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Business with a little flair, humor

By JODIE TILLMAN
Published January 23, 2007

NEW PORT RICHEY - No man wants to hear the question, but bank executive Jim Kimbrough had to answer it - in front of more than a hundred of his business colleagues.

That question, of course: Honey, do these pants make me look fat?

Kimbrough, of SunTrust Bank Nature Coast, turned red in the face and said no. Luckily for him, the woman asking the question was not a significant other, but Connie Podesta, a therapist and comedienne. And she was only trying to make a point.

"Stop asking this question," Podesta told the crowd, specifically the women, gathered at Spartan Manor on Monday for the start of the 14th annual Business Development Week. "You have a scale. Get on it. If the number is high, the butt is big."

On the face of it, the Men-are-from-Mars, Women-are-from-Venus shtick may not have a lot to do with business. But Podesta, a Dallas-based professional speaker frequently hired by corporations, said she does not separate the personal from the professional. And she never misses a chance to inject humor into her speeches on the workplace.

"How about an hour of comedy and therapy?" she asked the audience of business leaders.

Podesta wore a glittery jacket, paced the stage and alluded briefly to the dry presentations that might be expected of a gathering of business leaders. She even offered to do an "unbelievable PowerPoint session," which she would follow up with writing everyone's thoughts on a flip chart to "create a strategic plan that will never be used."

Just kidding.

She often hears from people who complain that work isn't fun. Her response, she says, is that no one forces them to go to that job in the morning.

"The company didn't send a van to pick you up," she said, as the audience laughed. "Grow up. Do something different. I'm tired of people taking the company's money ... and then talking about the company behind its back."

Employees often have problems accepting change - anything from a new computer system to new parking spaces - at their workplaces, she said.

And she's got a special workshop on that subject. It goes pretty much like this: She tells them to "deal with it."

And then, she said, "I walk off the stage."

Fast Facts:

Event schedule

For a complete schedule of this week's events, go to the West Pasco Chamber of Commerce's Web site at www.westpasco.com/westpasco/bdw.html.

[Last modified January 22, 2007, 22:04:55]