I know, I know, I've been shockingly lax in posting lately. I blame it all on business travel (ok, and, maybe, too, on the dating - but let's stick to the subject). There's nothing like several weeks of darting around the east coast to remind you of some of the unspoken pitfalls of business travel. Here's my list of the things they never tell you to expect (and yet always seem to happen!)

1. You and your outfits need to be ready for anything. Because the truth is, you never know when you'll be all dressed up for a business meeting in the morning and end up taking a surprise tour of a remote environmental campus in the afternoon with nothing to change into in your suitcase, let alone in your rental car. Be prepared, girls. 'Cause those shoes are never going to be the same.
   
   
    
   
2. You will eventually sleep in the shirt you're wearing. There's probably a guy (maybe his name is Miguel) in your office who demands that everyone jam whatever they need to bring into a carry-on bag. Laptop, suit, projector, foam core, whatever. Make it work. Because once you give that bag up to the airline, it's all over. It could get lost. Or you could get stuck. When the flight gets canceled, they don't return your suitcase. You're left to sweat it out (separated from your deodorant, toothbrush, and jammies) until you hit your destination city. I used to make fun of that guy. Now, I'm a believer.


3. You will eventually sleep in someplace that's too scary to fall asleep in. The hotel reservation will fall through. Something will be overbooked. The car will break down. And, you'll find yourself first Googling and then just wandering around looking for shelter. If you're in any kind of company town on a weeknight, the options will not be pretty. All the "decent" hotels (Holiday Inns, Hiltons, Marriotts) will have been long-since booked by corporate travel agents. Your choices are quickly going to dwindle to the Super 8s and Comfort Inns of the world. Or, worse, as we recently found on a trip to the center of PA - an Econolodge. A "motel" with no irons or hairdryers and room doors that open into the parking lot of a gas station:
   
   




4. There are new things that you'll want to learn. Like how to treat your clothes for bed bugs (just in case). How to iron a dress with no iron. What you can lean against the door when the lock is bent and fragile looking.


5. New York can be an impossible place to get to. Especially if you're flying into LaGuardia. Here are two words you do not want to hear: Ground stop. Happens in NYC all the time. The three beastly airports there get overwhelmed and weather gets messy and they just close up shop. No flights in or out. Good luck rearranging your plans. And enjoy your time on the runway.


6. You should always pack band-aids. Eventually that slimy shower curtain will blow in and touch your shoulder while you're shaving your knees and you will slip. Disaster. (Thank goodness people don't wear nylons anymore - remember those with shaving cuts??)


7. Even if you think you don't get car sick, staring at the laptop at 78 mph will get to you. Yeah, you'll blame it on the fruit and nut mix (potato chips) you picked up at the travel center (gas station), but we know better - even the most put-together business person gets a little woozy when trying to balance a flaming hot laptop on her legs while referencing the notes jammed under the emergency brake and typing into those pesky PowerPoint text fields. Work in the car is somewhere between unsatisfactory and impossible.


8. Work starts at 5. See above. You will get nothing done during the day and end up staring down the email gauntlet over room service (or - depending on your team - after half a bottle of wine and a big Italian dinner).


9. Prop planes are not the same as real planes. Rather, they are a roller coaster ride upgraded with a chemical toilet. And, the sick bags tucked in behind the Skymall are not kitsch, they're a highly, highly relevant service item.


10. You should take granola bars (or wear elastic pants). I cannot resist the Pringles in the mini bar. Or the tuna flight at Barrel 135. Or that pesky, pesky cheese croissant at all the airport Au Bon Pains. Bah. Business travel is a constant temptation of convenience and emotional eating. Pack some responsible meal substitutes in your satchel or bring your fat jeans for the flight home. (Seriously, though, go with the granola bars. Elastic pants are just ugly.)
    


11. You will spend infinitely more time in transit than at work. 20 hours on the road. 2 hours in the meeting. It's just the way it works. This is particularly true if you get lost on the subway on your way to Brooklyn. And then, too, if you get lost walking from the subway to the office.


