Sometimes they come in little fruits! 

I met Charles Lee (@mymberry) through my friend Chris Drake (@firehost).  In doing so I met an inspiration man, entrepreneur and story in perseverance and faith.  Below is a short bio on Charles Lee and mBerry as well as a video that promotes his partnership with Chef Homaro Cantu (@Homarocantu).  Chef Cantu is a molecular gastronomist and owner of Chicago restaurants Moto and iNG.  Full Story here.

Live is a miracle, taste some of it here…

Excerpt from W.P. Carey School of Business @ ASU…  The first time Charles Lee popped a miracle berry tablet into his mouth and then bit into a lemon, he was stunned. The lemon tasted naturally sweet.  “I don’t know if it even sunk in,” says Lee, a 2009 ASU finance graduate. “It was a shock. I wasn’t sure it was the same lemon I’d tried before.”

It was, thanks to the fruit that is taking the world by storm. Miracle berries, which resemble elongated cranberries, temporarily alter the taste buds so that sour and bitter foods taste sweet. The berry has become a novelty at parties, where guests eat the fruit and then sample a variety of foods (such as Brussels sprouts, vinegar, pickles, tequila, beer and citrus) for an experience that fools the tongue into perceiving sweetness.  The sensation lasts an hour or so.  After reading a New York Times article about the berry in May 2008, Lee was intrigued. He was ready to graduate with an eye on entering law school but lacked the money for tuition. Maybe the miracle berry could prove a fi nancial miracle for him.  Lee is a self-proclaimed food lover and believes that the pleasures of food are best shared with friends and family. He envisioned enjoying the miracle berry not only by himself but with a foodcurious community.

Having taken a rigorous course in supply chain management and with his background in fi nance, Lee began to explore the possibility of importing the miracle berry—“Its actual name,” he says, “just like apple or peach.” The fruit is grown only in the world’s moist, tropical climates. Florida had a few farms cultivating the berry trees but with each berry priced at about $3, acquiring the fruit in bulk was prohibitive.Fresh berries had to be shipped overnight, further boosting the cost, and the wait for shipment was as long as two months, given its sudden popularity.Lee discovered that a Taiwanese company was processing the berry as a freeze-dried tablet. “That made the berry shelf-stable and convenient,” he says, as
well as affordable.  In July 2008, Lee founded mberry, a company that imports miracle berry in both its fresh and tablet forms. Lee immediately had orders from distributors around the world.

And now, the miracle story continues…

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This video is just the beginning to make iDonate a household word in Nonprofit circles.  Please also click on the link to see how we will incorporate this with “Food for the Hungry” to Get More Gifts that will change lives!  (Food for the Hungry example… Click Here)

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Great video below that is a marriage of a “market need” with a provocative campaign and innovative product (that may or may not exist!)

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…That some business and sales & marketing guys from Phoenix could make a movie… with world class Academy Award winners nonetheless!  My brother Phil was the Executive Producer and I was an Interactive Marketing Consultant.  What a great moment in time and movie to remember!

Robert Duvall out pitching its arrival on September 2nd…

The movie trailer is here…

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by Jon Thoma (pictured here #48)

It is always sad to see a hero fall.

It has happened to me a few times, and for a few different reasons. Mario Lemieux was taken from the game of hockey as he reached his prime to battle illness. Tiger Woods lived a double life and is now a shell of the man who used to make the world shake with the reverberating roars of galleries across America. Those were my sporting heroes.

Men who stood at the pinnacle of their respective professions and made a legitimate difference in people’s lives.

I thought that watching them lose their air of invincibility would be the hardest way to see a career end. I thought that I would never feel so hopeless again, because I would never be as young and impressionable as I was when I let these men become such a large part of my life.

Then again, I thought Jim Tressel was invincible.

Let me start by saying that I will not blame my teammates for any of this. Am I mad at them? Yes. I am mad as Hell at them for some of their actions. I am furious they cast aside our symbols of brotherhood and victory for a few hundred dollars. Those rings and Gold Pants were supposed to remind us forever of what we were a part of. Those rings were supposed to clank off of each other as we shook hands at our 2010 Rose Bowl Champs 25th anniversary banquet. Those rings were a part of our legacy to be carried on to our grandchildren as they looked at us in our rocking chairs and wondered how in the world we used to be champion athletes.

