Herbie's Hints was started on the flight home from my Dad's funeral. I wanted to remember the advice that for so long had been a foot or a phone call away. Still using a Day-Timer, I wrote down all the advice I could remember that he had given me over the years. There were eight pieces of advice. That was it. That was all I could remember.

So with a leap of faith I started the Herbie's Hints section of my newsletter. I had no idea how long the hints would last or if anyone would read them.

The harder I worked to capture those fleeting pieces of advice, the more I remembered. Eventually sixty-five of them became my second book Herbie's Hints.

On Tuesday of this week I was invited to Cleveland's Channel 19 to share some hints in honor of Father's Day. Here is the segment from the morning show. Happy FATHER'S Day to fathers and memories of fathers everywhere.

Buy a copy for your dad, grandpa, spouse - $5 Special for Father's Day!

We recently re-created the Electric Impulse Communication Facebook page. We are going to try to TELL you stories through pictures, and SHOW you upcoming events. Please LIKE US and visit often so you can see through pictures what we are doing and how it may help you or your team.

The more communication options Social Media give us the more challenged we are to select the right channel and the right message. Any one in sales learns early that the best way to SELL is to TELL. Most of us don't like to be sold a product, idea or service BUT we love a good story!

How does that translate to Social Media? We are going to tell you stories about Prince, Finn, mothers and daughters, obstacle courses and the round pen rather than try to SELL you!

1. Four Out of Four

What do a high school grad, a college grad, a graduate school grad and a young man recently accepted into medical school have in common? The high school grad was accepted into the college program of his choice, the college grad and grad school grad received their dream job offers after extensive interviews, and the student rejected twice to medical school was accepted to start in the Fall. They have something else in common.

Lesson Learned: Each of these stellar young people were prodded, cajoled, and/or forced to work with me. From one session to seven months, each worked with me to improve their ability to communicate their value, their ability to easily talk about their own value, and why they were the best candidate. Congrats to all four for seeing that it was not enough to have a stellar resume. Do you realize your resume is not enough?

2. Coffee Please

Camp Next - for the next generation of leaders - started at 9am with breakfast foods at 8:30. The just-out-of-the-oven individual pretzel breads from Ingmar the pretzel maker were inhaled by all. One thing that surprised us was the amount of coffee and flavored creamers that were consumed by the Millennials. Lots and lots of coffee. Often when my clients come to my office for an early session, they carry their coffee with them or have already had their Starbucks ordered in their specific way.

Lesson Learned: This group consumed a lot of coffee. The participants were 14 to 27 years old. Apparently coffee has no age discrimination. What kind of assumptions do you make and have you tested them?

3. Skip the Soda

While the "campers" drank a lot of coffee they drank no soda pop. NONE. No diet pop, no caffeine free pop, no light pop or dark pop and no red pop. NO pop. NONE. This surprised me but might shock Coca Cola and Pepsi.

Lesson Learned: Presently the big beverage companies sell water, flavored water and fizzy water. They may see this change coming. This is huge; to have a generation that does not drink soda pop. I'm not sure the amount of coffee they consumed is any healthier, just different. Are you looking for changes in your industry, your profession, your workplace and your home?

4. Life Without Address Labels

Have you noticed, with the best of intentions, things you learn at a seminar fall through the cracks when you return home? With this in mind, toward the end of the Camp, we gave participants a letter and an envelope. We asked each camper to write down up to three things they wanted to remember from the Camp. They were instructed to then stuff the envelope with the letter to themselves, and address the envelope to where they would like us to send it one month later. This way in a month, they will be reminded of lessons they had decided were important or at least worth remembering.

Lesson Learned: I told the campers that I was using the same level of information with them that I use with CEO's. That will continue to be true with one exception. I learned that many participants did not know how to address an envelope. You would be surprised at how many wrote their name, address and city horizontally across the envelope. Many perhaps had never written an envelope by hand. Maybe they had printed out address labels with little attention paid to the format. What do you assume people around you know how to do?

5. Carbs Please

All communication, which includes how we protect our value, is audience driven not speaker driven. In other words, it is about what your audience wants or needs to hear rather than what you want to tell them or serve to them. As an adult you might be conscience of carbs, but Millennials are not. In communication it is always a mindset first and then how to implement that mindset.

Lesson Learned: Camp Next served a lot of carbs, I mean a lot! Ingmar the amazing pretzel bread maker made pretzel bread that was gobbled up with barely a crumb left over. Followed by pizza for lunch. Yes there was fruit and salad but not eaten much. And the chocolate wasn't consumed like the carbs were downed. Are you aware of the current needs and wants of your markets and audiences?

Leslie in Person October 13 - MISHRM, 7 Absurdly Simple Ways to Communicate Your Value November 21 - WIN, Develop the Diva Within: Weapons that Empower Women to Speak and Lead

Forum 360 with Leslie as Moderator

Upcoming Show:
Israel's Lone Soldier
Guests: Miri Kogan and Randie Ostroff Sass

Medical Mission to Peru
Guests: Drs. Deb Plate and Kevin Baldie

Zips Basketball
Guest: Coach Keith Dambrot

Watch/ Listen to Forum 360:
Western Reserve Public Media, PBS-TV, PBS Fusion Channels 45 & 49 (Time Warner channel 993) - Mondays at 8 pm and Saturdays at 5:00 pm. After the show airs, you can download it here.

WONE FM 97.5 Sunday 6 am
For online streaming go to http://wone.net/ and click Listen Live.

WAKR AM 1590 Sunday, 5:00 pm, Monday 12:30 am
For online streaming go to http://akronnewsnow.com/ and click Listen Live.

I added up how many dogs I have had over my lifetime. It's somewhere around 15. When I had horses and practically lived in the barn, we had 4 and 5 dogs at one time that hung out in the barn with me.

Benji has been more challenging than all 15! If it is not the mouse he swallowed whole in front of me, the snake he ran around with in his mouth, his definition of obedience-when HE feels like it-his need to be on medication for maybe the rest of his life or his ability to stand right in front of you and pee with apparently no remorse.

What have I learned? I have been challenged on absolutely every front by that dog that now at 6 months old weighs barely 15 pounds. I might as well embrace being challenged, questioning what I thought I knew, and finding new answers. How 'bout you?