12. There's nothing like business travel to make you hate men. I see this at every airport gate: The women are lugging bulging carryons, handbags, and various satchels. The men have a single white shirt in a dry cleaning bag and their slim briefcase. Bah!


13. It's probably why online bill-pay was created. You will lose track of your life. Forget which kennel your dog is on. Miss your mother's birthday. And generally end up with nothing in the refridgerator, a past-due cable bill and three weeks of laundry. Just roll with it.


14. If the travel is a disaster, the meeting will be a smash success. I don't know what that's true. It just is.


15. (If there is a corollary to #14, I have no proof of it yet. Travel is always a disaster. That's what makes you happy to be home.)

I came into my office after a marathon of meetings yesterday to find this simple reminder:

So, I cannot help but post:

Every year, the staff here run an internal campaign to raise money for MidOhio Foodbank's Operation Feed campaign. Sure, it's a little more low key in this tough year (last year featured teams racing to build mountains of canned goods). But, we're still committed to taking care of the people in our community who have been brave enough to speak up and ask for help.

I hope you'll join us.

Here's what we're asking:

• Act personally: Pledge $25. MidOhio Foodbank can turn that into 50 meals. Literally. They do amazing stuff.


• Challenge your co-workers: 226 companies like Ologie have already joined the campaign and are asking their teams to do anything from bringing in a can of soup to making a financial pledge. It's easy to setup - you can get started here. If you do run a workplace campaign, let me know - I'm happy to feature it here.

Over the years, Ologie has worked on the MidOhio Foodbank brand (along with other great agencies, like Resource Interactive); so, we have something of a front row view to the impact they have on families in our community. If you're not as familiar, I can tell you this:

• MidOhio Foodbank delivers food to over 500 soup kitchens, food pantries, shelters, and other programs helping those in need
• For every $1 donation they receive, MOFB is able to distribute $8 of groceries
• In 2007, they fed over 200,000 people
• And were supported by 5000 volunteers

This is our community safety net. It's the one thing we can all do to personally affect change for our neighbors. We can literally feed the hungry with a couple of extra bucks. Let's do it.

Check out this article my boss and I wrote late last year (just published). Lots of examples that demonstrate how leading with the most genuine parts of your brand in social media deliver better results.

Big idea about authentic brands: Simply put, an authentic brand is a brand that’s clear about what it is and what it stands for. It’s a brand that is built from the inside out versus one that panders to the latest trend, fad, or customer segment.More deeply, it’s a brand with a real story, a connection to a fundamental human truth, and an appreciation of its smart customers

You're going to hear a lot about Adam Ferguson over the next few days. He's been filling my inbox with all sorts of interesting tidbits that just demand to be blogged about.

Let's start with this little number from AdAge last week: "Six Ways Ad Agencies Are Reeling in New Business Now "

Smart idea. Increasingly, our clients - and our potential clients - need to justify their budgets and their decision making to senior leadership. They need an easy way to say why this company / why now / what the impact will be.

What's more - they're up against incredible pressure to produce. To do things in innovative ways that deliver previously-unrealized results. They need the hope of a new, big idea.

An agency position founded in a provocative, relevant point of view is absolutely one way to deliver on both.

Four agencies that are already there:

Cult Marketing creates Cult Customers: This savvy, growing firm outside Columbus hinges their story on connecting with the very customers who are driving the word-of-mouse and word-of-mouth trends we're all chasing. They start with insights but drive every project on ROI.

Sullivan Higdon & Sink in Kansas City delivers men. Yeah, yeah, we've heard over and over how 80% of purchases are influenced by women, but these guy-knowing creatives take on the products that need that shot of masculine purchasing power. These are "Men who buy engagement rings. Men who go camping and fly fishing. Men who run companies. Men who grill steaks and fry turkeys. Men who purchase industrial engines. Men who dig Star Wars."

Cow: I am forever a fan of this London-based agency of the year.  Their POV: If you aren't news, make news. These provocateurs will do whatever it takes to get "get bums on seats, people through the door, products off the shelves and people thinking about your brand in new ways." Their claims to fame: "We’re the agency that got baked beans on the front pages of the papers, created the world’s most expensive burger and developed sausage and mash ice cream style cones and vans."

