Speed = Distance / Time

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In sports, speed is usually important. 

Bat speed, club head speed, how fast can you throw it. The fastest person to win (X) games or the fastest person to get (X) hits or whatever. Speed is a thing that most people can easily relate to - rapidity in moving, going, traveling, proceeding or performing. You know, swiftness.

If you work at full or optimum speed, that is usually a good thing. If you are up to speed, you would be functioning or producing at an expected, acceptable or competitive level - up to par. Like, "the new guy is not yet up to speed." 

Larry Csonka's New York area book signing event lasted a few hours. But, each person only got a minute or two. Some people brought magazines to be signed, or replica helmets. There were people with Dolphin's tattoos, and there must have been hundreds of #39 Dolphin NFL jerseys in the building. 

I think it would be safe to say that Larry was not the fastest runner in the NFL - pretty sure his teammate Eugene Edward "Mercury" Morris was much faster. No, Larry Csonka was not like most speedy running backs. He wasn't fast per se, and he was not the most agile player either. What he did possess was the ability to run the ball with power. 

Now when I say power, I'm talking about an athlete that could burst through the line, bowling over defenders, and leave them in his wake. He was the definition of a power back, one that could will his way to big yards and scores. Yep, one of the best fullbacks to ever play the game. Not a speedy runner, no. Just one of the best. 

Bob Hayes is the fastest player in NFL history. At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Hayes won the 100 meter and broke the existing World Record with a time of 10.06 seconds. A three-time Pro Bowler, Hayes was inducted to the Football Hall of Fame in 2009. Ever hear of Bob Hayes? This is not a knock on Bob Hayes, but I never heard of him. Have you, my good blog reader, ever heard of (not fast) Larry Csonka? Yes. I bet you have heard of Larry Csonka before reading this Sunday blog.  

Sometimes, speed is the measure. And sometimes, success becomes even more dramatic with the absence of speed. 

In around 2000 I was running a company which was servicing the Maritime Industry with telecom and technology services. I owned MTP - MaritimeTechnologyPartners.com  Do you remember BlackBerry? Man, that was such a hot product. I was working with a company named AireSpring as they were a big deal reselling BlackBerry phones and BlackBerry service. At its peak in September 2011, there were 85 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide. However BlackBerry lost its dominant position in the market due to the success of the Android and iOS platforms.

Now, 23 years later, we are a Master Agent for AireSpring - a Super Carrier - offering their Cloud Communications, Managed Connectivity and Managed Security. Wow, 23 years. Definitely NOT a speedy relationship - but today, one of our best vendors. After all this time, a contract that we executed over twenty years ago - a supplier relationship that started way back in 2000 - is one of our most valuable. One of our best. 

In business, sometimes speed is the measure. How long will this take? When will it be ready? Is there a deadline? Can we get it any faster? Can we get the delivery any sooner? Sometimes the true value is not is the speed, but the value is actually in the lack of speed. 

Sometimes it's all about the legacy. 

MTP - www.ManagedTelecomPartners.com is back! 

Steak! Yeah, but not every day...

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Yesterday it was Capone, Capone and Capone for lunch. STEAK! 

Our "Go To" is Arthur's Tavern in Morris Plains, NJ. The girls had a bridal shower yesterday, so the boys were on our own for lunch. Alas, Arthur's did not open until 3:00 PM yesterday. CRISIS MODE....

OK, Google: what do we do NOW????

We found Franklin Steakhouse and Tavern in Fairfield, NJ. Their website promises "Great Food, Great Times." The good news is that the lunch was great, the steaks were great, and a good time was had by all.

But - we are still loyal to Arthur's Tavern. That was the general consensus on the ride home. And that made me reflect on why - and why we were feeling such BRAND LOYALTY to Arthur's Tavern.

It is 9.9 miles door to door to Arthur's. It is 10.4 miles door to door to Franklin Steakhouse. So that's not it. 

Price: about the same. 

The STEAKS:  ah, about the same. We voted 51 / 49 in favor of Arthur's. 

We shall come back to this. 

Today, via the NYDLA.org (and now NADLA.org) we sell Zoom. And GoTo. And BlueJeans, and Microsoft Teams, and Adobe, and Webex, and a few others. We are like the "Footlocker of Collaboration" and I sometimes joke, "Yes, but did you see the Nike Display?"

We TRIED to go to Arthur's but they did not open yesterday until 3:00 PM. If Arthur's was open yesterday at noon, there is a 99% change that we would have never, ever, ever checked out Franklin for lunch. It was only out of necessity that we were FORCED to check out Franklin. Ah, but now that we DID check out Franklin:

They have party rooms. They have rooms for corporate Lunch 'n Learns. They have much more ROOM and SPACE and they are easy to get to for events and such. And, you can hear each other speaking. You can actually have a conversation. And they have monitors on the walls, where you can use BlueJeans or Zoom or GoTo or.......

OK, land the plane Tom.........

You might be a Zoom shop. Or Microsoft Teams. Or GoTo or Webex or.....(fill in your "steakhouse" of choice here).

