Chris Carosa %

The Secret of How to Overcome a Sore Throat When Speaking on Solar Neutrinos (or Anything Else)

By Chris Carosa on November 16, 2009

Sometimes physics advances too fast. Haste often creates problems. For example, when physicists developed the idea of the neutrino – a theoretically massless waste product from the thermonuclear furnaces powering stars – they calmly set up several underground experiments to detect these little critters as the sun spit them out. Trouble was, scientists couldn’t see enough of them to satisfy their hypothesis. “The data didn’t fit the theory,” claimed the academic elite, “so there must be something wrong with the data.” For forty years, our leading brains winced at the dilemma of the under counted neutrinos – an apparently unsolvable problem.

Your throat's getting worse. You've got to speak in two hours. How can you do it?

Your throat's getting worse. You've got to speak to the Rotary in just two hours. How can you do it?

But, I’m sure not many of you have visited here to learn how to solve the unsolvable problem of missing solar neutrinos. Here’s a more practical quandary: You’re scheduled to speak in a few hours and you’ve just come down with a cold. Your manager says you can take some over-the-counter thingamajig to solve the runny nose and fever, but that sore throat has you on the edge of laryngitis. What’s a great speaker to do?

Continue Reading “The Secret of How to Overcome a Sore Throat When Speaking on Solar Neutrinos (or Anything Else)”

Posted in Great Speaking Tips Tagged catechism, cold, cough, disk jockey, fever, flu, laryngitis, Mass, neutrino, panic button, personality, Physics, professional, radio, runny nose, science, scientist, show, sneeze, sore throat, Speaker, Speaking, Speech, sun, the voice, thermonuclear, unsolvable, voice, WYBC, Yale

Day 1 – November 14, 2009 (Sat): Sign Up and Settle In

By Chris Carosa on November 14, 2009

Start of Day Twitter Stats: Follow: 0 Followers: 0 Listed: 0

What’s this all about?

Here’s what I did. I actually tried to start a new Twitter using my name. “ChristopherCarosa” had too many characters, so I had to go with “ChrisCarosa” as my username. Having read Joel Comm’s book Twitter Power, I carefully filled out all my profile information.

Name: Chris Carosa

For my name, I kept “Chris Carosa” just to avoid confusing people. As far as I tell in my internet search, Of all the three-hundred thousand Americans, only three of them can be called “Chris Carosa.” I met the other two – when I was a kid. One is another “Christopher” and the other is a “Christine.” They don’t appear to reside on Twitter.

Location: Mendon, New York

Now the location caused me to think a bit. Most web surfers will have never heard of my town. Still, I am proud of my municipality, having once (hopefully ably) served on its Town Board, so I thought I’d identify it. Furthermore, I figured, since I had the room anyway, I’d spell out the full name of the state. I never served in any elective office for New York State (which probably explains why I still have friends), but I nonetheless have an affinity for the Empire State.

Web: https://chriscarosa.com

It turns out this Twitter username limit helped me avoid a major mistake. My web-site (which I added to Twitter) is “ChrisCarosa.com” and if I had used my full name, my Twitter User Name would not have matched my web-site name. Bewilderment averted.

Bio: Author, speaker, entrepreneur who likes connecting with family, friends and the future and loves Western New York.

My one-line bio proved a bit of a challenge. I’m used to a standard elevator pitch for my business, but this Twitter account isn’t about my business. In fact, being in a highly regulated industry, I’m bending over backward to separate my business activities from my social media activities. So I used a variation on a theme (specifically, Joel Comm’s theme of three). It started as a three and three – what I am and who I want to connect to. I added the “and loves Western New York” when I realized searchers might not know Mendon exists in that region of the state.

Lastly, I added the account to TweetDeck and CoTweet (but not SocialOomph, which I’m determining whether I should continue using.

How many followers do you think I’ll have after 30 days? Click here to enter your guess on my Survey Monkey survey “Chris Carosa’s 30-Day Plan to Dominate Twitter Experiment.” There’s no prize, but the fan who guesses the closest correct number the earliest will “win” and I’ll mention you if you want me to.

