“Veterans gather for adaptive sports at Pineland Farms”
Why Buying a Purely American Vehicle Is Trickier Than It Seems
[Article for The Motley Fool.]
Is it possible to buy a car that’s not manufactured by one of Detroit’s Big Three automakers that’s actually built here in the U.S.? If, like me, you want to keep American workers employed and want to buy consumer products built by U.S.-based manufacturers, which car should you choose? The answer to that question just might surprise you. Continue reading
Facilitation 101
When people come together in groups for what is assumed to be a common cause, it would seem intuitive that objectives, goals, and outcomes would be known. If you’ve ever spent any amount of time in meetings related to partnership and collaboration, you know better.
Facilitation—the art of helping a group move towards common goals—is a key element in the process of collaboration. While collaboration and partnering is often talked about as a desirable and necessary outcome for groups, collaboration doesn’t occur organically.
Individuals come to groups with agendas, limited information or information lacking context. Personalities also affect the group consensus-building process. Lastly, not everyone that pays lip service to collaboration knows what it means. Effective groups require leaving agendas and preconceived notions at the door. Continue reading
Everyone’s a reviewer with Yelp
[Freelanced article written for The Motley Fool]
I like feeling that I have some power as a consumer. Nothing makes me more frustrated than knowing that I lack choice and that voting with my pocketbook doesn’t matter at all.
What’s particularly intriguing is the bevy of social media tools and apps at our disposal and how they have changed the dynamics for consumers. Three very consumer-oriented tools that I’ve used are Yelp (NYSE: YELP ) , Open Table (NASDAQ: OPEN ) , and new kid on the block Google (NASDAQ: GOOG ) Plus Local. While for some this might seem confusing and even daunting as to which site to rely upon, for those that value local and care about transparency, this leveling of the playing field is a good thing. Continue reading
Summer in Maine/Red’s Eats
Red's famous red and white awning.
Summer in Maine is all too fleeting. Of the quartet of seasons framing the months and days from January through December, summer is the one we long for during winter’s interminable darkness, and the one we savor the most due to its perceived shortness in Maine.
We know that the summer solstice officially begins June 21, heralding summer’s start. While June offers up our first real warmth, the month can also deliver days, and even weeks of rain, fog, and weather that’s the bane of businesses depending on tourist dollars to eke out a profit when the books are closed at the end of the year. For true Mainers and those adopting the state as home for portions of the year, July 4th serves as an unofficial barometer that summer has in fact arrived. Continue reading
WorkReady: Building a Skills Foundation for Maine
Merely having an up-to-date resume and being able to craft a cover letter are no longer enough to conduct a successful job search. Workers that have been in the same industry for decades and suddenly find themselves out of work are mystified by the entire protocol of how to get a job, and how it’s changed.
In light of that shift in the job market and the subsequent changes taking place in job-search procedures, are there training programs for Mainers that address these various needs? Furthermore, how important are basic skills for Maine’s workforce, and how does this impact Maine’s overall workforce, and affect the state’s economic well-being? Continue reading
Jim Baumer is more than just Moxie
You’ve landed at one of the websites that make up the Jim Baumer digital empire. Since I am the Jim Baumer that I want people to pay attention to, I scooped up the Jim Baumer domain a few years ago to ensure that people get to where I want them to go. I’d encourage you to check out my About page for a bit more personal information about me and my writing.
To better assist you in navigating the Jim Baumer universe, here is additional information to get you where you would like to go.
If you’d like to check out my blog where I share insights about career, my own personal employment journey, information on reinvention, and other related posts about The Jim Baumer Experience, go here.
I’m a voracious reader. Check out what I read last year if you want to know a bit more about my reading interests. I’ve posted my 2011 book list, with brief summaries thrown in for good measure. Former Maine governor, Angus King, used to say, “readers are leaders,” and this is a maxim I adhere to and embrace in my own life.
I’m currently interested in working with nonprofits and small businesses, assisting them with social media. I can help you develop social media guidelines for proper usage, train you and your staff on how to enjoy and maximize social media in your day-to-day world of work, as well as better incorporate it into your marketing. To get a better idea of the types of services I offer, visit The Jim Baumer Experience website.
If you haven’t already figured it out, I’m entrepreneurial, intellectually curious, as well as a writer who “ships,” to use a favorite term of Seth Godin. This is what’s required in getting your product out to your audience. I try to live my life and model what I think the 21st century world requires, which is continuous reinvention.
If any of these things strike a chord with you, or you’d like to share a personal Moxie story with me, which might find its way into a future book about Moxie, you can contact me via email, which is jim(dot)baumer(at)gmail(dot)com. I look forward to hearing from you.
Boy walking
My son is walking across America. When I mention this to business colleagues and others I have conversations with, they often ask me, “is he trying to raise money for something?” The answer is “no.” He’s doing it because he decided that is how he’d spend his summer.
Continue reading
Children Grow Up and Fly Away
[This is an essay excerpt from an upcoming book of essays, Moxie Matters: Life’s Beginnings in a Small Maine Town, which is slated for release in late 2010.-jb]
I’ve been many things in my life—baseball prospect, writer, husband, father—this last one is the moniker, in hindsight that might be the most important for me, primarily because this is how I got connected with my son, Mark.
Parenting is the hardest activity many will ever do in life. The irony in this is that there are really no manuals to follow. Oh, there are a wealth of books, written by America’s expert class that tell you all the “right” things to do, or how to skirt the laws of man and incorporate corporal punishment into the mix, or utilize manipulation and subterfuge. I have little good to say about the likes of these.
For most, you figure it out as you go along, often, trying to run counter to the models inflicted upon us by our own parents. Later in life, you look back at our imperfect predecessors and realize that they didn’t do as bad as we had originally thought they had—subsequently, the damage wasn’t as permanent, or the scars as deep as we had originally feared.
Continue reading
