CRM Update – Jun 19 : 2:38 pm

It could always be worse. Almost exactly a year ago, we shared a KFC promotion that donated part of the purchase price of a ginormous soft drink to type 2 diabetes research. You know, the kind of diabetes that is correlated with poor diet and exercise habits, such as drinking ginormous soft drinks. This year’s Wendy’s promo raises money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, or type 1 diabetes–the one not correlated to poor dietary habits. Donate $1, and you get four small Frostys, cups of a sugar-laden dairy-like substance…

Shortly before we were married, my wife and I went on a trip to Brazil. Preparing for the trip, I learned that Rio’s unique combination of steep mountains on a breezy coast offered one activity I was unlikely to experience anywhere else in the world–urban hang-gliding.
The first bad sign was my designated instructor’s pronounced limp. His scars were long and his pain seemed fresh. “Should I really jump off of a cliff with this person?” I asked myself as I signed my life away. We hopped in a cab and ascended the mountain…

Have big plans? Here’s an easy way to boost your odds for success: Try keeping those plans to yourself.Everyone has a huge personal goal they want to accomplish–a big, challenging, amazing goal. They think about it, dream about it, obsess about it… but they never accomplish it.That could be because they also talk about it.According to studies like this one, people who talk about their intentions are less likely to follow through on those intentions.Say you want to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail, a grueling five- to seven-month trek from Georgia to Maine…

“Ryan Gosling walks into a Mormon talent show and starts singing ‘When a Man Loves a Woman’….”
Oh, you’ve heard that one before? Well that’s probably because it’s true.
SEE ALSO: Hey Girl, Foursquare Ryan Gosling Memes Should Be on Your Radar [PICS]
Celebrity superhero Ryan Gosling was apparently breaking girls’ hearts before he even stepped foot into the Mickey Mouse Club studio. The video above features a young, but still suave, Gosling performing Percy Sledge’s famous love ballad at a local Mormon talent show…

On the same day Microsoft was unveiling its would-be iPad killer in Los Angeles, Apple rolled out its second TV ad for its new iPad, playing up functionality and, of course, the Retina display.
The ad, called “Do it all,” and from longtime ad agency TBWAMedia Arts Lab, strikes a light, casual tone as it ticks off the various things you can do with the device, including send a note, read the New Yorker, watch video and build a chart. (The ad also sneaks in a plug for Pixar’s Brave, which opens this weekend in the U…

If you’ve ever built your own PC, you know it can be a rewarding and cost-saving experience. But unless you’re really fluent in pin counts and socket shapes, remembering which pieces go where requires a lot of Googling.
Reddit user Proteon shared a fantastic image that itemizes all the ports, connectors, sockets, cards, slots and cables you’ll need to identify when piecing your baby together. The valuable resource quickly reached the front page of /r/pics, and Redditor zeug666 pointed out in the comments that the poster was created by deviantART user Sonic840…

Here are a few more hidden tidbits about Microsoft’s new Surface tablets, launched in Los Angeles on June 18.

Matthew and his family were having a great day in the country until their car caught fire. First they noticed an odd smell…and then the smoke and flames. Eventually the fire department showed up, but their insurance company, Progressive, wouldn’t tow the car because the damage was caused by a fire. Sure, a fire caused by an electrical problem with the car.

After spending a great day with the family at a farm we needed to head the 42 miles home. No more than two miles up the road my Fiance and children complained of a smell in the car…

At first glance, Adidas’ new purple, gray and white sneakers with a bright orange plastic leg shackle might prompt thoughts of “Shew, boy! That is one ugly shoe,” or “Who would want to wear that?” However, once the stronger reactions of “It’s reminiscent of slavery” started rolling into a controversy ball on Twitter, including a call for a boycott, Adidas has announced it’s pulling the shoe.

