What is your definition of family?

I remember how excited I was in the Spring of 1987, I had just been hired to be part of the morning show at WPHR Power 108 in Cleveland. I was receiving my staff shirt and the Program Director said "welcome to the family". Somewhere there is a photo of me smiling ear to ear in that shirt with Curt Monday who was the Morning host who really was instrumental in giving me my break and a news person who I can only recall as Dawn. I can't find that photo so here's one from 18 months earlier with my genetic family on the night I graduated High School.

So 18 months after this photo of children suffering bad haircuts was snapped I was welcomed into a new family. It's a family so I knew things wouldn't be perfect. Fights, misunderstandings, jealousies would all pop up, but I expected to live out the rest of my days in Cleveland with my new family at Power 108. But on Christmas Eve, I along with Curt, Dawn, Ray Mariner, Mars Frehley, Jeff Kelly, Tony Rizzo, and some other names I'm forgetting were kicked out of the family. AKA Fired. We weren't even in the family long enough to make the WPHR Wikipedia page once the internet was invented by Al Gore years later. As a matter of fact I never even saw any of my former siblings ever again except for Ray and that was just by accident. The guy who gave me my break's name wasn't even Curt Monday. Turns out his real name was Curt Boykin. I found that out a few years ago in a radio trade magazine announcing his death. What a crappy brother I was to not only not know his real name but that he was dead! 

The point I'm making is that I have been welcomed into dozens of families and escorted from their dwellings through the years. WBLI, WKCI, Universal Records, WQGN, WRUT and so on and so on. Places of employment are not your family. And for those of you arguing that your co workers treat you a lot better then your genetic family I would agree that just because we have the same ancestors it doesn't mean we are family. You can absolutely have people in your life that have no link to you other than you chose them, and they chose you and you are now family. After all that's what a spouse is. Family needs a new definition. I suggest something like "a group of individuals who have made a commitment to support one another even if that requires sacrifice". 

Don't let the emotion of "welcome to the family" allow you to be taken advantage of. We can't just be family 9-5. We are family all the time. Intruding on each other at all times of the day and night. Calling for favors etc. Start calling your new family members about helping you clean the pool or whatever and see what kind of sibling you have there. Of course it usually starts with you making the first sacrifice so show some people you want to be kin with them by loving them sacrificially. But if that love is denied then just move on. They can be pals or coworkers or associates but they're not family.   

I always love to hear your feedback! kellynash_99@yahoo.com

What is the real purpose of a celebrity spokesperson?

I sit in meetings with advertising executives, business owners, promotions people and assorted others on a regular basis. The reason they have me in these meetings is to discuss my possible contribution to their bottom line. Yes it really is about the bottom line in everything, including charities. Some like to fool themselves into believing it's about "building a brand", "crafting an image", or "generating good will", but the reason they're interested in any of those things is to improve their bottom line. They've heard stats like the one Harvard put out a few years ago that endorsements from celebrities can increase sales 20%. Or the Forbes Report that showed companies turning themselves around by hiring a celebrity endorser. Activia, Jenny Craig, Burger King, and many other saw sales going down and suddenly turn around when a strong ad campaign with a celebrity was launched. But does it always work? Of course not! If it did then all ads would be done by celebs. So the question of what made certain ones work becomes key.
There are 2 things that must align for your campaign to work. First the product and the celebrity need to match. In 2007 the Florida Dept of Citrus spent $90,000 to hire Tom Selleck to do  a 15 second and a 30 second commercial. They also promised him another $90,000 to do 4 more commercials in 2008. He has since earned several million as the voice of the OJ commercials. He never says this is Tom Selleck to tell you about OJ. You never see him on the TV version of the commercials. That would sound and or look like an ad and people would tune it out. Instead they hear the voice of someone they grew up with (target demo is females 25-49) and he's describing the simple health benefits of orange juice. It's like their dad reminded them to get some OJ to keep them and his grandkids healthy. That celebrity matches the product. An example of a celebrity not matching the product can be seen in the disaster that was the Beyonce/Pepsi deal. December 2012 the ad world was stunned to hear of a $50,000,000 deal between the two! Pepsi had put all their eggs in the Beyonce basket. She would be on their cans and bottles, special vending machines featuring her image would be created, radio, print, billboard, internet and TV ads would all feature her. The campaign would be launched around a massive Super Bowl halftime show and 3 ads to air during the game as well! She was the biggest pop star in the world and pop music fans are the number one demo for soda. Pepsi figured they had hit a home run.

There was one thing they hadn't factored in. Beyonce was close with the first lady Michelle Obama. So what? Well Michelle was pushing to get soda out of schools, and out of kids hands all together. And helping her in that effort was Beyonce. But certainly a few appearances, a few years earlier would be forgotten by the general public once they were inundated with a never ending Pepyonce Blitz. (Yes I created a new word there). No they were not forgotten. And Pepsi went on to have it's worst first quarter in decades, shrinking 4-7 percent because their celebrity didn't match the product. 

