Thomas A. Capone | CEO | NYDLA.org

Pinned post from October 25, 2025

It's all about brain chemistry

Brain chemistry refers to the complex interactions of chemical substances in the brain that influence thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and bodily functions. It involves neurotransmitters, hormones, receptors, and other molecules working together to enable communication between neurons (brain cells) and regulate the nervous system. Brain ...

Pinned post from October 22, 2025

Honey, do we need this?

Overview of Medicare TV Commercials TV commercials for Medicare are a seasonal staple, especially during the Annual Enrollment Period (AEP) from October 15 to December 7, when beneficiaries can switch plans. As of October 22, 2025, we're right in the thick of it, so you're likely seeing a barrage on cable channels like news networks, g...

Pinned post from October 21, 2025

Hey, you DID www.JoinNYDLA.org right?

AAA most refers to the American Automobile Association, a not-for-profit federation of motor clubs founded in 1902. It serves over 65 million members across North America with services like roadside assistance, travel planning, insurance, and advocacy for road safety. AAA is structured as independent regional clubs (e.g., AAA Northern ...

Pinned post from October 18, 2025

So is it "NEIGH-DLAH or "NAH-DLAH" ???

I just turned 65 and now I'm on Medicare. YAY!!! And now my wife and I are getting our 'supplemental' coverage via the AARP network and their massive buying power. Double YAY!!! This was the trigger, my turning 65. Medicare. Turns out that I COULD HAVE joined AARP at 50. But it never crossed my mind to do so. We live in New Jersey but ...

Pinned post from October 17, 2025

My Third Wish is to have Unlimited Wishes

So, I don't have a magic lamp. But some days I feel like I do......and I love to share my toys (tools). First toy (tool?) is Dotdigital. There are 174K+ K-20 schools serviced by the NADLA.org across North America. That has been growing since 1983. When I first met the folks at Dotdigital it was at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas. One thi...

Pinned post from October 15, 2025

Teams of THREE - how do I love thee

When I was at PURDUE (Freshman Chemistry) Dr. Bodner taught me about 'teams of three.' Not two, not four..... THREE. 3 is the magic number. Studying together in a POD (a team of 3) was proven to be the optimal way to study. There were special rooms set up at PURDUE for PODS. Dr. Bodner was right. The teams of three lesson stayed with m...

Pinned post from October 13, 2025

Is Customer Lifetime Value still a thing?

Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total profit or revenue a business expects to earn from a single customer over the entire duration of their relationship. It's a crucial metric for understanding customer loyalty, predicting future revenue, and informing business strategies like marketing and customer retention. CLV is calculated by...

Pinned post from October 10, 2025

Think this way: Luke Skywalker PLUS R2-D2. They are "A Team"

If you ran a trucking company would your fleet use GPS? How about dash cams? If technology COULD reduce your fleet's fuel expenses and reduce your overall insurance expenses by 10% (or more) how can you compete with a trucking company that DOES embrace technology? And what if all the trucking and customer data was reviewed by AI to opt...

Pinned post from October 9, 2025

Clouds in your Coffee

I started doing 'audio' podcasts many years ago, because everyone was doing them. So I jumped on the bandwagon. And because of our relationship with Zoom, we moved from audio only to video. OK, fine. At the time, it was all just an afterthought. In fact, there was a time when I thought about stopping our 'NYDLAcast.com' interviews. Thi...

Pinned post from October 8, 2025

I would like you to meet my niche

My first 'MTP' company was MaritimeTechnologyPartners.com DID YOU KNOW that New York City was a 'Maritime' town? New York has a natural deep water port and this is why 'The Big Apple' became so... big. And also this: name a major city in the world. Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Miami, LA..... London, Hong Kong.... THEY ARE ALL MARITIME T...

Pinned post from October 4, 2025

No Original Thoughts Allowed

So as of the first of this month I am on Medicare. Oh boy, NOW I know that all of those Medicare Part D ads are about... my phone is blowing up with calls from strangers, all about getting Medicare Part D. My wife signed us both up for AARP a year or two ago. Not sure exactly when we started paying. And she picked my (our) Medicare Par...

Pinned post from October 3, 2025

Chocolate Cake with Lemon Icing

Yesterday was my 65th birthday. When my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I answered without hesitation: "Chocolate Cake with Lemon Icing." I don't remember my exact age when my Mom first made me Chocolate Cake with Lemon Icing for my birthday. My best guess is 10 years old. Let's go with that. Using that as a good baseline,...

