If Tallulah Bankhead lived today, she’d say

“It is the good girls who keep blogs; the bad girls never
have the time.”

People leave Cleveland and go live in other places. Why don’t we have an alumni program. Caroline Anderson is an artist living in Chicago with strong Cleveland ties. I’m enjoying the privilege of receiving her first blog comment:

I used to live in Cleveland, have met the inimitable Tom Mulready, drank many gallons of coffee at the Phoenix Roastery Cafe (best coffee in Cleveland at the time). Now I live and work in Chicago, and although it is a big step forward I do miss the intimacy of the Cleveland scene. Thanks SPACES, thanks CSU, thanks friends, and good luck. It’s great to meet you again in cyberspace…

With cool people like Caroline, April Baer, and others moving elsewhere, it’s great to know we can still keep in touch with each other virtually.

Do you live in Cuyahoga County? I don’t. But I’m very much concerned about what happens there. In my opinion, there’s a couple big issues that need our help. The whole Arts Levy is one. Issue 23 is another. Libraries are truly centers of knowledge. Both the Cleveland Public Library and the Cuyahoga County Library Systems use some of the latest technologies to raise the community’s level of understanding on anything and everything.

We can’t afford to let these inititatives go unfunded. Both of the campaigns need your help. Please do what you can.

Chris Thompson at CrainTech thinks we need to ixnay the illbay that bans gay marriages and tell the state legislature to work on something important like creating some jobs. I couldn’t agree with him more. Who’s up for election this time around?

After driving down Carnagie across the Lorain Ave bridge with the January sun in my eyes, I stopped at another Cleveland WiFi spot to get my batteries recharged. Coffee for me and electricity for my laptop.

There aren’t many spots in C-Town were you can use free WiFi in a big leather chair that sits in front of a fireplace. That’s for sure.

Not sure why I’m bummed Otis White doesn’t mention Cleveland is his latest newsletter. Probably because it means that even though there isn’t anything to criticize us about, there isn’t much we’ve done right that bears mentioning…

Got an email from Mac Hammond today. In it he says:

The founder of Jefferson Standard Insurance built a successful company from scratch. He assembled some of the greatest insurance people by simply asking, “Why don’t you come and help me build something great?”

What would you do if someone asked you that? Have you ever asked anyone something similar?

Since Craig and Sue generously offered to share their practical networking experiences with mixer attendees, I wanted to point out their page at Ryze:

Since 2001 CatalystStrategies has helped companies grow their businesses, and non-profits achieve their goals…

We consult with organizations of all types in the areas of organizational strategy & leadership development. We also help organizations with their sales & marketing strategies.

Facilitated events and workshops are our specialty.

We love our community in NE Ohio. One of our contributions is the creation and management of the the ConnectionSeries. The ConnectionSeries aims to provide content-rich connection-oriented events geared toward improving our region. More info at www.ConnectionSeries.com

If all this sounds “serious”, well, we do take it seriously! But we don’t take it seriously to a fault. We approach our engagements in unique and memorable ways that help our clients enjoy the journey…

We have some fun - and so do our clients.

Sue James and Craig James are the firm’s Co-founders and Managing Partners.

Check us out - We’d love to chat with you and see how we may be of service.

Just two of the excellent group of people attending next week’s mixer. Check out who else will be there at http://clevelandevent.ryze.com