Ashraf are released and full protection is provided for the 3000 refugees at Camp Liberty. At least that’s what a “strong and effective partner” would have done last Friday.
(Cross-posted, with permission of the author, from TheGrio.com)
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Nov 21, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET
It’s 6:57 AM on Mullholand Drive in the East End of Louisville.
I have over slept. Again. And this blonde dame keeps waking me up and telling me she’s made me a cup of Joe and that I am late and she’s not waking me up again.
She’s a looker alright. Nice voice. But with a motherly sort of tone. And makes a mean cup of Joe.
Yeah, that’s right. She’ s not just another long-legged blonde dame trying to make it through another overcast windy day in this two bit city. She’s got normal length legs. Not long ones. But as for the rest of the description, it’s dead on. And this wasn’t going to be just another ordinary day.
I had a dentist appointment because I hadn’t had a teeth cleaning in 8 months and was getting an oil change for the first time in 7000 miles.
Yeah, I live on life’s edge not by choice. But because it’s the only way this kid has ever known how to live.
 Oh yeah, and that normal length legged blonde beauty I was telling you about? That’s my wife. That’s right. And that’s Mrs Brown to you, pal.
And she was serious about not waking me up again and now was getting really irritated with my little game of narrating this Wendesday morning like I was a narrator in a 1950s Film Noir movie.
She’d had enough. See? See? And, frankly, so had I.
For now anyway.
By Josh Bowen, on Thu Nov 21, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET
By Josh Bowen, on Thu Nov 21, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Lists are fun, everyone likes lists. On this snowy day, I give you my top 12 best fitness motivation movies of all time, a snippet of my forthcoming book, “The 12 Steps to Fitness Freedom” available in January. These are the types of movies that could motivate anyone to get off their butt and start moving. The most heart pounding, testosterone driven movies of all time. If motivation is your problem, watch one of these classics and two hours later you will be hitting the gym ready to take on the world.
1. Rocky
The ultimate underdog story staring Sylvester Stallone, will for sure get you motivated to do a few push-ups.
2. 300
The ultimate battle movie complete with every actor that has a six pack.
Read the rest of…
Josh Bowen: 12 Best Fitness Movies
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Nov 20, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Sometimes you just have to be tough and put your foot down.
About 25 years ago I became a regular and admiring reader of Business First magazine. I have read it loyally ever since, which is another 25 years.
One of my favorite sections is the “In Person” section that tells about a person in the Louisville community and humanizes him or her with personal details while also explaining their professional arc and future plans. And there is a box off to the side where you get the “personal stats” about the person. Their family, favorite books, favorite movies, what music they have on their iPod, who inspired them, hobbies, favorite TV shows and so on. It’s a lot of stuff, trust me.
Well, here’s the thing. I don’t like admitting this because it sounds kind of vain and probably is. It is vain. But each week for 25 years I read this section and wonder if Business First might do one of those In Person pieces about me sometime soon and I run through each of those questions and answer them myself. And it takes more than just a minute or two.
Well…take 52 weeks (issues) a year and multiply it by 25 years and you have 1300 consecutive weeks of rejection— where not only did I feel slighted by not getting asked to do the In Person section but I wasted several minutes each week imagining how I’d answer those personal stat questions.
Not all of the answers were true, of course. I’d have to balance out the answers so people would be impressed with TV shows I watched, music I listened to and books I was reading –even if I wasn’t reading anything at all. I certainly wasn’t going to say “Nothing” when asked “What books are you reading.” I at least would put down a couple of best sellers and maybe a fiction book or two and probably one classic, like, I don’t know–the Odyssey or something fancy from a long time ago so people will read it and say, “Wow. That John Brown guy is pretty learned compared to the books other profiled people pretend that they are reading.” Everybody knows they are exaggerating about some of it.
If people were completely honest they’d sound like someone who doesn’t deserve to be profiled in In Person because they wouldn’t be any more interesting sounding than you are me. Maybe worse. Think about it. What if they answered it honestly and said,
“Books: “None so far this year but skim the newspaper from time to time. I may read something next year or listen to it on tape. Nah. Probably not. I do enjoy browsing bookstores and read the covers so I don’t waste money buying books I won’t ever read;
Favorite TV: Weather Channel and Girls on HBO;
You get the idea.
