WAMU FLUNKS HISTORY

Just heard the breaking news about Washington Mutual officially credited as the biggest bank failure in the history of our country (that's 231 years of dollars and sense accounted for). Washington Mutual, considered the largest savings bank in America, has been seized by Federal Regulations, with "insuffieient liquidity" determined as cause of pending extinction. Press reports are saying that J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Wells Fargo could be preparing to breathe new life into the left-standing assets and buy them up. But... who is next?! Will this spiraling ever begin spinning back to help with home loans? We need a message of hope here. Can anyone see a light at the end of the tunnel yet?

WHERE HAVE ALL THE MORTGAGES GONE? Long Time Passing...

A grove of aspen trees share a common root system. If the root system is weakened, how long can the tree community survive, much less begin to grow again? I just heard about the massive assistance being given to huge banking companies like AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I just heard the news of how banks worldwide are now pumping money back into the economy like a huge wave--- of over 200 billion. Evidently, the fear in the economy is contagious and has now spread throughout the world. But, what about mortgages? What about this infrastructure close to the root system that supports the bigger branches of the economy? Is this a right move in the wrong direction? If HOMEOWNERS can't be helped, how can the system strengthen its roots and restore balance overall? Is this a right answer for the wrong problem?? It seems that, until home sales can begin to turn around, the branches of banks, insurance companies and brokerage firms will not find any leverage or begin to recover. If the root system is weakening and dissolving, how will anything that stems from it remain in place or GROW again?

Where have all the mortgages gone? Long time Passing. Where have all the mortgages gone? So long ago... Where have all the mortgages gone? Gone to Foreclosure, Every One. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?

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© Copyright of photo* and content, 2008. Mara Hawks, All Rights Reserved

*photo taken in Georgetown, CO, where I once lived

AN ARRANGEMENT OF CHAIRS - Sitting In On Social Networking

Katie Evans from Greenville, NC blogged about musical chairs this morning. Thanks, Katie. It got me remembering the childhood game and the overwhelming anxiety that charged my body and the cinch of a foreboding knot in my stomach...isolation and exclusion approaching...no place for me to exist in the world that is neatly set out where everyone else is securely positioned...wishing I could fly, far away, or simply evaporate into thin air. I really did not like that game at all. Are there any readers out there that grew up and actually liked that game? I thought it was purely punishment, just for being a kid.

Of course, like many of us, I carried a lot of these awful experiences into adulthood, and, thankfully, have succeeded in somewhat sorting them out over the years...sifting through all the debris to find the single treasures of those moments, the single pearl of goodness that was knotted into the strand of my childhood journey that, as a kid, we can experience as a choking of the spirit.

Today, my "polished" view of this game, as it played out in my life, is that it provided me the opportunity to develop work and relationship survival skills.

The REALITY is, sometimes we do lose out, whether it be a hurricane, a job promotion, a date with your biggest crush (will George C. ever call me?), your favorite restaurant being fully booked, even though it's your birthday... the overnight line at the Apple store is cut off after the person in front of you---SOLD OUT! I guess there really are so many times we are playing a musical chairs of sorts. The willingness to let go can be a gift of wisdom. Everyone can't have everything. (Where would you even put it all?)

SO here is a 2-step ACTION PLAN for the chair arrangements in your life that leave you standing: #1 - STAY In the game. The round ends, but the game doesn't. We all can lose an established place, but you can keep your winning attitude. We all stumble and fall, but please, DON'T STAY DOWN & OUT. Don't stop listening to the music in your heart.

#2 - DO SOCIAL NETWORKING. We are LIVING THE PHENOMENON..the manifesto of ‘space expansion' (one of the final concepts that Albert Einstein wrote about in his journal---if he were here today, I'm sure he would have blogged about it.) NO ONE is left standing or without a place. It's music to my ears, so pull up a chair.

