About

The Williger Center for Exceptional Leadership is shaped to a large extent by the values, beliefs, research and experiences of our team. We partner with companies and individuals who share similar values and can contribute exceptionally high levels of expertise in their specialty areas.

This site also exists to help connect Williger’s and Potter’s from around the world!  Here is our Family Tree on Geni.com Through the awesome power of web 2.0 social networking, we can all connect and learn about each other.  I setup a Facebook group and we already have a few Williger’s and Potter’s.  Please check us out.

This particular US branch of Williger’s and Potter’s seem to descend from Kisvarda, a town in Northeast Hungary.  See this from http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/4049/kisvarda.html:

Kisvarda (yiddish – Kleinwardein) is a town in N.E. Hungary.  The Jewish community was organized in 1796: at first it was subordinate to the community of Nagykallo, but became independent in 1843 when Isaiah Banet was appointed to the rabbinate.  In the main, the members of the community were leaseholders, petty tradesman and peddlers.  The synagogue was erected in 1801.  The Jewish population rose from 118 in 1784 to 500 in 1840, and to, 1,483 in 1860.  The first rabbi of Kisvarda was Moses Mikhaelowitz (1818-24), who was succeeded by Moses b. Amram Grunwald.  Also among the rabbis of Kisvarda was Moses Hayyim Segal (1896-1942). Kisvarda had many hadarim and a yeshiva.  From 1932 the Zionist movement had an active following.  Dov Gruner, a member of the Irgun Zev’ai Le’ummi executed by the Mandatory government in Palestine, was born in Kisvarda.  The Jewish population numbered 3,454 in 1920, 3,658 in 1930 and 3,770 in 1941.  In the revolution of 1918 the Jewish inhabitants were persecuted.  From then on anti-Semitism increased: ana armed mob attacked the Jews in 1938.  In 1940 the Jews were enlisted into forced labor gangs and in 1942 they were deported to the front.  After the German occupation (Spring 1944), a ghetto was set up and 7,000 Jews from the town and the neighboring villages were concentrated there.  On Shavuot the Jews were deported to the gas chambers of Auschwitz.  After World War II, the community was reorganized.  The Jewish population dwindled from 804 in 1946 to 650 in 1948 and 355 in 1953.

Thanks everybody for stopping by! Whether you’re a Williger looking to connect or perhaps an internet marketer or friend from Twitter looking to connect more – WELCOME! If you’re looking for my personal site, click here and for Regillo, here. THANKS!

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How Social Media 201 in Seattle Washington Came to Be!

I just had a great call with my friend Mike Whitmore of Fresh Consulting. We were talking about how awesome Social Media 201 next month will be and wanted to share how the idea came from the Super Masterminds of Masterminds Groups.

DARREN WILLIGER:         Hi this is Darren Williger.

MIKE WHITMORE:            And this is Mike Whitmore.  We’re excited to be here this morning.

This is an awesome morning. I was just talking with Mike about Social Media 201, a fantastic event that is coming up on April 15th in Seattle Washington. But what we have not yet unveiled to the world Mike is how this event started.         

Yes. I would love to talk about that if I may for just a few moments. Darren, you invited me, we met on Twitter, about a year ago, I think. We had a phone conversation, and you invited me to join the Masterminds Groups, I had never been a part of any of those before. I remember one of the first couple of calls we had, we said, “How can we take this great energy, this great expertise that we are hearing from all these different participants on the call and monetize it with this information be useful for others to hear and participate in?”

We kind of went around this idea, and afresh we were working with a studio. A filming studio down the street from us, about two blocks from our offices. I thought, what if we took and captured the “How To’s” and the “Great Knowledge”, that you guys are sharing about pay-per-click (PPC), or how you got over a 100,000 followers on one Twitter account and you got over a million dollars your self.

How could we capture that and tell that story on video? I believe the group found that idea very compelling by itself. Darren would you agree?

It was the whole concept of us getting together and making some educational videos, even. I think, we said, “Hey we could do this; it would be a little more fun than the existing. . . .” Okay, I’m going to call it out, we said, “We were going to beat the Video Professor (laughs) by making more exciting videos.”

That was the whole plan, everybody. We were going to get together, Mike            is the president of Fresh Consulting, an almost like, sister company to Regillo in philosophy, because their beliefs, their understanding and the way that they drive social media into companies is the same as ours. That is why we get excited every time we speak. We wanted to take this energy, we want to take search engine optimization, PPC, social media, building followers and flowerings and make educational videos. Mike set up a studio for us for four days for us, for Rudy Schlesinger, for Billy Baty, for the Fresh team. Then it snowballed, the whole Microsoft thing and Comcast and. . . .

Yes. One of my connections Joe Kennedy, here in Seattle, he put on this social media “One on One” conference which was very good, back in September last year.  I thought, we are bringing these guys who been the web and social media a lot longer than I have. And I thought what if we proposed this idea through Joe, to Microsoft? Just to see, you know if Microsoft would be interested in sponsoring an event on their campus? They were interested immediately, and it has just snowballed from there. So we have Microsoft local engagement team, which is responsible for small to medium business in this area. Just in Seattle, they have over 650 partners and so they are working that network. Comcast Business Services, they were both on the same call as we are and ecstatic and wanting to sponsor this thing. 

Now it’s grown into this conference event, we are still doing the video the day before, and now we are doing the conference event. To share that knowledge with anybody who wants to come. Small and medium businesses are targeted, we are getting larger business and people are flying in from out of state to come. The whole idea, okay 201, I’ve got a presence in Face Book maybe and Twitter, maybe some other social media places and channels.

How do I take that and get a return on investment (ROI) out of it? Now we as Fresh, we don’t do the social media monitoring like Darren, you do with Regillo with your technologies, but we have reached out to some of those providers. Like Radiant Six and Invisible Technologies and others, to say, “Hey we are doing this, do you want to participate?” And I think this has been a tremendous impact for the small business owner. Darren what do you see in your experience?

Mike, you know, we both came from large business, I know the mantra that we had to follow for many years was, “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.” Right?

Now that’s the same thing, as we start to take and scale these technologies that are being used by the Comcast, Dell and Pepsi of the world and give them to the small business owner. Their finding several things, they are finding that. . . Well, I’ll give my Rigillo a little pitch here, social media let’s you; Humanize, Engage, Listen, Promote and Sale.

The part you are asking about right now is that Listen part, and just putting those big Mickey Mouse ears on the Internet for people to be able to listen to their brand, their competitors, their customers and their concerns. Perhaps even new market ideas coming form micro-blocks, from the forums, from different communication levels.