It pays to try something different from time to time. It pays to see what else is out there in the world. You should have a policy to check things out, try new things, test new features. There are some things that Zoom does that Teams does not. There are some things that BlueJeans does that GoTo does not. There might be a FEATURE that is a "must have" and other features that might be "nice to have" but will not impact your buying decision. 

When the boys are in town, or we are celebrating a family outing, I'm pretty sure we are going to go to Arthur's Tavern.

When it is going to be a "close to home" Lunch 'n Learn or a business event with 10, 20 or more attending, we shall probably reserve a private room at Franklin Steakhouse and Tavern. 

Steak for Lunch: Walk it off...

Clouds in My Coffee

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I'm 62 years old. It was around 50 years ago that I was living in Boca Raton, Florida wearing my #39 NFL football jersey as I watched my Miami Dolphins go 17-0. Still the only perfect season in the NFL. At 12 years old, Larry Csonka (football) was my childhood hero, with Johnny Bench (baseball) a very close second. 

Larry Csonka has a new book: "HEAD ON - A Memoir." More on this later. 

I started doing audio podcasts a few years ago - mostly because everyone was doing them. Currently, there are around 3 to 4 million audio podcasts out there. 44% have less than 3 episodes! Only around 700K have more than 10 episodes. And of those, only around 150K are releasing a weekly episode. 

A few years ago, I stopped doing audio (only) podcasts, and started doing video podcasts. My motivation? Again - because everyone was doing them. We kept the name as we transitioned from audio to video: Coffee in the Clouds. Just two people having a fireside chat on the Internet. On video, one take, live, no editing. NO EDITING! And, there was always a cup of coffee at hand. 

Now as we just took the wrapper off a new year, 2023 has become the year of the video podcast. At least for me. During COVID, no one was going ANYWHERE, so hybrid meetings, hybrid events were not very hybrid. It was ON LINE or nothing. We would do Zoom Talks with Actors, Authors, Athletes, and.. COMEDIANS. During lock-down, Zoom Comedy Shows were the only thing that a stand-up comedian could do. So, even though most of our comedian guests would much prefer a LIVE audience in a packed nightclub or large theater venue, it was Zoom Shows or nothing. Because some our comedian guests had millions of followers on their social media channels, our www.ZoomTalks.us would get millions of eyeballs. Cool, I love millions of eyeballs. 

ZoomTalks became TomTalks which became NYDLAcast.com interviews - but the introduction was always the same, such as: "Patton Oswalt - welcome to an episode of Coffee in the Clouds - how are you?!?" 

Actors, Authors, Athletes, Entrepreneurs. Thought Leaders. Subject Matter Experts. Some of our video podcast guests are famous in the business world, having millions of followers on LinkedIn. If you have millions of followers on LinkedIn, you got something going on... Millions of followers on Twitter or Instagram - OK, fine. But millions of followers on LinkedIn? Hello...

Our two favorite technology platforms for doing video podcasts are Zoom and BlueJeans by Verizon. Full disclosure: the NYDLA.org ( and now NADLA.org) which I run are Tier 1 ELITE Partners for both Zoom and for Verizon. And, we are impressed with a few other video conferencing platforms in the marketplace. But both Zoom and Verizon allow us to host LIVE video podcast recording sessions from our NYC office. Or from Convene. Or, from one of the 31 Hard Rock International locations. Or, from just about...anywhere in the world. If you have a stable high-speed Internet connection at your location, we are in business. So, we can have hundreds of people LIVE in the room, hundreds of thousands LIVE (virtually) and then millions of people watching the Livestreams or the archives like a TED Talk. 

As of 8:33 AM on 2/5/2023 the most viewed (non-comedian) Coffee In the Clouds of all time is Bill George. Right behind Bill is Marshall Goldsmith, then Tom Peters. It makes sense since 98% of our global community are "in business" in some capacity. And these are the kind of subject matter experts, the type of folks that have millions of followers on LinkedIn. Today, our association is indeed global, with 5.8M+ members and 46% of the Schools of Business. I expect that we shall be at 10M+ global members come 2024. 

I don't know who originally said, "Baseball has been very, very good to me." It might have been former MLB slugger Sammy Sosa. Or if you are old enough to have been watching SNL in the late Seventies, you might have been watching Episode 5 of Season 4. That was when SNL cast member Garret Morris nailed it, appearing as Chico Escuela for the first time in the Nov. 11, 1978 episode of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE. 

"The Internet has been very, very good to me." ~ Thomas A. Capone, 2/5/2023

Last month, I sent an email to ZONK! Productions, Inc. c/o www.LarryCsonka.com

"Larry, you would make a GREAT NYDLAcast.com interview. We reach millions. You fit our audience perfectly: athlete, actor, author, entrepreneur.  Please say yes - we can promote your new book to our entire community. Larry - when I was growing up in Boca Raton, Florida, I wore your #39 jersey every day - especially in 1972! Please say yes." 

Hey, I wonder if Johnny Bench also wrote a book...

www.CoffeeInTheClouds.us