But who am I to tell someone what is important? Show an 18-year-old some money and give him some power, and you have a recipe for disaster. Put yourself in their shoes and tell me you would be able to resist temptation. You can’t. Tell an 18-year-old that he is the greatest enough times, and he will believe you. It comes with the territory.

Coach Tressel made the choice to try to account for his young players’ transgressions and move forward into the season with one of his most talented teams ever. It’s a choice he now undoubtedly regrets.

In my brief time at the top level of the amateur game, I learned one thing to be true without fail: If you succeed, people will hate you. And if people hate you, they will try to bring you down. Look at Auburn. If they went 2-4 through their first six games, would jealous Mississippi State boosters have come out of the woodwork to rat out Cam Newton? Fat chance. And along those lines, there is an even fatter chance that both Gene Chizik and Cam himself knew nothing of Cecil’s plan to shop his son. Examples are abundant. Bob Stoops knew nothing about the tens of thousands of dollars Rhett Bomar took for working a no-show job? Yeah, and I’m dating Beyonce. Dig deep enough anywhere you want, you’re eventually going to hit the dirt.

The difference is that when the others got caught, there was no proof. Coach Tressel reached out to people he thought may have an influence on future decisions made by the players (the quarterback’s “mentor”), and in doing so, sealed his own fate. The nail in his own coffin came in the form of a concerned e-mail.

Do I think Coach Tress was in the dark about the alleged ongoing violations by his players? No way. I always thought that man knew everything. My freshman year he approached me, a mere walk-on back-up punter, and asked me how my parents and two sisters were doing. He referred to them all by name! We had about 120 players on the team and he knew every person in all 120 immediate families. He knew because he cared.

He made a promise to our families to take care of us and he did everything in his power to fulfill that promise. He made us read books that would help us in life, write reports about those books, and present them to the team. The first thing we did every day was reflect and pray. There were constant reminders about how lucky we were to be playing a game for a free education and a chance at a better life. He made us sit through hours of brutal meetings with the compliance office almost every week. Believe me, we all knew what was legal and what was not legal. He brought lawyers and policemen in to warn us about the dangers of drunk driving, nightlife, and hanging out with the wrong people. He put us in hospitals to interact with patients, and introduced us to the military. He taught us that there was more to being an Ohio State football player than just football.

We had a responsibility to present ourselves in a positive way, as we were representatives of so many things so much bigger than ourselves. Apparently, some of us could not handle that honor.

To some of us, there were different priorities, and becoming a man under the watchful eye of millions around the world was too much. George Dohrmann from Sports Illustrated suggested that Jim Tressel lost control of his football team. Quite the contrary. The Ohio State Football culture took over Columbus. Coach was the only reason there WAS any control on this football team. Ask the troubled former receiver. Ask the star quarterback. Our mistakes occurred away from his watchful eye.

Our mistakes had nothing to do with Jim Tressel.

Coach Tressel had one goal for each and every one of his players. He wanted to put us in the best position possible to succeed. Both on the field and off. He taught us that complacency was not an option, and that we could only be the best men that we could be if we learned every single day. He taught us everything he could, and gave us resources to learn what he could not teach us.

I want to look him in the eyes and thank him for the chance he gave me. I want to thank him for the life I live today and the doors he opened for me along the way. I want to thank him for introducing me to BuckeyeNation. I want to thank him for my rings and for my gold pants. I want to thank him for allowing me to live my dream and for the happiest moments of my young life.

He always said, “On your best days be great. On your worst days, be good. Every other day, get better.” Let’s just say that today, the Ohio State community is only good. But thanks to our Coach, we will always be better.

Go Bucks! — Jon Thoma

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A blast from the past (much needed) and refreshing story from the present.
FIRST, the video…

SECOND, the story…
Blog post from Young Americans for Liberty Website (www.yaliberty.org)  Remember to Play the Long Game | Young Americans for Liberty.