This has been enlightening to many companies. They said, “wait a second, why am I being discussed on Twitter but I’m not talked about here on this? Or why is this guy evangelizing about my product here and this person has a lot of followers, but are they an influence for this industry? Breaking down this data, for even the small business, has given them powers to sale more effective. One of our clients, Illinois State Insurance, has already noticed in the media within the first month of the year, noticed an immediate spike that they were able to attribute directly to what we did for them in social.

That’s exciting, that’s what small business needs, Mike, this was not expensive for them to do it was actually a small fraction of what they were spending each month on marketing. Yes. But yet the ROI is there.

Yes, it is a shotgun blast that can actually focus in on conversations, and have meaningful conversations. One of our customers saw from their normal medial blast, a shotgun blast, about a 1 to 2% return rate from those types of engagements.

But in the social medial world, this is with Open Text, they are seeing a 30% return, because not only can they engage, but they can measure it from the beginning through the buying cycle all the way with the customers, and even measure customer sentiment. There is so much going on here, we really want to help these small and medium business, and the large ones too. Engage and understand their customers in ways we’ve never seen before. That’s what social can do among many other things.

You got me excited when you said sentiment, and you know that sentiment is something that Radiant Six is leading the whole measurement based with. The chance for a company to really understand what’s happening out there with the media base. You mentioned that 1 to 2% and in marketing, for the past couple of decades, it was always a good thing if you got 2% on a direct mail piece. All this money into mail and all these trees cut down and everything and maybe get 2%. You can’t really measure if they don’t mention the code that was on the flyer.

How we count bitly links that it’s undisputable, there is no way to say that you dent come here and you know exactly at what time at what date. I think a perfect example is the press release that you put up for Social Media 201. Within two hours. Share the metrics that was phenomenal.

We are a small business, Fresh Consulting, and I have never tried one of these before, we wrote a press release, and we put it on PRWebb.com and I think it was, Darren, like $200.00 paid to post this thing. Then of course, about two weeks we had over a 100,000 reads of that press release. It has been posted on AOL Money, it got picked up by USA Today, and it got picked up by AOL Times and a bunch of our local news media. This thing is on fire and the metrics are there. I can go inside of PRWebb.com, look at specific press release that we have created, and get all the metrics. How many reads, how many times it was forwarded, I can get all that data. Where as before we were blind to all that information, and now its here and for how much? Tow hundred bucks. It was amazing.

This is stuff we are going to share more about, even just basic tools available for free for your company to be able to measure stuff like that and Listen. It’s phenomenal, we are going to be sharing more in the next coming days and how to do a lot of this, but the big stuff that you are going to learn is going to be on April 15th. Don’t miss out on this opportunity people, this is phenomenal. If you’re out of town, there are airplanes, busses and cars that can get you there.  

(Laughter) Absolutely and by the way we just included yesterday, Darren, a Tweet-up same day of the event, it’s going to be awesome. You got to come to this, it’s by “The Seattle Wine Gal”, and she is the maven of Tweet-ups in this town, no doubt.

Yes, I’ve seen her blogs and this is kind of like the icing on the cake for everybody who is coming to the event. Hey guys you have to buy tickets to the event and that are you ticket to the Tweet-up, it’s a special two for one deal.

Yes, it is. Thanks so much Darren, this is great talking with you man.

Likewise Mike, thank you so much and talk to you later.

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Social Media 201 Ethical Greatness

Talking about how we can use new media in a way that helps us to promote our offerings w/o needing to bash others. Let your true light shine through and earn that business!

Social networking involves the grouping of individuals into niche groups for communication online. Social networking may involve grouping communities together, or likeminded individuals, individuals from a certain region, or people with a shared interest. The internet is virtually filled with millions of individuals that are actively looking to meet other users of the internet and to develop business relationships and friendships with these people.

When it comes to online social networking, there are numerous different websites to choose from that can be broken into a few different categories. There are large scale general social networking websites like Myspace and Facebook, there are smaller scale general social networking websites like Orkut and Adult Friend Finder, and there are niche social networking websites, like Library Thing and Ravelry, which cater to specific interests or needs rather than meeting a general need.

Social networking websites are designed to function like a giant online community of people from all over the world on the internet. Social networking is all about socializing with users who have shared interests or characteristics in common. The best way to find these individuals through social networking is to create a profile that is honest and talks about who you are and what you enjoy in life. When other users on the social networking site see your profile, they will contact you if they have something in common with you, and you can begin to socialize.

The friends that you can make and socialize with on social networking sites are only one of the numerous benefits that you can enjoy on such websites. Another one of the excellent benefits that you can take advantage of is diversity, because they allow you to meet people from all over the world. Right now, people are accessing social networking sites from all over the globe, meaning that as a citizen of the United States, you can strike up friendships and even business partnerships with people from countries all over the globe.

Many online communities and social network sites facilitate friendships based on common characteristics and interests, such as same religion, same political views, same business interest or same hobbies. Not only will you be allowed to make more friends, but you can use social networking as a means to learn more about new cultures, new languages, new hobbies, new market places and so much more using these unique communities.

Social networking is an excellent way to meet new people for a variety of purposes. Whether you are looking to make new friends, to learn more about a hobby or a culture, or to build business relationships and reach out to new clients, there is a lot that social has to offer. Take advantage of this community by connecting on a social networking website and see what it has to offer you as you create a profile and begin meeting likeminded people from all over the world.

Ethical social media networking is one of the fastest growing marketing and social tools available to the whole world. Taking the higher ground of sharing what we do and how we provide value is a way to sell effectively in the new economy. To express true business value with social media is a method we’ve been embracing for years and now are able to leverage in ways unlike ever before!

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Social Media Ethical Greatness – Part III & Social Media 201 Event Planning!

MIKE WHITMORE: Yes. What we said earlier on, I don’t know if we mentioned it here; it’s this disruptiveness of the ideas. Right? Yeah, we’re competitors in the sense that we were talking about common foundational principles that business want to hear about. That business as usual small, medium and to large enterprises and this is the interesting piece of our social media. What we see out there is “Fresh” in our business consulting; is this is disruptive and is changing the game. Even you and I and others are trying to get a handle on this thing and we’re making a difference as seeing bottom-line results. That’s what we are going to be sharing at the 201 Conference. What we are seeing and why, and what works, and best practices, which is still being developed.

DARREN WILLIGER: That’s the best part we talk about disruptive and I like this say when I keep saying move the disruptive to the enabling technologies. Because just like when Twitter came out a few years ago and business were reluctant to take first step, I bet that several decades back companies were not eager to jump on telephone or telegraph. These disruptive tools eventually allowed business to communicate, there’s not a single sales maker out there who’s not used to using a phone and now using emails to communicate with clients.