Find out today’s results on Day 2 – November 15, 2009 (Sun): Create Your Background Image

Posted in 30-Days to Dominate Twitter Experiment Tagged Buffalo, CoTweet, Empire State, Mendon, New York, social media, Town Board, TweetDeck, Twitter, Twitter Power, Western New York

Great Idea. Great Design. But Will It Fly?

By Chris Carosa on November 13, 2009

I’ve got this great idea. Joel Comm outlines a 30-day plan for “dominating Twitter” in his book Twitter Power (here’s the book review). Wouldn’t it offer a great experiment to actually follow his plan for thirty days, blog it live and see what happens. Well, that’s precisely what I intend to share with you.

Does Joel Comm’s 30-day plan really work? Or, was it merely a hook his publisher wanted him to use to bait readers into buying the book? All those with the slightest bit of scientific curiosity will want to know.

My prediction: I’m a skeptic. If I get 100 followers I’ll be happy but not impressed. If I get 1,000 followers I’ll be impressed but not sold. If I get 10,000 followers, not only will I be sold, but I’m sure Joel Comm will sell a heck of a lot more books (and much, much more).

Here’s Day 1 – November 14, 2009 (Sat): Sign Up and Settle In

Posted in 30-Days to Dominate Twitter Experiment, It's a Nerd's World Tagged Joel Comm, Putting It All Together: A 30-Day Plan for Dominating Twitter, social media, Twitter, Twitter Power, Web 2.0

Get It While It’s Hot! – A Review of Joel Comm’s twitter power

By Chris Carosa on November 13, 2009

There’s nothing like piping hot pizza right out of the oven. The juicy smell of the tangy tomato sauce makes your mouth melt, while the tasty texture of the toppings delightfully dissolve as they pass through your smacking lips. Yep. There’s nothing like a piping hot pizza right out of the oven.

So it is with twitter power, Joel Comm’s aptly named best-selling guide to all things Twitter. It’s hot. It’s less than a year old. And it’s fast going out of date. Still, it delivers beyond what it promises and you simply must read it if you’re about to embark on a journey through Twitterville. How do I know this?

Continue Reading “Get It While It’s Hot! – A Review of Joel Comm’s twitter power”

Posted in Book Reviews Tagged adobe, astronomy, astronomytop100, burge, creative suite, Getting Started the Right Way on Twitter, International Year of Astronomy, IYA, IYA 2009, IYA2009, Joel Comm, ken burge, pizza, Putting It All Together: A 30-Day Plan for Dominating Twitter, social media, Twitter, Twitter Power, United Nations, Web 2.0

Back to the Future

By Chris Carosa on November 12, 2009

So I says to Mark I says, “Mark, I’ll go but I don’t want to pull in before you. You see, at the risk to confirming stereotypes, I’m a bit of a wallflower when it comes to these things. I could regale an auditorium filled with strangers, but put me in a small reception where I must talk to people face-to-face and I sort of stay to myself, speaking not, unless first spoken to.”

“When it comes to groups,” I fully confessed, “I have a tough time feeling I really belong.”

Mark reassured me I could arrive after 6:30pm and find him already on hand.

Such was the set-up for attending my first meeting of the Rochester Social Media Club at Label 7 in Pittsford, NY. Funny thing. I discovered something there. Something really surprising.

Continue Reading “Back to the Future”

Posted in It's a Nerd's World Tagged 1984 superbowl, Apple, Apple ad, Apple advertisement, Best of the Web, Club, computerAccess, Cornell, facebook, FreeNet, German House, Ivy League, Label 7, PC-Cubed, Pittsford, Rochester, Rochester Business Journal, Rochester Social Media, Rochester Social Media Club, Schoen Place, social media, Western New York

It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again

By Chris Carosa on November 11, 2009

A lot of people had Veteran’s Day off. Not me. Not only did our office remain open (we’re open whenever the market’s open), but my day overflowed with meetings and conferences. I spent the bulk of the day at the Rochester Memorial Art Gallery participating in the Social Media Today conference with easily a couple hundred other folks interested in the latest happenings in the Web 2.0 world. Graciously organized by Ana Roca Castro, who did a wonderful job despite forgetting to include bathroom breaks in the agenda, the event exceeded her expectations and deservedly so.

