A continuation of the How To Be Taken Seriously Posts – This one focuses on doing simple things others seem to ignore. Once upon a time, I helped Tony Bennett with some public relations work for a non-profit he was involved in. The one thing I remember more than anything else from my time with him was that he stood up when a woman got up from, or returned to the table. No matter what else happened, he was old school like that, and old school was remembered. My longest relationship wasn’t even going to have a second date until I did two things – I asked about my date’s day, and I stood up when she went to to [...]

Apologies for the lack of blogging the past few weeks. Numerous things have contributed to it. Being near death with a sinus infection that turned into bronchitis that turned into a 103 fever that turned back into a sinus infection. Writing two Op-Eds for Mashable.. I mentioned the near death part, right? I’ll be in LA from tomorrow thru Wednesday for meetings, and will have tons of time to write and catch up. There’s a coffee gathering in LA on Monday if you’d like to join. Apologies for the delays, and thanks for sticking with me. -Peter

This is a post in the continuing series of How to be Taken Seriously. In this post, we’re going to discuss how the littlest things can tell people so much about you, before you’re even aware they are. Nathan Muir: You just gave her four pieces of personal information for one dubious impersonal fact. 1) You’re straight, 2) You’re engaged, 3) Tomorrow’s your girls birthday, and 4) You have terrible taste in women’s clothing. Tom Bishop: Just trying to find out where she got that dress. Nathan Muir: What if she were an asset? You told her four lies that now have to be true. Spy Game, (Robert Redford, Brad Pitt) 2001 This afternoon finds me on an Amtrak train, [...]

As many people do, I’ve used humor to cope with difficult situations all my life. After speaking to several of my friends in Tokyo this morning, one of them made a joke about how we should all realize that Godzilla does exist. I thought it was funny coming from someone in Tokyo, and I tweeted it out. The tweet was met with mixed response, some agreeing that humor does help in situations like this, and some calling it bad form. Was it bad form? Depends on how you look at it. I don’t believe so. Humor is a wonderful tool, and can be used to help people who otherwise might feel that they have no hope. There are countless examples [...]

This week, my Facebook Fan Page broke the 50,000 fan mark. I’m so amazingly humbled and in awe that I could actually post things on a regular basis that my audience actually wants. It blows my mind on a regular basis. Below are the rules I try to follow when interacting with my audience. They’ve obviously worked, since my fan numbers continue to grow. Hopefully they’ll help you, as well. 1) Much like wearing spandex, having an audience is a privilege, not a right. You have a page, followers, and an actual audience because they CHOOSE to be there. You have absolutely no right to them, and they can CHOOSE to leave anytime they want. Want to keep them? Cater [...]