Pinned post from October 2, 2025

My 65th Horizon

So... first of all today is my 65th Horizon. My 65th Birthday. I know this because everyone on my Social Media feed is reminding me that I am......old. Heck, even Starbucks wants to give me a free coffee today. OK, so I got that going for me. I have blogged in the past about how I met the folks at Horizon. And how the confusion between...

Pinned post from September 29, 2025

The New York Megalopolis

This weekend I drove round-trip from BOONTON USA to Yale.edu in Connecticut. It was 2 hours, 12 minutes. 104.0 miles via I-95N. Being a Sunday the traffic was not bad at all. But it was almost 5 hours of drive time, in total. That is 5 hours where I could have been more productive. Recently I started taking the train from BOONTON USA t...

Pinned post from September 26, 2025

Legal Tender

While cleaning out a closet, my bride found a gift certificate from 25 years ago that we never used. 5/22/2000 was the date. I have no idea who gave this to us.... or why. And there it sat for 25 years. "Call them, see if it is still any good...." It can't still be good. It's been 25 years! "Call them" No, that is a waste of time. "Giv...

Pinned post from September 24, 2025

As I was saying....

This is not, Not, NOT about politics. Seriously. It's not. This (THIS) post is about media. 'THE' media. The business of media. Ratings. Money. Advertising. Hey Grok: what were the ratings for Jimmy Kimmel last night? Jimmy Kimmel Live! Ratings for September 23, 2025 The episode of *Jimmy Kimmel Live!* that aired on Tuesday, September ...

Pinned post from September 23, 2025

Boost that Post!!!

I feel like the Magician who gives away the secrets....how the trick is done! Several times a week, we 'Boost a Post' on LinkedIn. There are over 1B+ professionals on LinkedIn and millions on LinkedIn Learning. I remember when LinkedIn bought Lynda.com for $1B+ (now called LinkedIn Learning) and then Microsoft bought LinkedIn for $26B+...

Pinned post from September 20, 2025

How long you in town for?

During a recent event at Yale.edu I stayed at the Red Roof in Milford, Connecticut. I was impressed. Amazing value. Red Roof was just what I needed. So, I said to myself "Tom, you are always doing these day trips, speaking gigs, etc. You are 'in town' for the event. It's not a vacation. You are working. And what about all of the colleg...

Pinned post from September 18, 2025

When you know better, you do better

Hey Grok: Who was Dick Fosbury? Dick Fosbury was an American high jumper and Olympic gold medalist, best known for inventing the "Fosbury Flop," a revolutionary backward jumping technique that transformed the sport. Born Richard Douglas Fosbury on March 6, 1947, in Portland, Oregon, he grew up in Medford and attended Oregon State Unive...

Pinned post from September 10, 2025

Oh no you didn't

My wife: "Tom, you took 148 pictures yesterday?" Yes. Yes I did. Yesterday was a big day at MetLife Stadium. Our vendor/sponsor Verizon held an event for their 'Public Sector' customers and clients. My job was to invite as many of our NYDLA.org | NADLA.org members from NY/NJ/CT to the event. Mission Accomplished. OK, great day. Fantast...

Pinned post from September 4, 2025

How it started... How it's going

According to my LinkedIn history, it was more than 30 years ago that my buddy was working for a company called CardConnect. He had the idea to offer all of the schools serviced by my company MTP - http://MyTeachingPartners.com credit card processing services. Sure, I said. Why not. The original name of NetSuite was NetLedger. Founded i...

Pinned post from August 29, 2025

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore

A few years ago we were a Tier 1 Platinum ELITE Partner for Verizon selling BlueJeans by Verizon. I loved, LoVed LOVED using and SELLING BlueJeans! At the time the NYDLA | NADLA was the #1 promoter of Zoom in North America. After all, it makes perfect sense that the DISTANCE LEARNING ASSOCIATION would be promoting all things Zoom, righ...

Pinned post from August 27, 2025

It's like the Costco Chicken

I've had many mentors in my life. One, a Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, Darden School of Business, University of Virginia told me about how he was a member of Costco, but he never went inside. He did the math. He joined Costco for the cheap gas. The membership fee for Costco was a fraction of the cost of the net savings...

Pinned post from August 22, 2025

Eat what you kill

The phrase "eat what you kill" is an idiom that originates from hunting, where it literally means consuming the animals you have hunted and killed. In modern contexts, it’s often used metaphorically to describe a system or mindset where individuals are rewarded directly based on their personal efforts, contributions, or results, withou...

Pinned post from August 2, 2025

G.I. Joe Fan Club - It's a TRAP!