By Grover Norquist

Why does the federal government spend so much money? Why have the size and scope and cost of government grown over time? Other “industries” have become a smaller part of the economy over time: Agriculture. Manufacturing. Technology has made other “services” less expensive: Computing capacity. Telecommunications.

To begin with, it is only recently that one party was, even rhetorically, committed to reducing the size of government. For many years after the civil war the two parties were simply regional parties of the North (Republican) and South (Democrat). Only during the political lifetime of Ronald Reagan did the Republican Party organize itself in the name of limited government.

Indeed, the term RINO-Republican In Name Only-came into use because too many “Republicans” were not committed to limiting the power of the state. And before Goldwater, Reagan and Ron Paul there were no RINOs because there was no presumed worldview demanded of anyone calling themselves Republican. You simply had to live North of the Mason-Dixon line.

The Reagan Republican party was national, not regional. The unifying factor was that everyone around the Reagan Republican table was there because they shared the issue that motivated their vote: They wanted to be left alone. Taxpayers: Leave my income and wealth alone. Homeschoolers: Leave me alone to control my children’s education. Gun owners: Leave my Second Amendment rights alone. People of faith: Leave me alone to practice my faith and transmit it to my children. People in business: Leave my business and professional life alone.

Those Americans employed in the legitimate functions of the central government (those bits actually mentioned in the Constitution) such as defense of the nation and the judicial system-soldiers and police-tend to be support limited government, for they are part of the “leave us alone coalition;” they work to keep the Canadians on their side of the border and our neighbors out of our cars and houses.

That explains why Republican majorities in Congress will never steal your guns or bash home schooling or religious liberty or raise your taxes. Republicans understand that those are organized constituencies for the party that will leave if their issue if betrayed (see Bush 41 and 1990 tax hikes leading to the loss in 1992).

Understanding the structure of the Reagan Republican Party-a coalition of groups and individuals who wish to be left alone on their primary, vote moving issue-also explains the failure of the Bush 43 years. Why did spending drift upwards even with a GOP House, Senate, and Presidency? The answer is that Bush could tell gun owners, “I will not regulate guns, but I will spend too much.” He could tell taxpayers, “I will not raise your taxes-I will in fact cut your taxes each year…and then spend a little too much. People of faith, I will leave your homeschooling, Christian radio stations, and parochial schools alone and then spend a tad too much.”

No part of the Reagan coalition demanded more spending, but there was no faction, no group, no block that was clearly identifiable that would throw something heavy or walk out of the room when spending grew so long as the government left their primary issue alone.

The tea party movement in 2009 and 2010 ended all that. Now there was a verifiable, visible, tangible voting bloc that focused on overall size of government. America’s preeminent community organizer, Barack Obama, finally created the movement that acted in politics on the issue of government overspending.

Adding the tea party to the coalition of taxpayers, property owners, homeschoolers, people focused on religious liberty, businessmen and women completed the circle. Now a president or congress wishing to spend too much-no matter how low taxes are kept and gun control is stopped-would be met with steel, not shoulder shrugs.

The tea party movement made the smashing victory of 2010 possible and the 87 freshmen elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 led the fight to ban earmarks. That ban was the second turning point in the fight against spending. Earmarks are numerically only a small fraction of government spending, some estimate $40 billion. But they were the currency of corruption, the government spending in targeted congressional districts and states that literally bought the votes of Congressmen and Senators for bigger budgets and growing government. Congressmen who opposed big spending bills found themselves voting for the entire bill because an earmark of theirs was wrapped inside the legislation.

A congressman trying to get his earmark in a bill had no time or interest in looking at what else went into the overall legislation. A secondary effect was that lobbying firms in Washington would trade campaign contributions for earmarks. This lightly disguised corruption also kept congressmen in DC holding fundraising events with lobbyists rather than back in the district raising campaign contributions from taxpayers and businessmen. That is why so many politicians can, with a straight face, say “everyone I speak with demands more government spending.”

