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Ok, so as the evening approaches, everyone seems to be getting tense. My wife, my extended family and everyone I talk to is really nervous about some freezing rain and a couple inches of snow. As for me, I’m not so worried. I actually find it quite humorous how the great city of Houston is “shutting down.” **Smile** This video was sent to me today and I thought it was quite hilarious and was a true depiction of what has been happening today in Houston, Tx. I was talking with a good friend and business associate, Eric Standlee, about a really neat “trick” I learned from Tony & Wendy Gambone. I think it’s so neat, that I want to share it with all of you. Are you looking to search for businesses in a specific area (City, State, etc)? Are you looking for specific SIC codes? What about searching for businesses that have a certain annual sales volume, years in business or size (employees or # of computer workstations)? All of these searches and MUCH, MUCH, More… can be done with your Harris Country Public Library Card. Just visit the website here, and start your searching! ReferenceUSA Let me know what you think about this little gem of an idea. :) -Mitchell From-
Guest Pass Key # 1 – No Longer Available *** I hope you all enjoyed the Guest Passes, Thanks for Responding *** -Mitchell From- Http://gist.com/mitchellfrom This Christmas holiday season has been a great time so far. We still have a week to go until we’ve cover New Years Eve as well, though. Although I’m already excited about taking on 2011 this coming year, I must say that I really enjoyed wrapping up the year with a true “Family” Christmas this year. For starters, my wife got into the Holiday spirit a lot sooner than I did. I know I’m behind the rest of my “gang” when they’re all dressed up to go get “Santa” pictures taken at the Mall and I’m like… “Is it December already?” I got my buns in gear and even got all of my shopping done before hand and didn’t even have to go out and get anything on Christmas Eve. Truth be told, for me, it’s really just the couple days before and the day of Christmas, that I really enjoy most. Like a lot of other families, My wife Ann and I split our time between her parents and mine. This year was quite interesting. We spent Christmas Eve Morning at our home, opening presents that my inlaws had brought for the girls as well as gifts between the adults. We enjoyed a great breakfast with them and then later that afternoon, we went to my grandmother’s house for some down time. We just over indulged on all kinds of great snack foods that my “Nana” had there for us while we played games. Then for Christmas morning, we got the girls up and told them that all the presents were over at “Mimi and Poppy’s house,” so we all piled into the car and headed over to my folk’s house. It was really great getting to see them be surprised with presents, twice. So, Christmas morning was all of my family… and the extended folks as well. We had a great big Dinner in the afternoon and terrific desserts afterwards. The funny thing is that throughout all of these festivities, my wife’s camera was being such a pain that I decided to start taking a bunch of pictures and videos with my Droid phone. What’s funny about it, is that my pictures were coming out better than the actual digital camera’s. Since I had all these photos and videos on my phone, I decided to make something memorable this year. I made a video, sharing some highlights for everyone to see… To my Parents, my In-laws, my girls and other family & friends… enjoy this video. You never know how much time God gives us… so cherish these moments that we all get to share together. With Lots of Love, http://gist.com/mitchellfrom
It was interesting to hear about some of the struggles that “Community” banks are dealing with. Most of these banks are looking for ways to increase their profit margin, during these “slow” times. I sat in on presentations that were anything from how to price loans, to whether banks should or should not allow social media available to their staff. First off, those of you that know me, know that I am an advocate for social media. From a networking & marketing standpoint, social media can be VERY powerful for a business. In addition, I would like to add that the threat that social media brings (in the I.T. realm) is truly insignificant… if a company has taken measures to protect their infrastructure in the first place. The other thing that I noticed as that the two industries (Factoring & Merchant Services) that we represent (Brenda & Eric represent American Prudential Capital and I represent Element Payment Services) were nowhere to be found through this convention. There was no talk about how partnering with a factoring company or a credit card processing company can be highly profitable for a bank. I look forward to sharing these possibilities with banks, and the upcoming sector of Credit Unions, that are open to these partnerships. The bottom line is that our goal is to help banks increase their non-interest revenue. Who wouldn’t want to do that… with little to no risk on their part, right? A couple of social things that happened while at the event were the “Singer Songwriters Performance” and the “Auction.” I was amazed to find out was behind some of the most popular country songs of the past couple decades. These guys were incredible. I was absolutely blown away by their talent. If I can find my notes, I might even post their names and link to their websites. As for the auction, all I have to say is…. “I didn’t spend too much money, honey!” :) -Mitchell From- http://gist.com/mitchellfrom http://facebook.com/mitchellfrom.fanpage
Where am I? Who is that? What are we doing? Jay Gubert and myself are seen here, playing chess in the lobby of our DFW hotel… while waiting for our networking luncheon. Our networking organization, My Referral Network, is launching their first chapter in the DFW area today at 11am. If you are in the Dallas area (or know a business owner that is) please check out our calendar of events on http://myreferralnetwork.net for meeting details. This is the place to give & receive WARM referrals. So, getting back to chess… Jay needs to sharpen his skills. I’m juuust sayin…
On a recent Saturday, my wife was so kind to let me sleep in. I awoke to hearing her and the kids running around the house, playing. It was nice… I must say. So, I finally decided to get up and start getting ready, since we were headed to the local college (Lonestar College CyFair) shortly. We got there and we were all totally amazed at the campus. It was extremely nice. I wish they would have had something that nice, so close to home (Northwest Houston), back when I was in college. Anyways, the play began and I must say that I was really impressed with the acting of these students. My girls thoroughly enjoyed it and we got to sit on the Front Row! If you get a chance to go see any plays that they put on, I would highly recommend it. Go check them out yourself… Right Here! |
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I was very honored when I was invited by Brenda & Eric Standlee, to come with them to the 
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