Posted by Elena del Valle on January 13, 2014
Deborah Koons Garcia, director, Symphony of the Soil
Photo: Lily Films
A podcast interview with Deborah Koons Garcia, director, Symphony of the Soil (see With video Documentary highlights importance of healthy soil) is available in the Podcast Section of Hispanic Marketing & Public Relations, HispanicMPR.com. During the podcast, she discusses her film with Elena del Valle, host of the HispanicMPR.com podcast.
At Lily Films, her Mill Valley, California production company, Deborah has made fiction, educational and documentary films. For the last fifteen years, she has focused primarily on films about soil, agriculture and the food system.
Her film, The Future of Food, premiered at Film Forum in New York City. It continues to play widely around the world in theaters and at film, food and farming festivals and conferences and at thousands of community-organized screenings. She has personally taken her film to innovative venues such as Google headquarters, Burning Man arts festival in the desert of Nevada, and shown it to inmates in the gardening program at San Quentin prison.
Symphony of the Soil premiered at the Smithsonian in the spring of 2012 and has been playing at film festivals, conferences, theaters and community screening all around the world since then. In October 2013, The New York Times gave the film a very positive Critic’s Choice review.
She was recently awarded the John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival for her body of films on soil, agriculture and sustainability.
To listen to the interview, scroll down until you see “Podcast” on the right hand side, then select “HMPR Deborah Koons Garcia” and click on the play button below or download the MP3 file to your iPod or MP3 player to listen on the go, in your car or at home. To download it, click on the arrow of the recording you wish to copy and save it to disk. The podcast will remain listed in the January 2014 section of the podcast archive.
Posted by Elena del Valle on January 8, 2014
Adversaries into Allies
Photos: Bob Burg
Bob Burg believes that being successful in life and in business is the result of having technical and people skills. Ninety percent of the success comes from people skills and only ten percent from technical skills, according to him. He says that there are many highly talented people in the world who only achieve average results because they lack good people skills.
In Adversaries into Allies: Win People Over Without Manipulation or Coercion (Portfolio, $26.95), published in 2013, Burg explores the path to influence by converting adversaries into partners. It’s his opinion that persuasion need not be about winners and losers. He proposes an approach that results in mutual benefit rather than one that leaves the other person feeling taken advantage of which in turn might produce resistance and a negative attitude.
The 250-page hardcover book is divided into 76 chapters and six main sections: The Five Principles of Ultimate Influence, Control Your Own Emotions, Understand the Clash of Belief Systems, Acknowledge Their Ego, Set the Proper Frame, Communicate with Tact and Empathy, and The Character of Ultimate Influencers.
Bob Burg, author, Adversaries into Allies
He defines Ultimate Influence as the ability to get the results you want from others while making them feel genuinely good about themselves, the process, and about you. One of the ways to do that, he says, is for people to control their own emotions. Such control allows them to help their adversaries be open to the ideas they propose. He stresses that to avoid confusion it’s important to understand that we all follow an unconscious set of beliefs based on experiences and ideas which vary from one person to another.
Helping people feel good about themselves helps the influencer make an ally, according to Burg. Approaching a conflict from a position of benevolence, resolution, and helpfulness increases the likelihood that an adversary will follow the influercer’s lead; and communicating with tact and empathy at the right time can go a long way to win someone over, he says.
Burg is coauthor of The Go-Giver, Go Givers Sell More, and It’s Not About You, and the author of Endless Referrals. According to promotional materials, The Go-Giver was a BusinessWeek and The Wall Street Journal bestseller and has been translated into twenty languages. Together, his books have sold more than a million copies. A speaker, Burg presents to corporations and associations internationally, including Fortune 500 companies, franchises and direct sales organizations.
Click to buy Adversaries into Allies
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Filed Under: Books
Posted by Elena del Valle on January 1, 2014
Wishing you a New Year filled with health, joy and prosperity.
Posted by Elena del Valle on December 20, 2013
Wealthy by Design
Photo: Kimberly Foss
Kimberly Foss, CFP, CPWA, rose from a home with “financially challenged parents” to become the president and founder of Empyrion Wealth Management, which according to promotional materials, was named one of the nation’s top wealth managers by Bloomberg’s Wealth Manager Magazine. In Wealthy by Design (Greenleaf Book Group Press ebook), published June 2013, she shares some of her life story and wealth management ideas. She assumes readers will rely on a financial planner who will work with them based on their goals, risk taking preferences, equity and age.
She explains that there are two primary types of financial advising services, consultative and transactional. The former focus on client goals and needs and charge based on the number of assets they manage for a given client while the latter recommend products for which they earn commissions. In Appendix A, she provides readers questions to ask a prospective adviser. In Appendix B, she offers six allocation strategies for portfolios. In the ebook edition, it was challenging to read the graphics as displayed on the tablet reader.
In her book, she outlines the importance of understanding personal financial drivers before making long term investment decisions. She strives to demonstrate to readers how following five foundational principles of investing can lead to wealth management based on individual goals and circumstances. The principals are: Goal Setting, Planning, Commitment, Assessment, and Flexibility. The book is divided into an Introduction, a chapter each for the principles, and a Conclusion as well as two appendices. She relies on case studies and anecdotes to illustrate her points. For example, she describes a risk averse client for whom she organized, thanks to her banking relationships, a 15-year CD.