A very old, very unfunny joke in Washington is that there are three political parties: Republicans, Democrats and Appropriators. Ending earmarks took away the ability of appropriators to use earmarks as bribes or hostages to control the rest of Congress as they spent and spent and spent.

These three changes: the tea party movement, the creation of limiting spending as a vote-moving issue, the ending of earmarks, and the weakening of appropriators have created the progress of the past few months, a block by block fight with the Washington establishment to claw back trillions in additions to the national debt and blatant, intentional ignorance of the unsustainability of the entitlement programs.

Those who wish to continue the government’s profligate spending habits have three tricks up their sleeves: refocusing the debate away from government spending to the deficit, demanding that cutting discretionary spending should wait until after the entitlements problem is “fixed,” and focusing on this year rather than long term trends.

When the nation focuses on reducing government spending as a percentage of the economy there are only two solutions: 1. Spend less and 2. Grow the economy faster.

Free market conservatives are willing to cut spending. The president and his allies in Congress are not. Free market conservatives have a collection of pro-growth policies: cut the top tax rate from 35% to 25%, abolish the death tax, abolish the capital gains tax, deregulate, and enact free trade agreements and tort reform. The spenders in Washington have no policy proposals that will grow the economy. None. As long as the nation is focused on spending as a percentage of the economy, supporters of the free market have all the answers and supporters of the state have none.

But if we are stupid enough to focus not on total spending but on the deficit-the difference between what the government spends this year and what they take by force in taxes this year-then the statists have a solution: just raise taxes.

This is why no advocate of limited government or Reagan Republican should ever allow themselves to leave the high ground of focusing on “spending as a percent of the economy” and move to the swampland of “deficit reduction,” where tax hikes are the moral and economic and political equal of spending restraint.

A second ploy for those who have no interest in cutting back on government is to belittle all efforts to make small cuts while the entitlement system remains unreformed. This is actually an attempt to stop us from removing the low hanging fruit, to stop us from making small budget cuts. It is making the perfect the enemy of the good. This was the hypocritical criticism of our drive to ban earmarks; “Why, earmarks are only $40 billion and the deficit is a trillion,” some said. But every step in the direction of lower spending is progress.

Phony “budget hawks” also like to demand that the budget must be balanced in one year or five years or ten years. They make the time horizon short enough that meeting that deadline with spending cuts would be obviously unreasonable. Therefore the only “reasonable” position is to raise taxes.

If we can avoid being distracted from our true goal of limiting the size of government as a percentage of the economy, take every spending cut we can get the moment it is politically possible, and not place imaginary time limits on our progress to liberty, we can reform entitlements in a politically popular campaign that will also dramatically reduce spending in the near term and cut spending in half within one generation. And with the national debt nearly equal to the GDP, we must eagerly take every spending cut-no matter how small-which we can get.

Grover Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform, a taxpayer advocacy group he founded in 1985 at the request of President Ronald Reagan. He serves on the board of directors of the American Conservative Union, the National Rifle Association, and The Center for the National Interest. He is the author of the book Leave us Alone – Getting the Government’s Hands Off Our Money, Our Guns, Our Lives.

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My dear friends Debbie and Bill Harvey are an inspiration to us all. They are living a purpose driven life, AND traveling to one of the most impoverished places on earth to spread God’s love. Please watch to see how making a difference starts with a choice…

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When viewing a recent viral & social campaign that Cold Stone Creamery launched this summer I saw related videos that ranged from our commitment to Make-a-Wish, to New Product Announcements to Cold Stone Birthday Club and Gift Card programs I helped launch. But none stuck a cord with me as much as this video below, it was the way Doug Ducey envisioned the company from its inception to through its meteoric growth. All good things DO NOT have to come to an end, the lessons in this video can be applied to any company so long as they have the passion and commitment to stick to the plan… The Pyramid of Success!

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This commercial causes an emotion to take action.

This is WHY people love and buy from Apple

I want an iPhone NOW! > come on Verizon, get this phone as I did not say the same thing about AT&T.

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Believe in the power of Brands and what it means to discover whether you have one of enduring value?

I believe watching below will be the best 18 minutes or your day.

Thank you Simon Sinek.

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