Gratitude and Letting Go
Tonight, I was able to stop time. I had to take my son back to college. It was dark and warm, with an early September breeze hinting at fall. As we drove through the night with the top down, he asked if he could play some new songs over the car speakers. He was chatty […]
Social Media and The Business of Healthcare. A Double-Edged Sword.
Perhaps. Social media as a channel has been around for 40+ years. Consumer brands embraced social first, as a way to communicate with consumers and expand reach. When advertising on social media began, those same brands started pouring millions of dollars into filling newsfeeds with ads. The business of healthcare was and is a little […]
Uniquely American: 911 and the Heroes of United Flight 93
“Are you guys ready? Ok, let’s roll!” Todd Beamer from Flint, MI Tom Burnett from Bloomington, MN Mark Bingham from Los Gatos, CA Jeremy Glick from Saddle River, NJ They led the revolt on United 93, saving countless lives. Even facing their own deaths, they demanded to be in control of their own destiny. They […]
The Death of Journalism
Dearly Departed, We are gathered here today to say farewell to journalism—journalism degrees, journalism as a career, any respect for the news in general. Dead, dead, dead. I’m just a month shy of 54. When I was in college circa 1983 to 1987, Journalism was still a thing. In fact, I married a journalist (the […]
City of Zombies
I’ve had the opportunity to visit the West Coast twice in the past few months. Typically, travel is business related but these were both pleasure trips, a rare experience for the members of the convent. Although the visits were enjoyable while we ate and laughed our way through San Francisco and Seattle, it was tough […]
Something Sweet In Seattle
After a week in the Pacific Northwest visiting Vancouver and Seattle (the city British Columbians say is “just like here but 2 hours south”) I can say without bias that the brands I’ve experienced are some of best work I’ve been witness to in some time. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been working in healthcare too […]
Econ 101
Just about 32 years ago I graduated from Saint Vincent College (SVC) in Latrobe, PA. I’d transferred from William & Mary—much to my father’s chagrin. What neither my dad nor I realized at the time was that I would receive a very valuable gift in Latrobe—a Bachelor of Science in Economics with a heap of […]
Risk and Reward, the Economics of Immigration
In 2018 controversy and rage around immigration—illegal and otherwise—seemed to dominate the news cycle. As I took off over the Atlantic today, leaving behind the coastline and eastern border of the United States, I couldn’t help but reflect on my own family’s story. In 1910 my great grandfather Onorato Cecconi left a small village north […]
On Taking Chances
On nearly my 48th birthday I did something a little crazy—I jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet, yep more than 2 ½ miles straight up and then—straight down at 120 miles an hour. I’d wanted to do that for 25 years but money, time, guilt over having small kids, fear, (life) got in […]