MIKE WHITMORE: Absolutely, yes. In my old job I’ve had to kind of learn this new media and how to utilize it well and effectively. May I also say, Daren, we’ve been working with clientele internally with weakees and other types of collaborative technologies. With our feedback they have given us, this is from enterprise size clients, that we literally saved them millions of dollars in productivity gains. It’s amazing.

DARREN WILLIGER: Yes. We are coming up on the end of our call and you bring up the weakees but that’s something we got to talk about. Because that’s something you’ve been using in Google’s groups, other collaborative tools that have made it possible to build that tapestry with your team. Like ever before I love the idea of our CRM, we put something out here and anyone who has an action item just takes it. It just happens.

MIKE WHITMORE: Yes. It’s amazing and by-the-way, the younger generation gets this. We can talk more about that on another call. But it’s amazing, it’s natural to them.

DARREN WHITMORE: It’s natural to them and us being, we are at this point where we’re creditable, because we have actually done business for twenty something years. . .

MIKE WHITMORE: Great.

DARREN WILLIGER: Exactly (laughter), I’m sure if I didn’t shave there would be some too. Mike I’m excited, man, I love what we’re working on and I really enjoy that we get to help others with this stuff too, and that’s the joy I experience everyday.

MIKE WHITMORE: You bet, me too Darren. Its great when the light comes on and people get it and they see the results from it, it’s a lot of fun.

DARREN WILLIGER: All right and right on. I’m going to rap our recording and thanks again Mike.

MIKE WHITHMORE: Thanks so much Darren. Shake hands, talk to you later.

DARREN WILLIGER: Remember. “We are the shizzle”.

(Laughter)

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Positive Quotations To Help You Dream Bigger, Enjoy Life More, And Find Greater Success!

Topic: Achieving More

You have to do what you love to do, not get stuck in that comfort zone of a regular job. Life is not a dress rehearsal. This is it.
–Lucinda Basset

To exceed beyond your wildest expectations you must begin with wild expectations.

–Anonymous

High expectations are the key to everything.
–Sam Walton

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fall immediately, they had better aim at something high.
–Henry David Thoreau

Topic: Perseverance

As you go along your road in life, you will, if you aim high enough, also meet resistance… but no matter how tough the opposition may seem, have courage still – and persevere.
–Madeleine Albright

When you have a great and difficult task, something perhaps almost impossible, if you only work a little at a time, every day a little, suddenly the work will finish itself.
–Isak Dinesen

Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.
–Christopher Morley

Plough deep while sluggards sleep, and you shall have corn to sell and to keep.
–Benjamin Franklin

Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done, and done right.
–Walt Disney

Victory belongs to the most persevering.
–Napoleon Bonaparte

If you don’t make a total commitment to whatever you’re doing, then you start looking to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking. It’s tough enough getting that boat to shore with everybody rowing, let alone when a guy stands up and starts putting his life jacket on.
–Lou Holz

Topic: Believe in yourself

To be a champ, you have to believe in yourself when nobody else will.
–Sugar Ray Robinson

The barrier between success is not something which exists in the real world: it is composed purely and simply of doubts about ability.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
–Norman Vincent Peale

One person with a belief is equal to a force of ninety-nine who have only interests.
–John Stuart Mill

Topic: Dreams

When you cease to dream you cease to live.
–Malcolm S. Forbes

The man who has no imagination has no wings.
–Muhammad Ali

To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
–Anatole France

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become. Your vision is the promise of what you shall at last unveil.
–John Ruskin

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.
–Edgar Allan Poe

Topic: Taking responsibility

I made the decision. I’m accountable.
–Janet Reno

Don’t find fault. Find a remedy.
-Henry Ford

The wise person questions himself, the fool others.
–Henri Arnold

Topic: Attitude

Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.
-Thomas Jefferson

The pessimist is half-licked before he starts.

–Thomas A. Buckner

Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out.
–Anonymous

It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect its successful outcome.
–William James

Topic: Action

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing.
–Theodore Roosevelt

A person of words and not deeds is like a garden full of weeds.
–Anonymous

What we learn we learn by doing.
–Aristotle

No farmer ever plowed a field by turning it over in his mind.
–George E. Woodbury

If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it!
–Jonathan Winters

Topic: Taking risks

Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?
–Frank Scully

The men who have done big things are those who were not afraid to attempt big things, who were not afraid to risk failure in order to gain success.
–B.C. Forbes

Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
–Anonymous

A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.
–John Shedd

Whenever you take a step forward, you are bound to disturb something.
–Indira Ghandi

Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.
–Carol Pearson

Topic: Vision

I never hit a shot, not even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head.
-Jack Nicklaus

If a man does not know what port he is steering for, no wind is favorable to him.
–Seneca

Look for opportunity. You can’t wait for it to knock on the door… You might not be home.
–Jinger Heath

One may have good eyes and yet see nothing.
–Italian Proverb

Topic: Wisdom

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.
–Sir Francis Bacon

Topic: Hard work

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
-Thomas Alva Edison

If your dream is a big dream, and if you want your life to work on the high level  that you say you do, there’s no way around doing the work it takes to get you there.
–Joyce Chapman

Topic: Failure/Mistakes

They fail, and they alone, who have not striven.
–Thomas Aldrich

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.
–Babe Ruth

There is nothing wrong with making mistakes. Just don’t respond with encores.
–Anonymous

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail Better.
–Samuel Beckett

To begin to think with purpose is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment.
–James Allen

I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.
–Thomas Edison

The most important of my discoveries has been suggested to me by my failures.
–Sir Humphrey Davy

It is not easy, but you have to be willing to make mistakes. And the earlier you make those mistakes, the better.
–Jane Cahill Pfeiffer

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Google’s Shaking Up Indoor Mapping!

Ever get lost in a large store like Ikea or at an airport? Well, these days are about to be history, thanks to Google Maps indoors. Their latest versions of this software changes how we navigate indoors using the existing power of our Android phones.

Since the dawn of time, humans have desired geographic maps, and the accuracy and usability has improved in time. Cartography (from the Greek words meaning map and write), or mapmaking has been going on for thousands and thousands of years. Ancient man would draw instructions on rocks and caves for themselves and others. Technological history has progressed over the centuries to produce accurate world mapping that extends from the original two dimensional drawings into multidimensional projections we already enjoy today.

Google maps has certainly changed the way we navigate, including their street views and more. They now bring us a new level of indoor navigation, the indoor Google map offerings!

