Here is the funniest photo I just received. It’s a photo of Chloe Goldberg, my friends Jeff and Randi Goldberg’s new dog wearing a her new raincoat. She’s all prepared for the snowy, wet weather. Are you prepared?

Image via WikipediaIt’s been five months since we opened the Rochester office location and let me just say, it’s been a very busy five months! From meetings with big players like Kodak, Bausch & Lomb, Constellation Brands and Harris Interactive to new business meetings galore with service providers, new product launches, non-profits, restaurants and more, we have certainly been warmly welcomed by our fellow “Rochestarians.”

One thing is clear, there is a definite need for our services, experience and expertise. Our two other locations in Manhattan and Westbury, Long Island seem to place us a step above our competition. I think most people believe that if we can thrive 17 years in the media capital of the country, we can certainly help businesses upstate reap the benefits of our local, regional and national media contacts, our innovative campaigns and strategies and our talented staff of thinkers and believers. The fact is, it’s true and strongly backed up by our happy clients who have so graciously given us outstanding recommendations to help reinforce our abilities.

Our newest Rochester area client is, Penfield Central School District. Hilary and I were so excited when they retained our services and we are having a wonderful time representing such a high caliber school district. Although we are working with Penfield in a different capacity than most of our other districts downstate, we’re really starting to see how our help has impacted the district and made our client and the Board of Education excited for what’s to come. As we continue to act as consultants, help with their branding, newsletters, website and overall visibility in the community, we are getting positive feedback and we’re definitely looking forward to a long relationship with this one of a kind school district.

Other than Penfield, we’ve got so many leads on the cusp of signing with our firm – it’s unbelievable and a very exciting time for us! Hilary and I really believe that the sky is the limit in our Rochester office and we’re very dedicated to giving it our 110% every day. Hopefully by this time next year, we’ll have lots of exciting clients and good stories to share. It’s only going to get better from here!

On a personal note, it’s so nice to be back home again. Every time it snows I think Rochester is telling me, “Welcome back Lisa. We missed you!”

Image via Wikipedi

I don’t know about you, but after I learned Madonna was into Kabbalah, I was curious. What is Kabbalah? Why is she into it?

Madonna is one of my favorite artists! I’ve always admired her and admire her even more today. She is a successful, beautiful, smart business woman who really knows what she wants.

When I was in Florida, I went to Barnes & Noble and bought “God Wears Lipstick” by Karen Berg. The book focuses on Kabbalah for women.

The book was a real eye opener!

It talks about how women are vessels and men are light and that a woman’s role is to guide a man because women don’t need to be guided, they are already there!

What I found intriguing was the part about reincarnation and the reason why things happen. The book explains that everything happens for a reason. People die because they have fulfilled what they needed to do. The book says that we need to try to accept things and to know that there is a reason for everything.

Will I be a Kabbalah convert? I’m not sure. I just thought the book was interesting and worth the read!

This past week, I spent the holidays with my family in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We really had a great time. It was very relaxing! I spent time reading two business books, blogging, writing more in my soon to be published book, researching the Internet, answering emails and talking with staff. In addition to that, I spent quality time with my children, my parents, my brother and his wife and their three boys – Max, Ben and Jacob.

On the last day of our trip, we decided to go to a nature preserve in Deerfield Beach. Built on a swamp, a long and windy boardwalk wraps around the park. The trail is approximately 1 1/2 miles in length and when you stop along the way to look out, you see breathtaking views of birds, turtles, alligators and other beautiful sights. Since I enjoyed it so much, I thought I would share the beauty with you… Enjoy:

I just finished reading The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott. The book was given to me by a few of my staff members as a holiday gift because they know all I read are business books and books about social media and marketing!

From monitoring the Internet on information written about your company to setting up blogs, podcasts and social tagging everything, the book is well-written and clearly organizes the information even for a beginner. Although the book is more geared toward a person in the PR/marketing field, anyone who has a business can get useful information from it.

As a result of reading this book, I think HJMT will now incorporate a newsroom for us to post news releases and photocaptions on our clients so that the media has one place to go to find information they need.

In addition, the book reinforced my thinking that it is time to write a book about marketing and PR for the non-professional. So, keep an eye out for the book in the near future!