Kimberly Foss, author, Wealthy by Design
She touts the importance of focusing on the best interests of clients, the relationship between asset allocation strategy and the success of a portfolio, and portfolio diversification. An investor’s approach to building wealth, she says in the Conclusion, should be considered with care, planned, reviewed and never random.
Foss has 26 years of financial services experience. She is a member of the Investment Management Consultants Association.
Click to buy Wealthy by Design
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Posted by Elena del Valle on December 2, 2013
The Indio billboard by Arturo – click to enlarge
Photos: Heineken USA
Heineken owned beer brand Indio marketers created a billboard campaign to reach target consumers, bicultural Hispanic millennials 21 years of age and older “who consider themselves to be original individuals and place an importance on expressing themselves through everything they do, whether it’s art or music.” They invited artists in several states to submit art around an Indio bottle theme to compete. At the conclusion, a few winners had their artwork displayed on billboards as part of the campaign.
The Indio bottle
The Indio billboard by Saul
Company representatives promoted the Indio Gallery campaign across digital media, with heavy emphasis on Facebook. The brand’s Facebook page (Facebook.com/IndioBeer) was the primary gate for consumers to submit their Indio themed artwork. Each entry from among the hundreds of submissions was judged on creativity, originality, composition and inclusion of Indio brand imagery such as the Indio logo or colors.
The Indio billboard by Benjy
The Indio billboard by Ignacio
Nine artists were invited to participate in the campaign. Inspire, Indio’s Dallas advertisement agency, developed 47 billboard ads with the artwork. MediaVest’s MV42, the brand’s media agency, placed them.
Each artist is credited for his work on the billboards, which feature their name and hometown, as well as the brand’s tagline, beer bottle and Facebook address.
The billboards were on display for four weeks in the Chicago, California, and Texas markets in October 2013. Grand Prize winner Arturo Rios received a $5,000 cash prize.
Gustavo Guerra, brand director, Tecate, Indio and Bohemia brands
“Public relations efforts generated coverage across media consumed by our target, while our panel of judges promoted the contest amongst their networks via social media and flyers,” said Gustavo Guerra, brand director, Tecate, Indio and Bohemia brands, by email, in response to questions about promotion and coverage. “We looked at the number of entries we received, as well as engagement on our Facebook page and paid media.”
Indio billboard by Nasim
Indio billboard by Ricardo
The judges, who were compensated for their time, were Gil Cerezo (the lead singer of Mexican band Kinky), Diana Garcia (a Mexican illustrator and actress), Federico Archuleta (an Austin street artist), Juan Angel Chavez (a Chicago artist), the president of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, and the Indio brand team. The Indio Gallery contest was open to residents of California, Texas and Illinois, the states in which the company launched Indio in 2012. Indio is also distributed in Phoenix and Las Vegas. The resulting billboards were placed across key cities in those markets in October 2013.
Indio is imported from Mexico. A company representative declined to disclose the number of bottles sold in the United States per year or the percent of the Hispanic market segment among fans of the beer brand. Launched in 1893 under its flagship brand, Cuauhtémoc beer, the label featured an Aztec emperor. Consumers nicknamed it the “beer of the Indian.” This led to the current name, which is Spanish for Indian, in 1905.
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 21, 2013
Symphony of the Soil movie poster – click to enlarge
Video, photos: Lily Films
It took filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia four years and much work to complete Symphony of the Soil, a 104-minute documentary film about the complexity and mystery of soil. Filmed on four continents and featuring the insights of dozens of experts including some of the world’s most esteemed soil scientists, farmers and activists, the insightful film portrays soil as an essential element for our survival. Scroll down to the watch film trailer.
Relying on striking cinematography by John Chater, and Nancy Schiesari in the United Kingdom, combined with art and animation the director illustrates the pivotal role of soil in our world. Experts on screen expound the importance of good soil in solving some of the planet’s most vexing environmental and healthy food supply problems.
The first third of the documentary focuses on soil science. How soil is formed and its life cycle as well as the physical components of soil, the soil orders, the microorganisms that cycle nutrients, soil and plants, and the interrelationship of the many members of the soil community, including humans.
The second third of the film focuses on the relationship between people and soil, especially human’s use of soil for agriculture. The third section explores soil and climate change, water use, health and other topics that support the case for treating soil with care such as the return to small scale organic farming as a viable solution to the problems of resource depletion, climate change and the end of oil; and to the importance of seeds and seed saving in India.
Sekem calendula field
Symphony of the Soil is the second major production of Lily Films. In it the film producers strive to raise consciousness about how people think and treat soil, seeking that they realize that destructive land use practices degrade and poison the soil and that society should take responsibility for protecting and improving soil for the generations to come.
It was filmed on four continents, in six countries, the United States, England, Wales, India, Egypt, and Norway. Some of the locations include, in the United States, Oregon, Washington, California, New York, West Virginia, Kansas, Iowa, Vermont, Hawaii; in the United Kingdom, Devon, Hastings, Bristol, Wales, and Ceredigion; in India, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan; in Egypt, Cairo and Aswan; and in Norway, Tromso.
