Building Trust in a Virtual World

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Building Trust in a Virtual World

March 5, 2010 · 2 Comments

People live their lives today pressed between the flowing pages of Twitter and the back and forth banter of blogs. They connect with professionals via their profiles on LinkedIn and run them through Google search as a matter of routine background check. Presented with rich content, they sift through the information trying to determine the desired level of connection.

The tentacles of their personal brand are out there on the social media highway, reaching out and touching each person who zips by. These “brands” try hard to be engaging, hoping that the hook they thrust out is the one that will spear them in, bringing the friend/fan/follower front and center to the hub of their existence: the place where they make the sale.

This can’t happen without taking the conversation to a deeper place where they can become intimately connected to each other. How we get there is a matter of trust and is a crucial point in establishing lasting relationships. Those who have presented themselves in an authentic way on-line will appear seamlessly the same in person, while others who have experimented with on-line personas that don’t truly represent who they are will find continued relationships lacking as purchasers of the brand discover the existing holes.

Trust will always be an inherent part of taking the next step, but it is a developed risk needed to arrive at a deeper level of doing business. Today establishing a brand identity and a unique value proposition involves not only trust but truly being authentic in a very transparent way.

LIFE TURNS ON A DIME

Silently you entered the void
that had been slowly building for years
You stepped back in as if you had never left
The same, yet changed, as if life's limp hand
had painted an eternity of weariness on your brow

You slip in the fact that you are recently back in town
after a weekend with your folks
My eternal need to go beyond the basic "Hi, how are you?"
and ask pointed in-depth questions leads me to an answer
that makes my heart bleed for you

You tell me your visit was brutal
"Brutal" because your father is dying
Life-long smoking has led him to a dance with cancer
A Dance that is coming to an end
Already tiny silent cells have coursed outward and upward
and he is Stage 4 upon first diagnosis

"Damn, why didn't you tell me this before?!
A deep silence lays between us like a heavy woolen blanket
Slowly you begin to speak, your words falling like
bullet thuds into the packed earth:

"I spent the first night in the hospital with my father
He was in very bad pain: the kind of pain that makes a grown man
curl up into a ball screaming and crying like a newborn....
And when the pain wasn't wracking his body, he talked:

About how much he doesn't want to die
About how much he wants to get back to his work
About how much seeing me meant to him:

"Damn, I don't know what to say...."

"Yes, damn. Welcome to the last week of my life...."

****************************************************************


I know the history of pain between them- it cuts deep
like a knife, both literally and figuratively
Those cuts brought us close initially and these new wounds
are bringing us back together for the moment

I offer prayer, knowing that as an avowed atheist
he will shrug it off outwardly,
But because he knows my beliefs, will be inwardly thankful for
the positive energy

So sad to be brought back together under such circumstances
So glad that the connection is so tight, that he can reach out for
comfort, solace, help

Life turns on a dime......................











Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

Olives, Part Deux

Working so hard that each project
blends into the next
and last week's snowstorm becomes this
week's blizzard of white
that encompasses my spirit and blinds my sight

This nagging stage of sleepiness makes
me wonder what is real and what is the fiction of my night
And you mirror my life, working 24/7
in a distant land
our schedules so out of sync that the
time difference doesn't even matter

I think I saw the words "I love you" in a message
on my phone
Was that you?
Was that a dream?
Was it my iPhone playing tricks on me?

I called you last night and you were lost in sleep
Alert enough to answer your phone
Too tired to talk, too bone-chilling cold
All you were able to get out was some message
about working around the clock
that was filled with sleepy regret
and the promise of a future surprise as if I were a child

Well, I am not a child

How long can I wait for you?
Is the money so worth it to you that you are
losing your days?
losing your soul?
losing me?



Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2009

The Depths of Friendship

The Depths of Friendship

How can I describe how you make me feel?

Warm, safe, loved, respected

Words can’t contain what you mean to me

How you make me the center of your world

Even when we are millions of miles apart

You asked me yesterday what I think of you

As if you didn’t already know

I love your mind

I love your spirit

I love your heart

I love the humanitarian streak in you; always going out of your way

To help someone in need; to offer financial resources

You tell me that when you are with me

“It is like being in heaven” and you feel as if you are “floating”

We can discuss serious intellectual topics and minutes later

You throw out a humorous quip that truly leads us to ROFL

You are light and darkness

You are seriousness and levity

You are my soul connection

So glad you are in my life;

So glad you are my special friend.