The following example shows Google maps on the Android phone displaying details about the airport’s restaurants, layout, terminals and more. Perhaps you want to meet a friend or co-worker between gates or grab a book or a sandwich before your flight – with this new tool you’re able to navigate with cutting-edge navigational speed, saving time and frustration.

Take a look at this recent video about using Google Maps inside Ikea! I’m tempted to make a run to this famous (and location easy to get lost in as anyone who has ever entered an Ikea or Super Walmart knows all too well). Not anymore, if you’re equipped with this new app feature!

For us travelers, we’re all too familiar with the “you are here” which at times is daunting as you don’t see the direction of where “here” is or exactly how to get to “there” easily.

Here’s indoor Google maps example for navigating inside an airport:

I’ve heard that Google has been creating offline cached map versions too, for indoor places where mobile signal strength has room for improvement and when networks are offline.

I’m curious to see when/how retailers begin to incorporate this technology into interactive shopping games or social networks leveraging group buying power…

Local businesses who want to get a head start on this, can submit their floor plans to Google.

This is some cutting edge awesome technology that continues to evolve and change how and where we work, play and meet others. I’m excited to see these tools develop and grow and make our lives easier. Think of the original maps, dating back thousands and thousands of years ago that would share information about landscapes, political situations, animals, religious and architectural information. Granted, the original map makers probably didn’t think about the flip side of our ever step and choice logged by the mighty computational powers of Google, a somewhat worthwhile trade-off I think in consideration of the value we receive.

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Williger’s Wacky Conspiracy Theories That Just Might Some Day Prove True

Feeling compelled to create some digital smack talk for some reason …

OK – brainstorming…
OK something to make people think for a second…. OK OK OK OK… OK got it…

Folks – have you ever heard of the term Digital steganography? You’ve seen this in movies, where some secret place has uncovered or created a way to communicate secretly using art and science of hiding messages inside digital pictures, sounds or videos.

This is actually a very old and ever evolving area. For instance, records date back to 440BC according to Wikipedia, when Herodotus mentioning warnings of attacks on Greece which were sent using coated beeswax tablets from Demaratus. Seriously, I’ve not made this smack up, I found it in Wikipedia, but I’ll throw some spin that’ll make you think …

The incredible detail and sizes of files we currently are taking for granted and not even remotely interpreting the costs and capabilities of making any of all this happen, like my amazingly high definition live broadcasting video camera that some might people call a phone, that also doubles as a recording device, nanny cam, music player, wireless broadcaster, note taker, electronic wallet picture taking game and television controller that even can listen to every word I say even when its not paying attention I can ask it a question and wake it up. You getting paranoid yet?

We’re all way too enamored with our toys to pay attention. Who really has the time? Those smart enough to probably don’t care enough to…

Considering none of us have to even bother paying attention to much more than clicking a button to juggle an incredible amount of broadcasted math transmissions… What if all our pictures had tons of our data? Not just our images, but the last 10 minutes of your speech, some random pictures taken every 60 seconds (as that toilet time game of angry birds seems less a good idea than before), or perhaps even your pulse and other health data from touching that beautiful screen.

Did I make you think? I don’t know. My brain’s having fun – throw me a topic, I’ll create a conspiracy theory for you. Regarding Steganography though, some basic web searching shows me that these ideas might be a little more real than you might think right now. Or not. Who knows? Well, if you do – jump on in on this thread, as you’re already smarter than me then.

One link I just found interesting was Gary Kessler’s page on the topic, which is over a decade old and every bit as relevant. Good concepts regarding unknown concepts regarding hidden data.

I’m slightly surprised to have not yet personally made some edutaining videos or songs up about this topic or the difference between Cryptography vs. Steganography. At least yet.

This is a fun topic, will either expound further on stenanography or maybe more created conspiracy theories. Toss me a word, lets improvise some brain games. Stay tuned tomorrow to learn how bacon secretly makes you susceptible to hidden alphabet cookie consumption!

And good night.

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25 Popular Cloud Applications and the 10 Most Useful Ones

25 Most Popular Cloud Apps and the 10 Most Useful

1. Dropbox
Dropbox is a file hosting service operated by Dropbox, Inc., that offers cloud storage, file synchronization, and client software.

2. Google Analytics
Google Analytics (GA) is a service offered by Google that generates detailed statistics about a website’s traffic and traffic sources and measures conversions and sales.

3. Gmail
Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google.

4. Evernote
Evernote is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving.

5. Google Apps/Docs
Google Docs is a free web-based office suite offered by Google within its Google Drive service.

6. Google Calendar
Google Calendar is a free time-management web application offered by Google.

7. Mailchimp
MailChimp is an email marketing service provider.

8. Hootsuite
HootSuite is a social media management system for brand management.

9. iCloud
iCloud is a cloud storage and cloud computing service[3][4][5] from Apple Inc that allows users to store data such as music and iOS applications on remote computer servers for download to multiple devices.

10. Basecamp
Basecamp is a web-based project-management tool that offers to-do lists, wiki-style web-based text documents, milestone management, file sharing, time tracking, and a messaging system.

11. Mint
Mint pulls financial accounts into one place, automatically categorizes transactions, allows for setting budgets, and offers recommendations concerning financial health.

12. Google Voice
Google Voice (formerly GrandCentral) is a telecommunications service by Google.

13. Quickbooks
QuickBooks is accounting software developed and marketed by Intuit.

14. FreshBooks
A cloud application to invoice clients, track time & run small businesses in the cloud.

15. Prezi
Prezi is the cloud-based (SaaS) presentation software and storytelling tool for exploring and sharing ideas on a virtual canvas

16. Pivotal Tracker
Pivotal Tracker is Pivotal Labs’ software as a service product for agile project management and collaboration.

17. Balsamiq Mockups
Balsamiq Mockups is a graphical user interface mockup builder application. It allows the designer to arrange pre-built widgets using a drag-and-drop WYSIWYG editor.

18. Google Alerts
Google Alerts is a content change detection and notification service, offered by the search engine company Google, that automatically notifies users when new content from news, web, blogs, video and/or discussion groups matches a set of search terms selected by the user and stored by the Google Alerts service

19. GoToMeeting
GoToMeeting is an online meeting, desktop sharing, and video conferencing software that enables the user to meet with other computer users, customers, clients or colleagues via the Internet in real time.

20. BatchBook
Batchbook is a simple tool to help small businesses organize disperse contact information and access it from the cloud so that small businesses can keep track of their customer base.

21. Joomla
Joomla is a free and open source content management system (CMS) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets.