In my case I was going to pretend I understood opera if they asked me and say something like, “Yes, I enjoy opera a great deal. Especially the signing. Much of it is sung in Italian, in case your readers didn’t know. I’m reading the Odyssey right now, too.”
I would have had to lie about what music I listen to as well. I probably would have said classical and country (It is Louisville, KY). I couldn’t say “Pearl Jam and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Steely Dan , US3 and Mos Def. And, oh, I like to sing out loud sometimes when I’m in the car by myself. But only sound good when I’m singing to James Taylor. I just don’t have a voice like Eddie Vedder or Anthony Kedeis.”
If I answered like that people would think I was nuts because 50 year olds aren’t supposed to act like that. Even though they do. They are getting older (we are, not “they”) and want to hold on to a few youthful things. Just because it makes us feel better and, well, old dogs struggle with learning new tricks. And that applies to people too. At least those over about 45 years old.
Anyway, after waiting 1300 weeks and thinking through all my real favorite things and pretend favorite things (to impress others), I am giving up this game. I am tired of waiting and feeling rejected
Dang it! I’m just done with the whole thing. It’s over. I have decided tonight I am not going to prepare for the In Person profile piece in Business First any more.
And if Business First ever calls and asks me to do the In Person profile, which they won’t, I’m going to tell them they had their chance–1300 times and I didn’t make the cut and now they can’t have me even if they want me. That I am going to do a In Person profile piece with another magazine and say I am not at liberty to give them the name. (That would be a lie, of course, but give them a taste of their own medicine.) If they asked me later I’ll tell them the big national magazine went under the week they were doing my long and big profile.
Well, it feels good! I feel free. Liberated!
And kinda feel like celebrating by watching an episode of the Real Housewives of New Jersey. Or an episode of Girls on HBO. I really like both those shows. And don’t have any hobbies anyway.
By Lauren Mayer, on Wed Nov 20, 2013 at 8:30 AM ET Don’t get me wrong, nostalgia has a big place in my life. I love elements of the past, including Victorian novels, big band music from the 1920s, and full-skirted cocktail dresses from the 1950s. But I wouldn’t want to live in any of those eras, largely for practical considerations (I was one of those annoying kids who couldn’t read The Little House books without wondering how and where they went to the bathroom, and much as I love Jane Austen-esque romance, I wouldn’t really want to live without antibiotics, electricity, or the ability of women to own and inherit property, which of course was the issue driving most of the romance anyhow).
A lot of things have improved over the years, and one advantage of getting older is that we get to see change for the better. I gaped at my mother’s stories of her college sorority (which had “girdle checks” every morning) kicking her out for dating my father (who wasn’t in an approved fraternity, on top of being Jewish), and my kids are horrified when I tell them about learning to type on a manual typewriter, or that until I was in 8th grade, girls weren’t allowed to wear pants to school.
Now my boys can look forward to telling their kids about when gay marriage wasn’t a universal right – They were born in the mid-90s, so they’ve seen the whole progression of the issue. (In fact, the first wedding my older son attended was that of my college best friend and his partner, who had a commitment ceremony when my son was 3, and I served as the ‘best man’. For a few years after that, David was puzzled when he saw an opposite-sex couple get married.)
Since my kids are 17 and 20, I hope I have to wait awhile for grandchildren (although I do expect them eventually, boys, in case you’re reading this). So in the meantime, I will rejoice as each state adopts marriage equality and come up with an appropriate song – here’s my tribute to Hawaii.
By RP Nation, on Wed Nov 20, 2013 at 8:00 AM ET The tears.
All the tears, the weeping, the searching for an understanding of what it meant — this is what I saw and remember.
Three years before Dallas, Senator John Kennedy came to Lexington on October 8, 1960 for a rally on the big yard in front of U.K. Our Dad got us up before sunlight, my brother Keen and me, to get to campus at the step-side corner of the stage.
