Southern Financial Bloviator

To all you boys and ghouls out there -- Happy Halloween.  Happy is not a word we have used very much this year.  Happy implies an in-the-moment, carefree elation.  Given the current economy and market, that can hardly describe us. Halloween has become a fantasy escape for our culture.  Sure, we s...

Many of us value our role as parent but find little opportunity to really express our feelings.  Life and business get in the way of directly speaking our love to our children.  Few things are more powerful than the eye-to-eye, boldly stated "I value you.  I love you.  I want to spend time with y...

http://drivescore.fizber.com/how-it-doesnt-works.html Drive Score is a very interesting site hosted by Fizber.com.  This site allows a Realtor, buyer, or seller give detailed information regarding driving distances from a property to local businesses.  Though not perfect, this site will help pote...

I have had to learn business networking from the ground up over the past 6 years.  I spent most of my professional career as a licensed marriage and family therapist.  This means that I spent the vast majority of my time in a small office. I have joined BNI, the loca chamber of commerce, ToastMas...

What is your definition of justice?   Merriam-Webster (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/justice )  defines Justice as: 1 a: the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments b...

Where do we put our energies?  Do we work for weeks to develop a grand scheme?  Do we act in the moment?  The answer has to be both, right? We need a strategy.  We must take the 20-60 hours to develop a large vision for our business.  It is important to take the time to think about the big pictur...

No, literally, stretch yourself.  We have this image of big muscles or extreme cardio as benefitting our health in the long run.  Certainly, most all exercise is better than nothing.  But stretching has specific benefits that other forms of exercise do not have. I take time every morning and ever...

There are some things that are difficult to say.  There are several books that instruct readers how to say difficult things, manage difficult conversations, address difficult topics, and so on.  We tend to avoid confrontation or authentic feedback in order to protect our feelings and avoid hurtin...

Which writer do you admire the most?  James Patterson?  John Grisham? Brennan Manning? Ernest Hemingway?  Charles Dickens? John Donne?  William Shakespeare?  or Who? Writers work their way into our lives by offering us one of two things:  Escape or Instruction.  Escape can include entertainment, ...

In the movie Shawshank Redemption, Morgan Freeman's character avers, "Get busy living, or get busy dying.  That's damn right!" I love that movie and have seen it at least 30 times.  When I find a movie that speaks to me, I tend to watch it over and over for the next few months or years.  It's the...