22. Posterous
Posterous is a simple blogging platform started in May 2008, funded by Y Combinator.

23. Skitch
Skitch is a screenshot editing and sharing utility for Mac OS X which was originally developed by plasq, but is currently run by the company Skitch, Inc.[10] Skitch permits the user to add shapes and text to an image, and then share it online.

24. Django
Django’s primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites.

25. Google AdWords
Google AdWords is Google’s main advertising product and main source of revenue.

Most Useful Cloud Apps
The available cloud apps are ever growing. It can be difficult to find the newest and best apps to use, but that can be a good thing. With so many apps being put out, it can be wise to see which ones rise to the challenge through use and outstanding service. The following apps are the most useful CloudApps currently on the market.

10. CloudApp
Most cloud app users need an app for storage. CloudApp is for Mac OS and iOS. Users can choose a file or object to send to CloudApp’s storage. A URI is then copied to the Clipboard. When the URI is sent to someone, they can click on it to view the file. It also allows you to execute commands with one keystroke.

9. Waze
Waze is a system that uses the GPS information being pinged back from iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, and Symbian devices. The 3.0 version allows users to tweet about traffic incidents in their area. As the user base grows, so will the real-time information about traffic situations. Shows that there are ways to use passively collected data without endangering the privacy of the public.

8. Box.net
Box.net is an online file storage application with customizable synchronization.

7. Audiobox.fm
Audiobox.fm is an audio streaming service that allows users to store music they own in the cloud and play them from any device using the service’s media player. It appeals to those who have large music libraries that span across multiple formats.

6. Joukuu
Joukuu is a cloud app that streamlines other cloud apps. It integrates Google Docs, Box.net, and Dropox. It’s a Web-based console for displaying in a single list the contents of files stored in the cloud.

5. Hojoki
Hojoki is a messaging system that builds a list out of the people the user has already shared contact with, and lets the user organize them into groups for the purposes of collaborating on projects in the future. It becomes an automatic task progress monitor when users work on projects with different groups of contacts.

4. Do.com
Do.com from Salesforce makes file sharing and collaboration easy. This app competes with highly customized versions of Microsoft Outlook, but makes their features available to all of their users.

3. Spotify
Spotify charges $9.99/month subscriptions to its premium mobile services that allows users access to Spotify’s music library. They also offer a free Spotify Radio desktop app.

2. iCloud
Allows users to share their content across all of their apple devices. It comes with a number of apps, and like all Apple devices, allows developers to build apps for it.

1. Evernote
Evernote collects and categorizes clips of data from the websites users are viewing or applications they are using. The data is stored in the cloud and synced across all linked devices. The data can then be easily searched in order to make a digital record of almost any and every event the user wishes to document.

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Social Media Time Capsuling

To me, social networking to some extent represents the idea of time capsuling. I remember as a child learning of the “Golden Record” that was launched into space with Voyager back in 1977, which included recorded music and other artifacts of the time (actually have a copy of this on vinyl I should dig up … I digress) and to some extent, social allows each of us to have this power.

Considering everything we post is replicated, copied, duplicated, backed up, or otherwise stored somewhere, there’s some sense of permanence, however we’re just dealing with 0′s and 1′s floating on erasable mediums which are controlled by people and ultimately could be completely destroyed, like anything.

Contemplating, following learning of Posterous’s closing (thankfully with backup options) and reflecting on the amounts of time and data lost forever into the digital void. Jaiku, Brightkite, Organgutag, MovieString, SportBrain, hell there’s a ton of them I’ve used. BrightKite and SportBrain probably my largest lost life repositories and makes me more aware of the need for additional replication, self-hosting, and just alternates of any data which might have meaning in the future.

Posterous closing almost represents a lifestyle change, until I locate another platform or means to trigger post. It’s my most used broadcasting platform currently, as it allows me to simply email text, pictures, or video with rules on which networks to post on. My blog posts show up on my blogs, my photos on Flickr, etc. it’s very useful and it started going downhill soon after Twitter acquired them.

I wonder how many social networks I have listed on this page don’t even exist or really matter anymore … http://www.darrenwilliger.com

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The Morton’s Schaumburg Experience

I was surprised to have my worst meal out at when expecting a good experience. Morton’s Steakhouse used to be one of my favorites. They’ve really gone downhill…

What does worst meal out mean? How many meals am I talking about? I’m a foodie with tons of blogs, photos and videos documenting restaurant experiences and my professional sales career encourages regularly dining with customers and business partners. On the low end let’s say I’ve eaten several thousands of meals out, and Morton’s Schaumburg was the worst to date.

I’ve had good experiences previously at other Morton’s in Illinois & Ohio.

This being said, I guess I’m lucky. Besides buying meat from a street vendor in the Middle East (still not as bad as Morton’s; the Shwarma salesman wasn’t rude), I’ve never gotten sick from food. There’s been one-off experiences over time, but never have I seen plates as dirty as I had at this ‘high end’ restaurant, nor service as creepy or rude as Morton’s in Schaumburg.

Arrived for 8:30pm reservations, and seated promptly. We were provided menus and waited.

Traditionally, I enjoy taking high quality foods photos with my camera phone. Occasionally, when wanting to spotlight a particularly awesome experience, I’ll include video. Because of the darkness I decided instead of drawing attention with the bright flash of my phone, I’d use video camera.

Waitress arrives with menus and bread. I’d asked for a ‘verbal confirmation’ that it was OK to record the dining experience, she assured me yes. With camera pointed downward at the menu, I turned it on and asked if she wanted to be included or if it might offend her. She asked it would be on the net, I reply “it is”. She jokingly mocks with “I’m going to ‘verbally tell you’ a little about our menu” … here’s the video up until footage of waitress for reasons I’ll share in a moment…

“If you don’t want to be on the video, I’ll turn off the video. It’s why I ask!”

Wishing I’d never offered to include her while she proceeds with digressive description of the appetizers extending uncomfortably past ‘let’s get the sampler’ … She leaves. Over 20 minutes pass and the manager, Armando sits down at our table. Smiling, he asked if we were having a nice meal. I’d explained we’d been waiting a long time for appetizers and drinks. He tells us the waitress is bothered by our video. I’d asked if using video in the restaurant was a problem, he said not a problem at all, “I encourage you to record anything you like except for the waitress”.