The film was Winner of the Life Sciences Film Festival, Prague 2012, Merit Award for Scientific Information from the Montana CINE International Film Festival, September 2012, and Winner of the 2013 Cinema Verde Film Festival’s Food Award. Koons Garcia received the John de Graaf Environmental Filmmaking Award for her body of films on agriculture, genetically modified food and sustainability at the Wild and Scenic Film Festival, January 2013.
Koons Garcia, a bay area filmmaker, has made fiction, educational and documentary films. For the last ten years, she has focused on films about agriculture, the food system and environmental issues. Lily Films, her film production company based in Mill Valley, California, funded the lion’s share of the production costs for the documentary.
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 18, 2013
U.S motorization study by Michael Sivak
In 2011, based on the most recent data available, the average driver in the United States consumed 585 gallons of fuel or 1,033 gallons per household. Recent studies indicate that Americans, in general, own fewer light-duty vehicles, drive each of them less, and consume less fuel than in past years.
According to the results of a study (one of three on the subject conducted) released this month, researchers believe fuel consumption rates per person, per licensed driver, per household, and per registered vehicle and distance-driven rates peaked in 2003 or 2004, before the ongoing economic downturn.
By 2011, they had decreased by 13 percent to 17 percent. The researchers believe the long term peak was reached around 2003 or 2004.
They concluded Americans drive fewer light-duty vehicles, defined as cars, pickup trucks, SUVs, and vans; they drive each of them less, and consume less fuel. They also estimate that current fuel consumption rates are lower than they were in 1984 when they began to track the information.
The 17-page report, titled Has Motorization in the U.S. Peaked? Part 3: Fuel consumed by light-duty vehicles was authored by Michael Sivak, director, Sustainable Worldwide Transportation, University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. Earlier this year, he published two reports in which he looked at recent trends in the numbers of registered light-duty vehicles in the United States and the corresponding distances driven.
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 15, 2013
QR Codes Kill Kittens
Photos: Wiley
A quick response code or QR code for short is a type of bar code that requires a smart phone and an app to read it. According to Wikipedia, it is a kind of two-dimensional barcode that can be read optically by a machine. It is used to read information. If the app is able to read the QR code it was made correctly. Once the app reads the code it should lead the user to a mobile device friendly link or website.
QR codes have become common marketing tools, appearing on products, billboards, bus stops and so forth. The problem, according to Scott Stratten, president of UnMarketing, is that most QR codes don’t work. He believes it is because many people are too focused on using codes without paying enough attention to functionality. He proposes that if it mattered people would make sure they worked when they launch them.
Scott Stratten, author, QR Codes Kill Kittens
“If you knew that your terrible business decisions could cost a kitten its life, would you still do it? Of course not. No one wants to hurt a kitten, and no one wants to damage their own business through easily avoidable mistakes. The trick is, knowing which things are the wrong things to do,” Stratten said.
To make his point he wrote QR Codes Kill Kittens: How to Alienate Customers, Dishearten Employees, and Drive Your Business into the Ground (Wiley, $18), a 196-page hardcover small book focused on what goes wrong when QR codes don’t work.
The four color book is easy to read and often humorous. It includes photos on almost every page. It is divided into four sections designed to showcase why QR codes represent what’s wrong with business today including; They Don’t Work, Nobody Likes Them, They are Selfish and They Take Up Valuable Time Better Spent Elsewhere. Stratten, ranked among the top online influencers by Forbes.com, is also author of Unmarketing.
Click to buy QR Codes Kill Kittens
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Posted by Elena del Valle on November 8, 2013
Lost Luggage
Photos: Atria Books / Marble Arch Press
Jordi Punti, a writer and translator, and a contributor to the Spanish and Catalan press, was rewarded with recognition when he released his first novel. Lost Luggage (Atria Books / Marble Arch Press, $16), published in English in paperback and e-book editions in October 2013, was translated into 15 languages, and won the Spanish National Critics’ and the Catalan Booksellers prizes. Prior to this title Punti published three books of shorts stories.
In the 440-page book, Cristofol, a young Barcelona resident, is informed by the police that his father’s flat has been abandoned and its owner is missing. The man who vanished, a truck driver, left Cristofol and his mother 20 years earlier. At the apartment he had never heard about Cristofol finds a list of names belonging to his half brothers Christof, Christophe, and Christopher. He contacts them. None of them was aware that he had half siblings from a common father. None of them had seen his father in many years.
Jordi Punti, author, Lost Luggage
Although they live in different European cities they decide to meet for the first time. They wonder why he abandoned them and why they have similar names. In their journey to find the answers they discover a man who during 30 years of driving was able to escape the darkness of Spain under its former president Francisco Franco and to explore Europe.
Since he received a degree in Romance Philology in 1991, Punti has worked in Barcelona publishing houses, and co-directed La Flor Inversa (The Inverse Flower), a collection of medieval poetry along with Jordi Cerdà and Eduard Vilella, according to lletra.net.
Click to buy Lost Luggage
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