DaveKuchenbecker.comMarketing a healthy lifestyle

It was reported today by The Associated Press that 75% of Americans are going to be overweight by 2020. That’s right, 3 out of every 4 people will be carrying more weight than they should and be looking down the barrel of all the health issues that come along with obesity. It’s not an epidemic limited to American’s either – obesity rates are going up in all developed countries as food becomes more affordable and we keep coming up with ways to make it less nutritous.

I will admit, I need to lose some weight myself. My Grandma used to say I was “big boned” and that’s just how God made me; but I’ve come to realize that God isn’t forcing me to have dunlap disease (you know, where your belly dun-laps over your belt)…and I do have the power to do something about it. Of course, God isn’t helping by making french fries so darn tasty…

Anyway, back on topic…our nutrition in America is terrible. I’m no medical doctor (or expert in anything) but the food we eat today is drastically different from what people ate just a few generations ago. Even as a child, my family had a huge garden and we ate lots of fresh fruits and vegetables all summer long. Of course, living in Wisconsin we didn’t eat much fresh food in January; it takes too long to dig through the snow to get to it. Now that I’m a city dweller the only fresh food I ever see is what my parents give me or what I purchase at the local farmers market…and that’s a very small portion of what my family consumes as a whole.

Anyway, what can you do about the fact it’s next to impossible (and expensive) to get high quality food for you and your family? I have one solution; and I’m going to tell you about it soon. How’s that for a tease? Anyway, there will be some information websites running and a free sample program setup in a few weeks. I’ll be sure to share it with you when it happens. Til then, I’ll try to hold off on the french fries if you do.

BIG DISCLAIMER:  This is going to be a personal post that most people probably won’t care about much.

For those who know me know that I have had a part-time job at local radio stations since I was 12 years old…that’s 24 years now.  You’ll have to do the math on how old I am!  Anyway, today is my 12th year anniversary of working at my current radio station, Y100.  Y100 is a country station based in Green Bay, WI  and is a top station in this market.  September 20, 1998 was my first official on-air show on the station – and after all this time, I’m still having a great time playing the hits!

If you’d like to check out the station – it can be streamed anywhere from www.wncy.com

This summer I was fortunate enough to have been offered a new position with a large corporation (a Fortune 100 company).  After the details of the offer were finalized, my wife and I decided it wasn’t a good fit for me at this time.  I used the online offer form to reject the offer and sent an email to the recruiter explaining my decision. 

After a few days, I decided to call the recuiter to make sure there wasn’t anything else that was needed from me.  Our conversation was very terse and short; mostly because she hung up on me.  I guess once I wasn’t going to work for her company, I was of no use to her anymore. 

I understand that many recruiters make their money by placing people, and by turning the position down a significant amount of work was essentially lost.  However, I can think of many sales or recruiting type situations where a lot of time might be put into a prospect – and in the end, nothing results from it.  I’ve always thought that if I’m going to value the person enough as a prospect; I should value them enough as a person if they aren’t going to purchase from me. 

How do you treat your former prospects after they decide not to buy from you?

For anybody who has noticed, my blog has been down for a few days.  Between changing hosting providers and having a corrupted backup, I believe I have lost everything that was on the site.  Oh well, such is life.

So, in the next few days I’ll be posting new content out here and giving the blog a bit of a new direction.  I’m working with a nutrition research company; and we are starting a full-on marketing campaign to spread the word.  More details on that will be coming soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the new posts and let’s connect.