I create meal videos to spotlight excellence and this wasn’t happening …

Several minutes later Mary returned to the table, without food or drinks. The camera was in my pocket and she she hysterically begins huffing angrily states “If that footage goes on the internet I will be killed, there’s people who want to kill me and nobody can know I’m here” and goes on for several minutes. I calmly pointed out that I’d offered to turn the camera off and she said recording was fine. She defensively states she’d only encouraged us to record as their corporate training teaches them to lie. Mac asks what this meant and she’d elaborated on scenarios from stating particular dishes were good to saying they’re open when they’re about to close. “Stuff like that” she said and then again mentions that if we published video of her that she would be dead.

Realizing its past 930 at this point and unlikely to find another open restaurant at this hour, we’d suggested another server. Jeff comes over, introduces himself. Tells us he’s very comfortable with video. We’d ordered dinner and asked him to please locate the drinks and appetizers.

Significant time passes, I notified Armando and he assures us he’ll check on everything.

The appetizers and drinks arrive, followed by the entrees on dirty plates.  We asked Jeff to get Armando and were told he’d left for the evening and he’d get Darkol. He introduces himself and belligerently asks “so what’s your problem”. We showed him the dirty plates. He asked me to stop recording and insisted the plates weren’t dirty until I took photos and handed the phone to him. Upon seeing photos of the dirty plates, he says “fine”, takes our plates and walks away.

I’d be mortified to serve on dirty dishes like they used. This isn’t just “water spots”.

Several minutes later Jeff returns, surprisingly not waiting for us to cut into the steaks to inspect. Mine was very well done and we’d flagged back Darkol. He’d acknowledged this being very over done (I’d ordered it medium rare), and left with my plate. I’m suspecting they’d probably just reheated the first steak and then simply moved it onto a slightly cleaner plate.

Further disturbing and unsavory, their chef handling ready to eat food with his bare hands!

We’ve now been at this restaurant for hours and have had awful experiences. I was ready for the bill. Jeff delivers one with odd discounts. I’d inquired about this and he went to get Darkol. I’d stated that I wanted to pay the entire bill so I’d have the right to review my meal. He snaps at us saying “I’m buying your dinner this is what you want”. I’d explained this wasn’t what I wanted at all, and he’d threateningly shouted “this is what you wanted, leave now we’re closed!”.

It would have been appropriate for the first manager to explain he was leaving after encouraging us to ‘reach out if we needed anything”. Additionally, Darkol’s behavior was intimidating and unprofessional. If he wanted to compensate the bill or a portion in consideration for a poor experience, that could have been expressed, vs. his unnecessarily insulting behavior.

Walking out I past Jeff and handed him cash from wallet, apologizing he got caught up with this nonsense. By far my worst restaurant experience to date. This was absolutely awful.

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Reducing Blood Pressure Naturally – The Journey Begins Right Here!

I’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure into high levels of hypertension. My doctor has prescribed drugs to do my job and I’m challenging myself to see how much I can improve without them. So far the progress has been very encouraging!

Blood pressure, reducing naturally.

I wanted to check in and talk a little bit about reducing blood pressure naturally. High blood pressure is a disease that affects a lot of people and many are unaware of it. In fact it was something I was unaware of.Well in full transparency it’s something that was brought to my attention twice and I ignored. I’ve just not found a need. But at 42, peers encourage me to go and get checked out and make sure that everything’s alright. Probably good advice. The reason that I tend to avoid seeing doctors is, I don’t like them prescribing things and this and that, I think there’s an explanation of cause to every symptom. And I don’t like people look at symptoms and prescribe things for them. I’m slightly overweight, other high stress factors, things like that.

But to rewind. I do visit an optometrist and I do see my dentist, and each of them has performed a blood pressure reading that I pretty much was dismissive over. They were high but I put it in at, you know what? It was a peak time of day or it was white coat hypertension. Which is a term for people getting a spiked blood pressure reading because of their anxiety being around medical professionals. I wanted to share a couple of best practices I’ve learned with reducing blood pressure naturally, as I’ve successfully made some tremendous gains in just 2 months, making some minor changes that resulted in major shifts in reducing blood pressure. Naturally.

Anyway so I get to the doctor 2 months ago and go for a physical, they do blood work and all this other catch up stuff, and comes back and tells me that the blood pressures very high and he wanted to also talk about cholesterol. But that blood pressure is a priority, that I was averaging 191 over 118 and this is a stage 3 type of hypertension. And I still didn’t really take it that seriously a couple of months ago.

Doc asked me about caffeine and stress and any other factors that may be contributing, and I do drink a lot of caffeine. It’s just, you know, it’s a good drug. I love my coffee and I drink a lot of it. Especially throughout the day constantly fuelling and re fuelling to a ridiculous amount. And I agreed to cut back on the coffee. And I cut back, and I go in a month later, and I’m still in the 160ish range over the 109 range. Still in a very unhealthy point as far as things go blood pressure wise. And he tells me that he wants me to make additional changes, drop some pounds, I’m right around 200, continue to reduce the coffee down to 1 cup a day, crazy.
But I wanted to start doing my readings too.

So the first thing I did was picked up a little meter and I showed the doc at the visit, hey look I’ve got an invested interest in this, I’ve picked up a meter and I want to start checking some of my readings as I suspect there are they are higher at the doctor’s office, I’ve been coming in early Monday mornings as the work weeks beginning, and other factors that may be contributing towards it being high during the readings. And something I started to really realize I had to take seriously.

And these wrist readers are relatively straight forward. You generally put it on your left wrist and that’s something I want to get into as well and why different things are the way they are. And you put this thing on, you push a button, and it will come back and will tell you your blood pressure and your pulse. Now the caveat is this. It has to be held at hearts level and you’re best off being at a table with both feet on the floor and making sure that it’s held upright and using your left wrist. Anyway, that’s not always straight forward. When I initially picked it up, there’d be times I’d attempt to use it in the car while driving, or just on the road, sitting on a plane or what not, and you want to make sure you do keep the arm elevated at heart level for this to be effective. I noticed too when I was looking online and doing some research, that people commented that the wrist monitors may not be as effective as the type of monitors that actually would wrap around your arm. And I ended up picking up this Omron unit which got great reviews everywhere. And this thing is pretty cool, it can store, just like the wrist one, can store different readings and you can either do this with somebody else, or if you wanted to keep your left and right readings separately with this, well you have a button just for that. You can slide and store those separately.

So that’s one of the first things that I invested in to actually take an active interest in my blood pressure awareness. And the reason for this is I’m a big believer that if you want to actually manage something, you need to be able to measure it. And that way you can see results. So for the past month I’ve been using this blood pressure log on my android phone to keep track of where the blood pressures at, as it allows me to conveniently put different times throughout the day. I’ve been shooting for 4 times or more throughout the day, sometimes it’s not practical but for the most part you can see where I have done that. I thought it would also be important to make notes as far as what I was doing, what time of day. Was I using the wrist or the arm reading? Was I doing it on my left or my right arm? What was going on you know, what did I just eat? Just little notes like that.