The second thing that has to be there is the truth. In 1912 the McCann advertising agency registered the worlds first advertising trademark.

McCann recognized that you need to tell the truth about your product. But you need to do it in a creative way. Here in Columbia most everyone knows Joe Pinner. For those of you outside of our area Joe is like the local version of Willard Scott. Joe has been on the NBC affiliate for over 50 years! He hosted a kids show called Mr Knozit (Knows it) from 1963 into the 1990's! Plus he was the weather guy on the nightly news. 

He's been semi retired for about 15 years, but still is on TV and it seems like any big event in town Joe is there. So Joe's voice is instantly recognized by people from Columbia and he is awesome as the spokesperson for several different companies including Agape Senior Health Care Center and Wade Culler Roofing. They are marketing to people 40 and up and Joe is a trusted voice to the people who grew up here. He also can creatively cut through all the crap an advertiser wants to get on the air and get to the actual point that will make people want to choose their product over the competition. That is the purpose of a celebrity spokesperson. And one day I hope to be half as good as Papa Joe!

So when you want to discuss a spokesperson for your product discuss those 2 things first. Will they work with the demo and our product. And what is the truth that makes our product or service better than our competition. Once you have those answers you're well on your way to a success. Good luck!

I always love to hear your feedback. kellynash_99@yahoo.com

Chasing your dreams

I had a 10 minute discussion with a young lady today who "works near her dream". That was her phrase for explaining why she is selling radio commercials when she really wants to be a press person in the hip hop genre. That actually would seem like torture to me. To be near the field you want to be in, with no real hope of getting there. I explained that if she was serious about wanting to be in PR she should focus all of her efforts on getting into a position to learn and network with people who are doing what she wants. It may require a pay cut, but you'll feel more alive than ever knowing you are on the path to do what God designed you to do. And you can't put a price on that.

Of course you also need to take some inventory before you begin the dream chase. Some good questions;
Is what I'm about to chase physically possible? That explains why my modeling dream died.
Is this a dream that helps others? If your sole goal is to help yourself not many folks want to help.
Does my dream line up with God? Your dream of being a drug king pin will have the blessings of satan and addicts. Your dream of being a pharmacist gets the support of our Creator and Lord.

I'm a firm believer that God created all of us with dreams He wanted us to chase to help each other. Artists, Doctors, Athletes, Soldiers, Politicians etc. Everyone adds to the tapestry of human life and when we work together in harmony we begin to form an image of what heaven will be like. So stop denying yourself... and us the gift of your dream. Get after it! Let me know how you're doing. kellynash_99@yahoo.com

I'm back

My last post was March of 2009. So if you've been refreshing for 6 years your patience has been rewarded! In the past 6 years I have ended my marriage. Started and ended a political talk show. Started a business. And become the sole guardian of my autistic son. I also painted my bathroom.

For all you doubters who didn't think I would or could paint my bathroom by myself over the weekend...ta da! pic.twitter.com/NKrDAHNa
— Kelly Nash (@KellyNashRadio) February 18, 2013

So we have a lot of catching up to do!

Taking a break from this blog

This is a difficult thing for me to do, but I will be taking an indefinite break from this blog. I love expressing my opinions on the political events of the day. I even more enjoy the dialogue with some of you who read this blog (yes the liberals too).
I feel that God has told me this blog is a distraction from what He wants me to focus on. What's that? I have no idea. One step at a time. I hope in the future to resume this blog, but that's not for me to decide.
I hope Republicans will rally around the party for the 2010 elections, as it's obvious from the first few months of the Obama/Reid/Pelosi administration that they plan to spend and grow government as much as possible. Currently averaging 36 BILLION A DAY!
I hope Independents and Libertarians will take a 2nd look at the Republican party, which is far from perfect, but with a little help can regain control of the house and return power to the people.
Finally I hope the politicians will learn from the past mistakes. Conservative principals are what the majority of Americans believe in. You will get hammered by the intellects of this country and the media, the same way the intellects and media attack anything that is rooted in the past. They want new ideas, and attitudes to show enlightenment, and growth. If you stay with the ideas that have always worked it's not sophisticated. Don't worry what the press and intellects say. Worry about doing the right thing. The right thing is taking power away from politicians and returning it to the citizens of this country. God bless you all, and I pray God continues to bless the United States of America.

Someting to think about as you listen to Obama tonight.

