Hello!

Happy February! I recently heard that “love” is the least used word in business. In this month of love, we, at Belmont, would like to change that. If you’ve worked with us, you know we use the term widely about our customers, our team and our work. We hope you have seen this shine through, and would consider supporting our application for the “Love a Local Business” grant!

This is a great opportunity for you to share the love, and for us to compete for a $35,000 grand prize … read more

I’ve decided 2010 is my year to “be bold”. Enough of second guessing myself!  Enough of being too shy to ask for help!  Enough of being fearful of change!  I’m going to go after what I want, boldly, with no holds barred.

As leaders of organizations, we often have a hard time letting go of the past and pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone.  In that vein, I’m noticing other leaders who are being bold and I hope that some stories that I share through my … read more

Take a look at the YouTube video embedded in this post of an experiment conducted in Sweden.  In an effort to get more people to take the stairs, the experimenters developed a musical staircase, reminiscent of the giant keyboard in the late 80s film “Big.”  As a result, more people chose the stairs instead of the adjacent escalator. This got me thinking about the effect of fun on human behavior and how fun can impact our business strategy and, ultimately, our brand…. read more

I was watching 60 Minutes the other night and had a thought. While the main segments of the show act kind of like White Papers, based in fact, interview and research, Andy Rooney’s finale segment acts more like a video blog. His pieces are still mostly based in fact, but more often than not, have much more to do with opinion. There’s something about his few minutes at the end of every show that makes the show less hard-hitting, more personal, and keeps viewers coming back for more. It just struck … read more

I recently had to make a pitch to a perspective client on our capabilities. I felt we were positioned well to win the business: good past performance, shared corporate values, and a genuine interest in seeing this organization succeed. Out of character for us, and for some strange reason, I focused my presentation on why we where qualified to compete for the business and everything I could say about us.

The long and short of it is that we were not awarded the contract. To make it worse, we were told that we lost it because it seemed … read more