I found a cool android app too There’s a ton of apps for pretty much every mobile operating system. You don’t even need an app, you can use paper, you could use a spreadsheet. But track this stuff so then when you go into your doctor and he says hey what are your blood pressure readings, then you can say hey my average in the morning is this, afternoon is this, etcetera. Anyway. Hoping you can learn from my lessons here. And this app is pretty cool, it shows you what your last reading is and you can enter in like you can do a drop down if its left arm, right arm, everything I’m looking to track and it connects online too. It was a free app and I brought the paid version to get rid of the ads. What it gives you as well, is the ability to go through and do a history. And the history will show you where you’ve been throughout the time clearly, and what I really dig is the analysis. What this gives me is an overall kind of a peak into what’s going on. A lens so to speak.

The morning, afternoon, evening and night time, and then the overall for 30 days. So keeping in mind that I was starting off at the 191 over 118, then I get to 168 over 109, and then I get that a little bit lower. I’m more in the 140 range to over the 108, 109, this is not a healthy range and I began putting each of these in. In fact, I was measuring 8 times a day at first just to make sure I got enough data. To make sure I got enough data in here to be able to do some accurate measurements. Now what this allowed me to do, and I’m going to do a close up of the phone so I can show you everything that I’m talking here. As I’m sure just waving it in front of the screen is not super effective. But what I like is the ability to take a look clearly at where I’ve been, where I’m going, I can measure at 30 days. You know what?

I’d like to show you and walk you through right now, what I’m able to do with this app and the progress I’ve made in the past 30 days of tracking. Keep in mind things are relatively high even at that 30 date mark, I was still at that 191 over 118 just a month ago. Now let’s take a look at what I’m tracking with this app and the progress I’ve been making so far. I wanted to really take a closer look at what I could do with just some basic changes with nutrition, supplements, exercise, lifestyle change and all that. So this application allows me to not only keep track of what’s going on here, but put notes next to everything such as what I’m doing that day and all that good stuff. The other graphs allow me to take a look deeper, for instance, I passed one of them that I wanted to show you here.

Over here’s kind of cool, you can zoom out and let’s see, I get a little range here of what’s been going on, so there’s a big cluster initially where I was real concerned and checking it quite often, as it was in that super high range and you see it starts to go lower here. And we’ll go into a tab, we’re just looking in, you see the different levels here and this is finally looking at the graph. So here is looking at the 30 days that I put together and what’s cool is you can actually go back and take a look at the history. So the history you see that several of them that were hitting the 191 over 118 range, and that’s relatively consistent throughout the day. Over here, I have averages where I can see that things are dropping along the way morning, afternoon, evening, and I’m just going to take a look of where things are at. So the average that we’re going to take a closer look at right now, is going to be the overall 30 days.

And as you can see I began at a rather high average to begin with, which is the 191 over 118, the lowest it’s been and this is through some deep relaxation on the weekends, is 100 over 60. Or actually over 50 at one point. We will get into that, but the overall average is what we’re going to look at out of 200 plus readings, the new average in 30 days is 137 over 90. That’s getting closer to healthy range. And I want to delve a little bit deeper into these graphs here too so let’s take a look here further. And we go back to the little graphs and so for 30 days you could see that it was kind of crazy. Well there’s a little bit of mix of everything.

So there’s the nice pre hypertension but there’s more than 50% is obviously in the danger zone and that’s kind of crazy. So to zoom in a little bit and go to a 14 day we can see that, well it’s still in the danger zone more than half, compared to the previous average, it actually is moving a little bit more of the stage one away into where the stage 2 and 3 are. So going back to the 14, that continues to reduce, we look at the 7 day and that’s finally dropping below 50% and you’ll see the majority of the danger zone is in the stage 1 as the pre hypertension’s beginning to take over. We get into 5 days, and look at that. Things are already beginning to change up over here were there’s a significant reduction of the danger zone over here, otherwise known as severe stage 3 hypertension and getting more into the, you know, mild stage 1. And let’s take a look just on the past 3 days, keep in mind this is including the weekend, and this is fantastic disconnecting and relaxing and this is fantastic. This is looking closer to pac man every day. And what I need to do is increase that normal number and let’s see here zooming in to today, not too shabby.

And I’m kind of proud of this as it’s taken 2 months to obtain this without medication, with just some nutrition and supplement changes and life things.

This is a lifestyle disease. So why not fix it by making changes to lifestyle? Anyway, I wanted to share this with you all, thanks for taking a look, it’s a pretty cool app and I’ve learned something in life that you can better manage things that you can measure. Thanks for tuning in. Soy milk. I was reading about some studies that were from over 10 years ago, that over a course of a 3 month period they had individuals who some were in a group who were drinking just regular cow milk, and the other group drinking a liter of soy milk a day. After 3 months there was significant declines in both the systolic, the top number, and the diastolic, the lower number, over 15. I mean a drop of 15 in each. That’s significant. Why don’t people talk about soy milk more. Anyway, I thought about it. This is nutritious, it’s good, the soy milk that I have here has very low carbs as well so this entire container has about 20 grams of carbs and 20 grams of protein. So it’s kind of good for you. There’s some nutrition, it tastes good and I thought, why not? Put at least one of these a day. And that’s just one thing. It’s also got a tremendous amount of magnesium. In fact it tells me that there’s 10% of the US RDA magnesium in one, and there’s 4, so 40% in just one of these. Hey maybe I should drink 2 a day.

The other thing I’ve been eating a lot, where are my props, a lot more of are sunflower seeds. Sun flower seeds also high in magnesium and just the practice of snacking throughout the day makes us less likely to binge on snack foods and junk foods later in the day. So those are a couple of things I’ve added to the diet.

Other things diet wise, I’ve been cutting back in the salty foods, I still have my steaks, but I’m eating a lot more chicken and salads and fish and cooking really healthy stuff and trying to eat better on the road. Not trying to but doing. And there’s times that you only have an opportunity, there’s a boxed lunch provided at a conference or what not, you go with it. And there’s times that you’re travelling and you can make a conscious choice of what you’re going to eat. You want to have some steak, you can have one of those steak salads. It fills you up and it’s good for you. But just being aware that I’m monitoring this is making a difference. I’ll tell you what really scared me. Here’s what’s scared me.