In a few hours President Obama is going to address the nation. It will no doubt be filled with some eloquent soaring rhetoric that he has become famous for. A lot of standard lines too that all Presidents say like our best days are ahead of us, the country must pull together etc. That's all well and good. What's not well and good is what he's going to tell us will fix the problem. The Obama fix is all about consumer confidence. We currently sit at the lowest level since they began measuring consumer confidence in 1967. It has dropped from last February at 76.4 to our new low of 21.2. The Obama plan says these numbers are a self fulfilling prophesy, brought on by the banks freezing credit, which popped the housing bubble, which scared homeowners who slowed their regular consumer behavior, which slowed the economy, which lead to layoffs, and the cycle continues downward. If we can just get Americans to spend like normal, and banks to lend again, that will allow businesses to hire back employees, who will spend more money, which means housing prices return, and we're back to the good ol days! Yea! But that's not how we got in to the mess, nor how we'll get out of it.
We got in to this mess because Americans have been spending like crazy. The saving rate of American citizens starting in 2005 was -1%. That's right America as a whole spent more money than we made. We did this because the federal government drove up the value of our homes starting in 1999. They did that by taking an active roll in getting low income people to share in the American dream of home ownership.

The community reinvestment act was part of the problem, as was the fed keeping interest rates low. Their intention was good. Help poor people own a home which will help save them money on taxes and allow them to save for the future. The fact that there were now more buyers than ever meant home prices started soaring, which lead to a soaring construction industry. The side effect was people started refinancing their houses at lower interest rates and pulling out equity on these artificially inflated prices and used that money for more consumption. Which drove the economy to incredible heights. But the ride can't last. All the poor people got their houses, which meant the prices had to start dropping. Then the poor people started defaulting which threw banks in to a death roll. That's how we got in to this mess.
To get out of it is simple, but quite painful. All those jobs that were created by the consumption, that was made possible by the inflated equity, that was created by poor people buying houses.... those jobs have to go away. Millions of people need to become unemployed. The poor people need to go back to apartments. We need to return the country to the way it was before the government started tampering with the housing markets. Only when we reset, can we start to build again. How long till then? It totally depends on how much President Obama wants to inject his solutions. With no government "stimulus" this trend would have accelerated to the bottom in 2010 by my guess. But if we "create some jobs", those jobs can't last, as American tax payers are already at the tipping point. If we stall foreclosures, we are doing a disservice to ourselves. The houses need to be foreclosed on so we can drop everyones housing value back to a real number.

It's not all doom and gloom however. In the last report issued Americans saving rate is way up to 3.6%. That's a long way from China's 50% saving rate but a big step in the right direction. That 3.6% is also the money President Obama is going to tell you spend tonight to return this country to our past greatness. But as you just learned the past decade was just a mirage, and only a fool would return to a mirage after finding it out.

This isn't just some pie in the sky theory I pulled out of nowhere or someplace even less savory. Listen to one of the worlds top economists being interviewed on European Television. This is Peter Schiff

Jesus would have been a Democrat

It seems lately a lot of my liberal friends have been hitting me with that. Seeing that Jesus is part of the holy trinity making Him the all powerful, all knowing creator of the universe, any person who would attempt to answer His political affiliation on His behalf is a fool. So let's look at some God principals from the bible, and see if we can apply them to our lives in politics. God wants his people to feed the hungry and care for the poor as you read in Matthew and those who don't, will wish they had.
But Jesus was also clear that Government doesn't do Gods work in Mark 12:13-17 where he famously tells the people give Caesar what is his, and God what is His.
Politics is not the place to play the religion card. A Christan who studies their bible also knows, that God raises up all leaders, both good and bad for a number of reasons, but ultimately to bring glory to himself. For those who may have forgotten I direct you to Psalms 75:5-7 , Daniel 2:20-21 And yes that includes women leaders as you read about Deborah in Judges 4 So if you didn't like Bush, or don't like Obama, or don't like your boss at work, still know God put them over you for a reason.
This can be confusing. God wants us to care for the less fortunate, but separates government, from His work, while at the same time putting leaders in their positions. But maybe it's not as confusing as some would make it. What I take away from this is if you're a Christian you should be taking care of the poor. You can't expect government to do the work of Gods people. I challenge the religious right to have such an impact on your community that government officials would be ridiculed for proposing more socialist programs, because the needs of the people are already being met. The people who cry out for equality, justice and change this is where you can effect America. Right in your town. I applaud President Obama and his fellow community organizers as doing a good thing. If they're organizing people to change the community themselves, through hands on 1 on 1 relationships with people who need help. We need a lot more of that! I believe that's the spirit of Christ. However if you're a community organizer doing God's work you aren't to spend your days organizing votes to change some laws so that people are forced to give money to an organization whose leaders line their pockets before distributing the leftovers however they see fit. That organization in question by the way is our federal government. I know there are some good leaders there, but for the most part the men and women who run all nations do so for self centered reasons. Why does God allow that? Maybe so people will learn only He can fix our problems and we'll return our attention, trust and devotion to Him.