Oddly, it didn’t take long for an eerie feeling of “haven’t I been here before?” to course through my ancient synapses. No, the presentations didn’t tell me things I already knew (quite the contrary). Hmm, how can I describe it? More like teetering on the eager cusp of undiscovered opportunity. (The last time I felt this way occurred nearly 25 years ago in the German House, but that’s a story for another day.)

Continue Reading “It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again”

Posted in It's a Nerd's World Tagged Ana Roca Castro, Brogan, Chris Brogan, deja vu, German House, Memorial Art Gallery, Powerpoint, Rochester, social media, Social Media Today, stand-up philosopher, standup philosopher, Web 2.0

A Spoonful of MSG – A Review of Seth Godin’s Tribes

By Chris Carosa on November 8, 2009

Somewhere in the middle of Tribes, Seth Godin writes of the blog msg150.com (under the heading “Three Hungry Men and a Tribe,” pages 62-63 in my 2008 Portfolio (Penguin Group) 10th edition). As the author puts it, “This blog is obsessively chronicling every restaurant in a sixteen-block square of Seattle.” Leaving aside the unnecessary use of the passive, let’s focus on the meat of this particular reference. It turns out, most of the restaurants covered by msg150.com carry Asian cuisine. And you know what they say: Chinese food fills you up quickly, but, a half hour later, you’re hungry again.”

I can think of no better epitaph for the book Tribes, the eleventh book by the bestselling author of Purple Cow and The Dip.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not here to disparage the book. Far from it. I consider Tribes a must read for reasons I hope to make clear. More to the point, I’m not going to begrudge someone born five days before me, possibly even in the same hospital. Quite simply, I’m merely going to follow his instructions (“Fear of Failure is Overrated,” pp 46-48) and offer some constructive criticism.

First, if you’re new to the whole Web 2.0 and social media thing, Tribes represents perhaps the easiest entrée into the embracing concept behind this innovative world. It’s easy to read. I finished it in just a few hours despite the many interruptions and distractions of a relatively free Saturday (let’s see, that would include one Boy Scout Training class, Saturday Mass and my daughter’s high school drama production). The book contains very little jargon – or at least very little of the kind of jargon that might scare neophytes away.

Continue Reading “A Spoonful of MSG – A Review of Seth Godin’s Tribes”

Posted in Book Reviews Tagged asian cuisine, buggy whip, chaos, chinese food, Chris Anderson, David Chang, David Meerman Scott, Face Book, facebook, Flickr, global market, global markets, hula hoop, Joel Comm, Long Tail, msg, msg150.com, Nathan Winograd, purple cow, Richard Avazino, seattle, seth godin, social media, status quo, the dip, The Long Tail, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, tribes, Twitter, Twitter Power, Web 2.0

3 Critical Points Every Great Speaker Must Address

By Chris Carosa on November 6, 2009

Every speaker wants to know the answer to this question: How do I make my presentation more effective, more memorable and more exciting for the audience. Aristotle said it best in his book The Art of Rhetoric (ca 350BC):

Podium

Pathos – A passion for the subject.

Logos – A thorough knowledge of the subject.

Ethos – The acknowledged credibility to comment on the subject (requires Pathos and Logos).

Every aspect of speaking must address at least one (if not all three) of these areas. I hope to tell stories of how I used these in the many successful presentations I have offered to appreciative audiences.

Posted in Great Speaking Tips Tagged Aristotle, Art of Rhetoric, believable, credibility, credible, emotion, Ethos, knowledge, logic, Logos, passion, Pathos, reason, rhetoric, Speaker, Speaking, Speech, The Art of Rhetoric

Chris Carosa

The Secret of How to Overcome a Sore Throat When Speaking on Solar Neutrinos (or Anything Else)

3 Critical Points Every Great Speaker Must Address

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