So I return to the doctor, so doc writes out a prescription, tells me it’s critical that I take this drug, it’s called a beta-blocker and doesn’t tell me much about what it is but I got to take this thing and I should come back in a month, make sure I consistently take this beta blocker and he’s going to measure the blood pressure at that point.

Being honest with you friends, I didn’t really take the BP things as seriously until this prescription was written. And it’s because of these side effects that I just wasn’t able to take this thing. This is Toprol. Metropolol, whatever I can’t even pronounce this thing. And common side effects or possible side effects, constipation, diarrhea, dizziness, dry mouth, gas, headache, heartburn, light headedness, drowsiness, muscle aches, nausea, stomach pain, trouble sleeping, unusual tiredness or weakness, vomiting, if they continue or bothersome, check with your doctor. I looked online too.

The main top 5 I was getting was the nausea, the anxiety, weight gain, depression, and ready for this? Erectile dysfunction? I mean seriously. I understand some people have to take this medicine, but when you’re at a crossroads with a drug that can cause you to gain weight, get depressed, be nauseous, anxious and not be able to get a hard, on perhaps it’s time to take a more serious look at your life. Wow. I mean what’s next? Is he going to prescribe some Viagra to counter that effect?

You know I was actually reading about a lot of, well that’s a digression but I’ve been reading this book about different things that have happened over the years of medical science and Viagra actually is a side effect of a drug they were designing for heart medication. So I’m not saying all medicines are bad. But I’m saying that I would prefer to take a look at what I could do with my life being that blood pressure is a disease of the lifestyle, and I’d rather look at treating the cause, than treating the symptoms. Because otherwise it doesn’t make sense.

It’s a self-perpetuating, downward spiral and I don’t want to be part of that.

I also don’t want to be part of that statistic of people who are supposed to see the doctor the next day and had a heart attack. Or the people who were written a prescription and didn’t take and had a stroke. I don’t want to be that. And I do take this seriously. But I don’t want to have all these side effects because that just freaks the hell out of me. It goes on and on and on. I went back to the doctor, I said doc listen. I’d like to talk to you about supplements I take. And you know, possibly they’ve been causing some blood pressure, possibly there’s different things I should be looking at ,but number one doc, I want you to be aware of the supplements I take in case there’s any type of interaction with medication. Who knows if there’s some type of weird combination with taking a traditional supplement and taking the Toprol beta blocker. I don’t know. I don’t know what a beta blocker is. I know I’ve looked on the internet and it does something to reduce the adrenaline. Don’t we like adrenaline? I guess there’s sometimes we have to much of it. It’s a, performers sometimes us this to get rid of stage anxiety. Some other performers don’t use it because it’s that adrenaline that drives their performance. Either way, the idea of being on something that you have to be on, is what really got to me.

Everything I’ve read about these type of pills say that you can’t just stop taking them because if you’re doing something to reduce the blood pressure and the heart rate and everything chemically and you reduce it, boom. You’re that much more likely to actually have a heart attack or stroke.

I didn’t want to sign up for this, I didn’t like those five horrible symptoms or side effects, I don’t want to have a chance of having something I take and I put myself at great risk and I went ahead and researched a great deal about additional nutritional supplements that have had a phenomenal impact on reducing blood pressure naturally. And when I say naturally, some may argue, why would you want to take a nutritional supplement versus popping a pill? Isn’t it easier to just pop a pill? In fact a pill, many times, is just a synthesized variant of what was discovered naturally and it’s a short cut. Well maybe again I don’t want to treat symptoms and it just freaks me out.

Doctor then prescribes a different medication and he wants me to take this different one. He says you know what? Don’t read all that paper work that comes in from long brains, just take this one. Well personally I’d like to research what I’m putting in my body and this new one I thought it was called vasotec but it seems it is Enalapril. This one fortunately does not have a lot of side effects except it could cause a sore throat and a cough. Not something an active vlogger would want or somebody who is a professional sales maker. I talk a lot. In the interest of getting this video online I’m not going to delve super deep into the nutritional supplements, if you’re interested in learning more please put a comment and let me know. I do plan on putting some additional videos together to drill deep into why these nutritional supplements work.

Some additional supplements that I added to my diet include fish oil, specifically adding in the krill. And some people state that the krill is superior to the regular fish oils. I say they’re food so I’m going to take both and see the impact on my blood pressure and I’ve been taking each of these for the past 30 days. Cocue 10. Also something I have done a great deal of research on and found has some significant improvements towards health for cardiovascular system, particular value with reducing blood pressure naturally. I get back into it naturally.

I recognize that these are nutraceuticals that come from sources that may not be as regulated as certain pharmaceutical, pharmacological corporations. However, I like the idea of nutritional supplements being just that foods. I’ve never heard that if you stop taking a food, that you can have a heart attack. I know if I stop eating sushi or something I may be craving it, but I don’t really find as much risk with something that’s an addition to my food, versus something that’s a synthesized drug. The other thing that bothers me with the pharmaceuticals is quality control.

People talk against nutritional supplements being not as regulated as the FDA was originally years ago, but, the problem with pharmaceuticals is you have the main brand chemical formula and then you get the generics and there’s different variations with the generics. And there’s people who have experienced different results. Now perhaps some of that is a placebo, psychosomatic thing with our perception, however perception is reality and that doesn’t actually control how we feel and what we experience. The other part is too they are different chemical variations. It may be a different filler or some type of addition to the base recipe that causes it to not work the same. Either way it’s difficult to measure. My choice is to take a look at nutrition.

I’ve made some incredible changes with the blood pressure, with just those few changes of adding in some soya milk and adding in a couple of supplements. The CoQ10, the krill oil, and some magnesium. I definitely would like to delve deeper into what I’ve learned and why these different nutritional supplements have been so beneficial and recap what I’ve learned from researching others experiences as well. So yeah, let me know if you’re interested in that and I’ll make sure to delve deeper, I would like to share more but I also want to get this video online. I feel it’s something important. Almost my PSA to the world here and hoping to connect with others.

Initially when I had this diagnosis it wasn’t something I shouted. It wasn’t even something I really took seriously. And it took my awareness, my ass kicking was effectively the fear out of side effects of the medication. It was a wakeup call for me to do something about this. And I’m making really good changes. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been noticing some tremendous reduction, as you saw with the app track, and I’m going to continue to do so.

It’s September 2012 and we saw where my readings were at. We’re reading in at up to the second application analysis right here. So over all, things are dropping. Looks like the pulse is going up. Maybe because I’m working out more and the weight has been, well, well kind of high. I need to reduce my weight more.

So, I’m going to go and cut out, and work out and come back, I’ll tell you more about reducing blood pressure naturally. Thank you.

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