22Squared: This Atlanta/Tampa agency gets that branding isn't communication, it's behavior. And, they show their formula for connection through a crafty little framework called the friendship factor.

Every now and again, I get talked into a speaking engagement about blogging. Why I do it. How to connect with me. Where the ideas come from. 

And, the inevitable embarrassed question: How much money do I make doing it?

Honestly, I don't. Sure, I understand how to monetize a blog. My friend David is not only a total champ at it - he even gives incredibly clear advice on how to do it.

But, it's not for me. I've even turned off the Google ads on my blog (something about passively pimping Ann Coulter's new book was a little uncomfortable for me).

Why? Three reasons:

• First up: I owe you. I started this blog when my career took me from technology marketing to retail advertising. I was - in a word - lost. There was a lot to learn and few resources to learn it. The books were all theory and all out of date; my boss was busy with other things; my other mentors were out-of-category.
  
  Instead: I had you. This group of like-minded people who have turned into the most amazing network of collaborative idea generators.
  
  I started by collecting. By listening to what you were talking about and highlighting the work that stood out. You helped me "get" this; helped me develop a POV.
  
  Sure, now, I sit comfortably on this soapbox and type away about whatever idea that strikes me. But, I know how I got here.

• Second: I get other benefits. I've got an amazing job. Yeah, it's beating me up right now - with too much work and too much stress. But, that's temporary. Product of the recession.
  
  In the time before Wall Street blew it, this gig gave me the opportunity to work with some of the smartest, most savvy people in the Midwest and to learn things I would have never had access to elsewhere. I got that job because of this blog. The creative director at Ologie happened to read it and thought I would be a good fit. I ended up meeting the COO for coffee and tried not to squeal with delight when he eventually offered me a job. I never thought I'd end up there - easily the most-respected agency in town.
  
  That's one of the benefits - a reputation that precedes me. Or, really, a way for people to get to know me, to connect with me long before we meet in person.
  
  And, having the network to call on if I ever need help - finding an opportunity for me, a job for a friend, a solution to a particuarly sticky conundrum. Heck, even a used laptop when I need one!

• Third: I've already got a job - complete with deadlines and editors. 
  
  Funding means expectations. Deals with devilish details. I'm all-too-happy to just type when I feel like typing. Say what I feel like saying. Wander off when life offline gets to be just too much to balance.
  
  For me, blogging is something I love to do. I don't want it to become just another obligation.

Happy St. Patrick's Day, readers. And, Merry March Madness.

Back when I worked as a full-fledged suit at a retail shop, I worried a lot about small talk. CMOs want to talk about the big weekend game; CEOs want to predict the winner of the next one.

Me? I don't have an ounce of sports fan in me. I'm lucky if I know for sure what sports season it is, let alone what playoff is approaching and who is expected to dominate it. I keep the local sports teams calendars on my wall as little more than a traffic advisory.

When you work in a Big Ten town, this is not an ideal situation. So, I was always looking for the headline, the soundbite, anything to get the sports small talk rolling so smoothly that I could happily just nod my agreement.

(As one of the resident wonks at my current shop clients expect me to be bookish and pop culture averse :)  No one cares that I don't wear red (scarlet) on Fridays or quote scores over lunch.)

Still, I love the soundbites. The little nuggets that incite fans to passion.

Neil - the cool partner at that retail shop - used to give me a few good ones every now and again.

His universal:

What about Duke?

Apparently Coach K and his team are always somewhat provocative. It's a safe starting point if you don't know the alliances of the people in the room.

I've used that one a lot. It actually works.

So, I was thrilled to check my Facebook wall and find his this-season advice for March Madness:

Who do you like in the Big East? Apparently the powerhouse division this year.

I asked Neil that very Q. Here's an answer. If you go this deep, though, you better be able to back it up:

How can you not love Syracuse? 6 OTs against UConn. Playing against Louisville for the Championship! Go Orangemen!

Happy tournament, people. Fill out those brackets.