The shoes, designed by what the L.A. Times calls “eccentric” Beverly Hills designer Jeremy Scott, generated a storm on Twitter where it was labeled “Adidas slave shackle kicks…

A veteran of two acquisitions offers a reality check for fellow founders, reminding them they shouldn’t be in the start-up game just for the payout.As the traditional rhyme tells us, the heads of children on Christmas Eve generally dance with visions of sugar plums. For start-up founders, the equivalent dream is of acquisitions.Stoked by media tales of quick and immensely lucrative exits a la Instagram and frenzied home buying in Silicon Valley following Facebook’s IPO, the fortune-making exit tantalizes even the most level-headed entrepreneur…

Add “Reality TV Show” to the large list of reasons why you should develop a popular mobile game. Or at least it’s a reason in the case of Draw Something.
CBS is confirming that they are picking up an unscripted pilot based on the wildly successful drawing game
Draw Something, developed by OMGPOP (who were recently acquired by Zynga) is similar to pictionary in that one player draws something based off a clue and the other player tries to guess it. The appeal with Draw Something is that it can be played with friends on mobile devices…

Here’s a classic, and classically effective, cold calling script–along with some essential advice for making it work.While there are other (and usually more effective) ways to generate sales leads, many companies still depend upon cold calling. I’ve covered cold calls before, but here’s a great cold-calling script from one of the world’s top experts on cold-calling, Keith Rosen, author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Cold-Calling.This script was created by a cost-reduction company for use with C-level executives and can easily be adapted to virtually any product or service…

One of my favorite features on QuestionPro is the “reminder” feature.  When you’re doing customer satisfaction research, an employee survey or any survey where you’ve uploaded a list of respondents, the reminder feature is a super-sophisticated way to remind folks to respond to the survey — without badgering the ones who already have.
Let me explain.
When you upload a list and email invitations to your respondents, some will respond right away, but many will either put it off — or they have so many emails in their inbox, that they simply lose track of the invitation…

Zeke once worked for now bankrupt and defunct Hollywood Video. Employees had special accounts allowing them to rent older movies (more than a few weeks old) for free and not have to pay late fees when they didn’t bring them back. Zeke is sure that he wouldn’t hallucinate free movie rentals, but the collection agency that sent him the letter insists that this policy never existed, and that it’s up to him to prove that he didn’t owe the company $28.95 in late fees at the time he quit…

Feeling down in the dumps and have no idea why? Here’s how to identify what’s bugging you and how to fix it.Face it; you’re bound to hit a rock in the middle of the road sometimes.Maybe an exchange with a colleague leaves you puzzled, a meeting doesn’t go as planned, or you simply feel drained. Whatever the trigger is, the end result is a realization that for weeks, maybe months, you’ve been operating at less than your usual high level. You feel disengaged, less motivated, perhaps even frustrated…

LastPass has released a major new update for its secure password manager, LastPass 2.0, and the big addition is the extension of its Secure Notes feature.
As well as safely protecting simple text information, the new release also allows you to add confidential documents, PDF files and images as attachments to your secure notes. As with all other stored data, these will be locally encrypted to keep them safe from snoopers. And of course the attachments will then be synced to any location where you log in to your account, so they’ll be available anywhere…

Are you wondering how to best use the Facebook Timeline features?The right steps can capture the attention of your fans and potential customers.What I am referring to is pinning, highlighting and milestones—three Timeline features that can dramatically change the number of people who interact with your content.Think of these features as digital megaphones, broadcasting your content just a little louder to ensure you are seen and heard by those who really matter to your business.To supercharge your content on Facebook, consider implementing these three new Facebook Timeline features for your page…

Sometimes you simply need to raise rates to keep your business viable. Use these five strategies to avoid a customer exodus.Companies worry about raising prices because they fear customers will leave them. This is a real fear and is often based upon past experiences.However, when you face increases in operating costs, raw materials, labor expenses and so on, at some point you may have to raise prices. This isn’t for purposes of gouging customers or skimming bigger profits–it’s a matter of survival…

As it turns out, some of the hottest mobile apps in the Apple App Store today have been created by bright young iOS developers who are driven to succeed. And that’s about all they can legally drive at age sixteen and under.
Forget after school sports and video games, many of the teenagers in our midst have bigger fish to fry – and fortunes to make. According to a revelation straight from Cupertino, California-based tech giant Apple, the app developer community is skewing younger and younger… and younger…

Harris and I are back from a trip that started in New York, continued to London, and then went on to Israel and back to New York.  But not Harris. No, Harris had to fly on to the West Coast to pick up a complimentary Surface. The client visits were, as always, eye-opening. There were meetings with 32 companies from nine countries, including clients from Finland, Sweden, England, France, Germany, Italy, and Israel. One of the first impressions in Europe, beyond the shell-shocked faces of many, is the entire lack of hype around any business concept…