Almost no one was there. Hundreds arrived, finally several thousand, boisterous and excited, especially the loud group of students chanting “We want Nixon” near us. The place was roaring when Kennedy hopped onstage, where various leaders were waiting. Our grandfather, Keen Johnson, was among them.
As the event ended Kennedy worked the front line right where we were, so our Dad pushed us up to reach out to the candidate as he left.
We managed to get in the long motorcade to the airport. It was near there that I saw the extraordinary Wilson W. Wyatt of Louisville cheering Kennedy. Wyatt shouted “Huh-rah for Kennedy” — not hooray, but a classy, uniquely toned encouragement.
Funny what one remembers.
Then 50 years ago, when Mr. Briscoe Evans came over the intercom at Morton Junior High it was to say that “President Kennedy has been shot. I repeat: President Kennedy has been shot.” I was in study hall, last period, a Friday. Miss Conner, the dear, elderly teacher serving as proctor, was visibly upset.
 Within the hour Evans’ came back on to say the President was dead. Miss Conner buried her face in her hands and wept. She was shaking. We sat in shock, awkward middle schoolers unable to adequately take it in.
My concern grew as school was dismissed for the weekend and teachers were in the hallway, openly crying, even panicked it seemed. I had never seen anything like this.
Kids on my street walked home many days. As we came down the block my friend’s mother stood in their driveway, sobbing. They were Catholic. She cried over and over in the days ahead.
When we reached our house our mother was standing in the doorway too upset to speak.
On the day of the funeral there was the muffled drumbeat, the rider-less horse, the tear-stained face of the former First Lady through her thin black veil, the salute of a little boy to his father.
America watched all of this.
In time Dr. King would be murdered. We were in high school by then. That summer during Boys State at Eastern Kentucky University Robert Kennedy was shot. Then-Speaker of the House Harry King Loman of Ashland, the moderator, told us when RFK was gone.
Mitchell Nance of Glasgow was elected governor of Boys State. All of us thought about public service that week, the price some paid. I recall thinking what a decent guy Nance was. He went on in life to serve on the bench in Barren County.
Months passed. Nixon would rise. Then fall. Years would go by. Reagan would be shot in the first hundred days of his presidency. It happened the week I filed to run for Lexington city council, bringing back the continuum of losses. It all seemed to connect as if the word transition were not a post-election acion, but a way of life never quite understood in advance.
The glorification of Kennedy went on for weeks; clearly this continues. There is much to show for his inspiration, much promise in his step, many poignant moments.
America watched Kennedy. After he refused to wear a top hat to his swearing-in on a truly frigid day, my brother and I told Mom we would never again wear the hats she insisted we have. This pledge became a family laugh line.
Back then, people watched politics in different way. Many were glued to political party nominating convention coverage, or State of the Union addresses, or even presidential appearances from the Oval Office. They spoke of such things matter-of-factly, having paid attention.
You could say that not much else was competing on TV. But there is more to it.
Many, like my brother and me, were “children of the war” — born of parents brought together in the after years of World War II. Parents of this generation paid attention, listened differently than today. Most had heard Roosevelt. All had heard Truman or Ike, their general. It was a duty to listen.
The violent moment of Kennedy’s death left many to lament the death of an era. Some others, though, re-doubled their efforts to see public ideas, moving into action.
In many American moments there has been the deep question of what it will take to unite us. The shock of murder, especially in a schoolhouse, is one. Disaster and tragedy call on us to do something, do what we can, stretch to help.
Given the current moment, however, what losses must we suffer, realize or remember?
Just as failure can often teach more than success, tears may teach us what matters most of all. So might many recollections help us take hold of this piece of time, grow better together, closer to our purpose.
Ask more, just as Kennedy said.
Once when bucking establishment opinion and direction, Kennedy famously scoffed: sometimes the party asks too much. Indeed so.
What today is asking very likely has less to do with party matters, but more to do with what really matters. A simple prayer would ask that we listen, hear the answer.
Bob Babbage is a leading lobbyist who heads Babbage Cofounder. He served Kentucky as secretary of state and state auditor, and often appears in the media for moderate context and perspective. Reach him at Bob@BabbageCofounder.com.
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Here’s a dressing room snap from yesterday as I was getting things ready for a client.