Active Rain Community Builder, BRAD ANDERSOHN, has helped a lot of us learn about A LOT, including the what's what and who's who of these social networking sites, and suggests these as some of the best places to start:

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Talk. WordPress, Typepad, LinkedIN, Google, Instant Messenger, Skype and Ebay. These applications are all FREE. Download and access them from anyplace that provides Internet service.

© This posting and the contents written here are the property of Mara Hawks, All Rights Reserved

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MEDIA UNMUZZLED - Notes from the Social Media WEBINAR, Session 1

Today was the first of 12 SESSIONS produced by the DOMUS CONSULTING GROUP's Social Media Webinar Series for ACTIVE RAINERS (and others, but very specially priced for us!) Practically a giveaway! Thanks to BRAD ANDERSOHN for the blog-rally about this (see Social Media & Marketing Webinars). He was in attendance, along with DOMUS co-founders, KEVIN BOER and PAT KITANO. I knew I couldn't afford to miss it, especially since I only pick up on these technological advances after lots of absorbing and practicing. My brain was wired from a different generation---and then some--- and so I usually seem to have a lot of re-wiring and unscrambling to do. While the brain doesn't necessarily improve with age, the good thing about it, I'm told, is that it can improve with use. This fact alone is what motivates me. Once I grow accustomed to a new way, more efficient, faster, better, bigger method or technique (& seemingly smaller technology), it's just the joy of playing with new toys and having a lot more friends over ---aka social networking!

One thing I gathered from today's broadcast is that it is A LOT about perspective... to be able to grasp what is happening, it is essential to have an understanding of your place in time, not just as a point in history, but as a medium through which we have transported stories and ideas. For the first time since time management became a task, our placement in space brings us into a new work/business arena... in other words, your placement and presence in a cyber-world is critical. In a business nutshell, you can not only manage your time without being online/connected, or YOU WILL BE virtually lost in space.

While a short amount of time was spent on identifying a punchlist for this newly-constructed forum, the significant length of the presentation illustrated the muzzling of mainstream media that was (and much of it still is), historically, owned and controlled by a few. Now, since about 2001, especially heightened after 911, we have the masses (the many) going mainstream as an organic whole. The social media is converging with the mass media, and beginning to replace a lot of it. This is a huge change in journalism and how we receive information. Kevin and Pat talked about how the whole blogging phenomenon took off around this time, and, with the introduction of MySpace, became mainstream. Then YouTube began generating video. These were the seeds for social transparency, which translates to the astounding revelation that you/your business really can't be anything but authentically YOU! Kevin and Pat put forth what I thought was a powerful statement: "The key to creating successful philosophies and businesses is to be socially transparent." (This, by the way, is the main work of DOMUS CONSULTING, setting this up for companies). I picture the mix as striving for A CONTINUUM--- a coherent whole, methodically harmonizing what is sound, and hammering out what is discordant or non-synchronous. The speed at which you can develop a network and build a business is rapidly increased, because information travels at high speed and "everyone knows everyone else in a transparent society, and you'll form these serendipitous relationships." (I can personally vouch for this already!) Kevin and Pat continued to embellish this concept by suggesting that this is "the next generation of a Brian Buffini, a referral-based marketing style with a lot of personal, face-to-face going on." It is noteworthy here that there isn't an online emphasis [yet] with this marketing style. "Communication is being broadcast now and is much more efficient" This doesn't mean that the personal touch is outdated. Not at all. As long as we're human, that just can't happen. It merely informs us of the new phenomenon of "intimacy" being created through social networking, often well ahead of the formal handshake and face-to-face meeting of a new client, colleague, employer, partner, etc..(Before you are HERE, in real time, you are THERE in real space.)

Related Activity Suggestion: watch Real Estate Coaching 2.0

Final Note & Action Plan: BE A TRANSPARENCY FOR THE TRUTH AND INTEGRITY OF YOUR WORDS and your WORK. WE ARE AMPLIFICATION SYSTEMS IN A UNIVERSE OF SOUNDness.

© Copyright 2008 - This posting and the contents written here, except where noted, are the property of Mara Hawks, All Rights Reserved

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