I now find myself in my 5th decade as a sales professional. I am old enough to remember when having an 800 number was a big deal. I remember when postage was $0.20 and you needed to make every direct mail letter count. I am old enough to remember newspaper ads and paying to have a business listed in The Yellow Pages. I remember when a ...

Pinned post from July 31, 2025

Do you see the hidden message in the logo?

I met Fred Smith at a Yale Alumni event. FedEx should have never existed. If there was no Fred Smith, there would be no FedEx. Then I thought about Zoom. Zoom should not have existed. What if Eric Yuan never left Cisco? Just like 'what if' Fred lost that hand of blackjack? We always love to learn of the stories of the winners. Is it lu...

Pinned post from July 30, 2025

Is this still a thing?

I remember when Webex by Cisco first it the scene, in 1995. I think the world shook a little. Ah yes, the birth of the webinar. The birth of the web meeting. WebEx, now part of Cisco, has a history rooted in online collaboration. Originally founded as ActiveTouch in 1996 by Subrah Iyar and Min Zhu, it later became WebEx Communications ...

Pinned post from July 18, 2025

"Bonfire of the Vanities"

A vanity number is a phone number with a memorable or customized sequence of digits, often spelling out a word, phrase, or brand name using the alphanumeric keypad (e.g., 1-800-FLOWERS for 1-800-356-9377). It’s designed to be easy to recall and is commonly used by businesses for marketing and branding purposes. Years ago, I sold a ton ...

Pinned post from July 3, 2025

Trade Winds Blow Strong!

Well, we are halfway through 2025 and here is lesson number one: Trade Shows are bigger and better than ever. Meetings and Events are always fun. But the trade shows, especially the big ones - they are lead generating machines. 10% of 10% of 10% is our guarantee: • If 50,000 attend a trade show, 10% or 5,000 will engage with you post-e...

Pinned post from June 19, 2025

Good Food and Grog

This past week we attended a Zoom Partner event in NYC. Zoom is all about 'remote' but it just goes to prove that humans are social creatures. The Zoom 'Map and Mingle' Partner Event was at Electric Shuffle NYC at 44 W 30th. Perfect venue for such an event. What I noticed was this: many (many) small teams of people were hosting their o...

Pinned post from May 29, 2025

MrZoom.us by day... DrZoom.us by night

"By day and by night" generally means throughout the day and night, or constantly. It can also describe situations where someone's activities or roles are different during the day and at night. So to keep it light, I'm www.MrZoom.us by day, and www.DrZoom.us by night.... Anyway... A few years ago, the folks from Verizon called me and a...

Pinned post from May 26, 2025

And it makes me wonder...

Wonder.com is the website for Wonder, a service offering lightning-fast food delivery, takeout, and dine-in from over 20 iconic restaurants in one place. It allows customers to order from multiple restaurants in a single delivery, featuring cuisines like pizza, Mexican, Japanese, Italian, Indian, Greek, and more. The platform emphasize...

Pinned post from May 24, 2025

BRONZE or Better in the (now) GlobalDLA.org

46,910 members of the (now) GlobalDLA.org attended HIMSS.org LIVE earlier this year. 40,000+ representatives of our members [our 174K+ schools, our 16K+ municipalities and our 6K+ hospitals] are sending a representative to Orlando to attend InfoComm LIVE in June. We expect that number to continue to grow. We are offering our vendors/sp...

Pinned post from May 21, 2025

How the Magician Does the Trick

Purdue University Online has 600K+ alumni. Penn State World Campus has 775K+ alumni. Rutgers - the State University of New Jersey has 600K+ alumni and 300K+ live in New Jersey (like me!). For the first time in history, more people are paying schools for an online education than a traditional campus experience. More people are paying Pu...

Pinned post from May 19, 2025

The Center of the Known Universe - THE BIG APPLE

Yes, I am pretty spoiled. I live 30 miles West of Times Square. Morris County New Jersey. There are 55M+ people living, learning, working, playing, teaching, training, coaching, mentoring in the New York Megalopolis. I can jump on the bus (or train) from BOONTON USA and be in The Big Apple in less than an hour, working from my laptop t...

Pinned post from May 16, 2025

NYDLAatInfoComm.com

InfoComm is the largest ProAV show of the year. We are inviting the 174K+ schools, the 16K+ municipalities, and the 6K+ hospitals serviced by the NADLA.org to send someone to the show, with a free NADLA.org pass. As of this post, we have 38K+ who have registered to attend LIVE or virtually. We have the entire line cards of TD SYNNEX, D...

