Ok, right off, this is a soapy and emotional post. You have been warned.

There are alot of challenges and hard work as a speaker. But they are outweighed by the great rewards when you truly connect with the audience. This can happen during the presentation or when people come to talk to you after and tell how they have been affected by what you said.

Last night however, I had the best reward. I spoke in Chicago at a business event sponsored by the city. My youngest son likes to come with me to speaking events so he can sell books (and make some cash). Last night he came with me. They asked him to sit on the stage next to me. He loved it. When I finished my presentation and sat down again next to him, all he did was lean over and kiss me on the cheek. That was better than applause. That was the best reward I ever received!

I didn’t know what it was or that I needed one until I didn’t have one. Isn’t that the way our consumer culture work?

I kept on seeing these nifty little icons next to other web site urls in the Internet Explorer browser bar….a company logo, fancy letters, designs etc. Even though they are only 1/4 inch tall, they do look cool. I learned they were called favicons (Favorite and Icon combined). So now for my web site, my favicon is an orange rubber band ball. Check it out at www.barrymoltz.com.

I met Jim when my first book, You Need To Be A Little Crazy came out in 2003. He is a huge supporter of small businesses. Here, Jim talks about the new book, Bounce! during today’s interview. He is most interested in the link between the cycle of success and failure. Give it a listen.

I could not resist this headline in the latest issue of Laptop Magazine. Now from Europe, Phone Fingers no has rubber covers (where did they get this idea I wonder?) for your fingers so you don’t always have to touch your “germ invested fingers” to your iPhone and then put it against your face. You’ll look silly but sometimes that is the price to pay to stay healthy. The product comes in small to extra large so at least for this product, you will find a fit!

The Bounce! Virtual Book Tour kicks off this week on Liz Strauss’ world renowned Successful Blog. She is one of the best known bloggers in the country. I met Liz through Brett Farmiloe when I sponsored the Pursue The Passion Tour last year.

From her web site:

According to EatonWeb, “Liz Strauss is perhaps the most influential relational blogger on the Internet.” Her blog –Liz Strauss at Successful Blog — has been called both a destination and an event. Open Comment Nights, a Blog-to-Blog Conversation, a Blogger’s Cafe, single questions, and on-the-blog strategy sessions keep readers returning to conversations that often last for days. Her blog has tens of thousands of comments.

Liz led the vision behind last year’s SOBCon07 — THE Relationship Bloggers’ Conference that gained the attention of BusinessWeek, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Innovation Initiative of the Kellogg School of Business.

Check Liz’s Blog out and join the conversation all this week!

When I was speaking at Thunderbird School of Management in Phoenix today, I asked one question: How Do You Bounce?

It has been four years since my last book came out, You Need to Be Alittle Crazy: The Truth About Starting and Growing a Business. During that period of time, I have talked to alot of media people. So when I started to receive the real hard cover copies of my new book, Bounce! to send to the press, I began to email my large press database. I was amazed to find out how many of them “bounced” (and that’s not a good thing in this context). I realized that the media in general and the people at the specific media outlets has changed alot in the last four years. Media choices are so much more varied- blogs, social media, and video are so widerspread. Getting the word out about this book is totally different than it was in 2004. There is so many more choices but alot more clutter and noise to rise above in order to get notice. We have lots of good promotional things we are doing and if you have ideas, please let me know!

A clip from how I changed one business person’s life. Okay, so its Bill Levy, my brother-in-law and but its a start!

My wife tells me that birth is painful. I intellectually understand that but it wasn’t happening to me when she gave birth to our sons. I was only there in the delivery to be yelled at.

Today, is the soft launch of the new website (my third since 2000) that will go along with the new book, Bounce! which will be release in January. It has been a painful project to reorganize and rethink all the content from my “Frankensite” that we developed 5 years ago especially with the Web 2.0 technologies that are now available. I decied to go with Wordpress throughout the site so it would have the optimal technical design. The site is now a start.

I want to thank Susan Nigrosh (web), BJ (I don’t even know her last name, but the wordpress maven), Laura Roeder (Design), and Mary Jane Grinstead (editing). I want to thank Katherine Stoica in advance since she will be keeping the website updated and dynamic.

The most difficult part about working with so many people with a variety of expertise is to coordinate all the skills and opinions. This project was no different. Thank you to all of you for cooperating working together and showing me what teamwork is all about.

Over the weekend, I flew down for suburban Boston as I mentioned in my last post to see my mother who is recovering from a shoulder replacement. This had to be a one day turnaround so the only way was to drive to New Bedford, MA and take a Cessna twin engine puddle jumper to Martha’s Vineyard. For me, since I do not like to fly to begin with (although I do it 100 times a year), this had the potential to be shear terror.

I waited at the New Bedford Airport for my flight. I was the only one in the terminal. I was the only one that boarded this 7 passenger plane. The pilot introduced herself as Kim. I said I was Barry. She instructed me on how to escape the plane if necessary. I hope it wasn’t. She asked me if I was ready. I said sure, but I had two questions: Was the flight really only 10 minutes? She said it was bad weather so it would take 12. Could I listen to my iPod the entire time even during take off and landing (I figured in 3 songs we would be there). She said yes as long as she could not hear the music through her headsets.

She turned the key and started the airplane. We rolled down the runway and took a turn to take off. Now, this being a twin engine with two people (and no luggage), this plane took off like a helicopter. Now I fly on alot of jets which many times to me seems like a flying carpet or couch. But being in this plane, felt like we were really flying and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. I could see everything the pilot was doing and it wasn’t much as we made our way through the air turbulence. Only 10 minutes I said to myself. 10 minutes of terror. I was almost through the first song. My hands reached under my seat and nicely fit into the grooves other white nuckled flyers had made before me. If I could breath, this might even be fun. Song two had just started. I closed my eyes and sang the words to the song. I am sure Kim would not hear me above the noise of the engines and wind. We then started to descend to the airport. Third Song. The pilot was lining up for the runway. She was struggling against the wind. We were over the runway - and pluck she landed this bird perfectly. Kim brought the plane to a stop. Turned around and said. "Thank you". I finally breathed out and said "No, Thank you!"