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

Once Upon A Time....

I feel the energy that is growing between us
The pull that takes me back years and years ago
to the time when you bared your soul and I
rejected you for another

Re-connected and traveling in the same professional circles
I watch you watch me out of the corner of your eye
The hug of greeting that you extend as
others shake hands around us
Is not the quick motion of two colleagues embracing
There is a pause and a deep tightening of your arms around me
Just for a second, a flash that only I am aware of

You are part of the reason for where I am today
You gave me confidence when I changed gears in my life
And inspired me to share my words with the world
No easy feat for a certified privately paranoid person

I remember things about you from long ago
Secrets from your family that you shared
with me within the dark spaces of our college dorm
Events that touched your heart, that I have kept close to mine

I remember that last snow-filled night, when our world
was swirling white with flakes
and sharing a couple of shots sounded like a good thing
Honey flavored liquor loosens tongues and causes the heart to spill
I am so sorry that I broke yours on that cold winter's evening......

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

YEARNING......

YEARNING…..

There is something about olives….

Cylindrical, smooth skinned, damp

Securing one in my mouth, I suck gently on its walls

Letting the salty, loamy flavor sink into my tongue’s taste buds

I close my eyes and see a distant land,

Filled with sand dunes and an oasis in the distance

A lone olive tree grows there

Bearing the fruit that touches my senses

Near the cool water that refreshes my soul

And you are standing beneath its shade

Waiting with arms open for me to return

Is this altered reality or a lesson in dreaming?

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

Connection For Eternity

Some where out there you lie under brilliant stars
As the waves crash into the burnished white sand
The moon shines down on your dark hair
spotlighting your life
How far you have come in the years since our lives touched
I'm not surprised, I always knew you would

We both glide through life touched and utterly changed by
each other's past presence
All those years I thought I was the rescuer, only to find
that you truly were the white knight
Transforming me back into what I had lost
Polishing my rocky foundation with words of love and encouragement

Fighting against the feelings of being utterly swept away
I was a rock shifting in a stormy sea
When the clouds lifted and the sun returned
You were gone, but I was left strongly standing in my resurrected life

Somewhere out there I lie under brilliant stars
The waves crash into the burnished sand beneath my body
The moon shines down on my dark hair
spotlighting my present
I reach for my phone and punch in a series of numbers
The familiar voice instantly laughing into my ear, "What took you so long this time?"
Our connection still exists.








Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

An Invitation to Join the Dance

An Invitation to Join the Dance


Take my hand and place it in yours
Intertwine our fingers so that I can hold onto you
Forever
Close your eyes and listen to me very carefully
You are very, very precious to me
You are my heart and my soul and my everything
I want to spend the rest of my life with you
I want to wake up every day and go to sleep every night
Having witnessed your smiling face, your laughing eyes
I want to make you my wife
The queen of my life; the holder of all that is good in the world
I want to be with you forever
I want “yes” to be the sweetest word that I will ever hear
I love you.








Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010

The Meaning of Life

From the Files of Years Gone By:

What if someone walked up to you on the street and asked, "What is the meaning of life?" How would you answer.......

Shouldn’t that really be capitalized- “life” I mean? Because living is what we are all about. For some, who don’t believe in a higher power or a “place” like heaven, living is truly all about the here and now. In uncultured civilizations, where rules and regulations and penalties and jail time don’t exist, people allow themselves to follow their own selfish goals. They believe in self-fulfillment here on earth, because this is truly all there is for them. For those who are guided by a higher purpose, as well as by government laws, believe that this life is only a temporary stop on their eternal journey. How they go about living this life determines where they finally come to rest; whether it is a physical state or a state of mind.

So to me, the meaning of life is all about being the most self-actualized (a tip of the hat to uber- shrink Maslow); always striving to be a good person and helping other people. Ultimately it is about living in order to fully live- to meet up with our Creator. If I can capitalize on my talents and strengths and use them for a far greater good than purely for myself, then I am enriching the lives of others. The trick is having balance; making sure that all of that enrichment is spread evenly among my self and others.

So truly for me the meaning of life is all about death. Death of an earthly existence judged for an eternity of life. Could be that we are all here on earth as some very large existential experiment on God’s part to see which way we will respond to that ringing bell in absence of the inevitable meat. What do you think?

Michelle Beckham-Corbin

12/11/06

Copyright Michelle Beckham-Corbin 2010