Pinned post from May 15, 2025

When things turn into Pumpkins

We are a Kajabi Partner. At midnight tonight (5/23) our 'SUPER SPIFF' for Kajabi expires. The best NYDLA.org value-added member benefit (for Kajabi) turns into a Pumpkin. But for right now: • You can JoinNYDLA.org for 90 days for $99 • You can get PoweredByKajabi.com for 90 days for $99 • You can hire a STRATUSstaff.com POD (a Kajabi t...

Pinned post from May 12, 2025

And now..... we follow up.................

When was the last time you attended an event (ANY SIZE) and you felt satisfied? That your time and money were invested well? Meetings & Events seem to be constant. There is ALWAYS something going on at Javits Center in NYC. I live 30 miles West of NYC and I could (I don't) go to Javits every day... and I would be able to network and me...

Pinned post from May 10, 2025

Sorry, Sold Out.

I am back home in BOONTON USA from Connecticut. And I am reflecting on how what is old is new again. For meetings. LIVE (Live) vs. LIVE (Hybrid) vs. LIVE (100% online). The event on Yale Campus was small, LIVE and... small. Very intimate. The room only held a few hundred people. No Zoom. Do you know what was the most impactful, the mos...

Pinned post from May 9, 2025

The GLOBAL Cloud COMMUNITY

"We are all living, learning, working, playing, teaching, training, coaching, mentoring in the GLOBAL Cloud Community. The future of work - the future of education - the future of entertainment - is in the Clouds." ~ Thomas A. Capone | CEO | MyTeachingPartners.com Half the world’s population — 𝟰 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 — live in this small yell...

Pinned post from May 7, 2025

The New York Megalopolis

There are 55M+ people living from Maine to Virginia. This is the old Bell Atlantic footprint. The Amtrak footprint. The 'New York Megalopolis' was the birthplace and home to the New York (Metro) Distance Learning Association. Living, learning, working, playing, teaching, training, coaching, mentoring from the Center of the Known Univer...

Pinned post from May 3, 2025

Distance Learning > DIGITAL Learning > DIGITAL LIVING

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY.... more students are paying tuition for an online education vs. a traditional campus education. More people are paying PURDUE UNIVERSITY ONLINE than PURDUE UNIVERSITY. More people are paying PENN STATE WORLD CAMPUS than PENN STATE. There are 174K+ K-20 schools across North America. That is K-20 not K-12 a...

Pinned post from April 30, 2025

With a little Yelp from my friends

If you are happy, tell a friend! If you are not happy, please tell ME! It recently hit me how much of our time (and money) and ATTENTION is spent in the sharing of our feelings. It is just the way we are wired as humans. If you discover a new restaurant and you have a good (or bad) experience, you tell your friends. If you find a new '...

Pinned post from April 26, 2025

The Man with the Plan

So, 'Kajabi' is an all-in-one platform that helps creators and entrepreneurs build online businesses, particularly for selling digital products like courses, memberships, and coaching programs. The word "Kajabi" itself is said to be an aboriginal word meaning "to take flight." Full disclosure: the GlobalDLA.org is a Kajabi partner. Alo...

Pinned post from April 21, 2025

Plating the meal

We just came back from Connecticut, celebrating Easter with the family. It was our first Easter with our new Grandson (first Easter with him walking around) so it was pretty special. During the end of the Easter Egg Hunt someone said "It's time to plate the meal" and I had to Google it - I never heard that phrase before. A plated meal ...

Pinned post from April 18, 2025

Rooftop Bar Season

I am not sure there is anything better than Lunch 'n Learns and Sunset Seminars from the rooftops of New York City. The power of 'The Big Apple' allows one to organize a networking event with very little advance notice. There are plenty of apps to help to organize Meet Ups - both formal and informal. When you are having an event in NYC...

Pinned post from April 16, 2025

A Boy and his Toys

This is the Madison Beach Hotel in Madison, Connecticut. It has become our 'go to' venue for Lunch 'n Learns and Sunset Seminars. The large meeting room can hold around 20 to 30 people comfortably. So that means that we can have: • 30+ people LIVE in the room • 300K+ LIVE via Zoom • 3M+ watching the archives via Workvivo by Zoom This a...

Pinned post from April 15, 2025

10% of 10% of 10%

I've made a good living off the 10% of 10% of 10% formula. If you send out a zero spam, 100% opt-in email to a list of (let's say) 100,000 of your ideal client persona (ideal customers) you should be able to get: • 10% or 10,000 to engage deeply (Marketing Qualified Leads - MQLs) • And 10% of those would take a meeting, take a call, me...