The Web I

The Stress Doc, still shaking his head over unexpected shower of calls and correspondences from major news organizations, corporations and publications in a two week span, reflects on the significance of this media-rites of passage. Are you ready to start building a professional or business presence in cyberspace?

The Web: Madness or Mistress, Mystery or Mastery? Part I

WWW. For most folks the immediate association is World Wide Web. After these past two weeks there's another meaning: World Wide Weirdness. It started with an early morning call from a producer at ABC-TV news in New York City and seemingly ended with a late night call from a reporter for the LA Times. And in between there were emails and calls from Idaho, New Jersey and Ontario and a phone interview with US News and World Report. I'm still trying to get past my state of shock-elation-bewilderment; to settle down and make sense of my bubbling cauldron of adrenaline from this fairly startling chain of events.

My consultant neighbor says the message and the moral is persistence: "To keep on keeping on." Perhaps I am on the verge of becoming a 20 year overnight success. ;-) Another implication is the potential of the internet for allowing an individual entrepreneur to communicate a message, an image, a database and a service or product line that emerges from the buzzin bloomin cyber confusion of links, URLs and homepages.

The web is helping me compete online and offline with "the big boys (and girls)" as my webmaster put it. (I will soon be writing about my evolution, "From Technophobia to Cybermania: "On Becoming a Net Entrepreneur," the topic of a recent talk at an Evolving Electronic Social Work Conference. Until then, email - stressdoc@aol.com - for info about my Online Coaching Program for consultants, educators and entrepreneurs.) In fact, if some of you folks in the allied health field/speaking and training fields don't get websites up, running and promoted, I may suffer the same fate as Microsoft. The government may pursue me for having a webopoly. I'm kidding and my DSM IV Diagnosis is showing - 301.81: Narcissistic Personality Disorder!

But, just when I thought these two weeks couldn't get any weirder, I get a call from a major municipal utility in the Northwest. The administrator inquires about my doing a stress and humor workshop. Twist my arm. But then she parenthetically adds, "There's hardly anyone else promoting these stress and humor programs on the internet." And while I know there are some other groups promoting this mix, the competition isn't always that stiff. A few months back a reporter for the New Haven Register did a telephone interview on the subject of shame. His response to my question, "Why did you call me?," was not uplifting, but was convincing: "Yours was the only website that didn't seem like it was designed by a wacko." (I'm sure my "square genius" webmaster would take umbrage with that judgment.") Again, I ask, "Why should the aformentioned administrator need to call someone 3,000 miles away for service." As long-time readers know, my upgraded motto for the millenium: "Go web young cyber-ite."

Okay, enough of my chatterbrained cybermania. Let me outline "The Two Weeks that Shook the Stress Doc's Virtual Reality." Here's the beginning of a sequence of cyberconnections that has me shaking my head, and also has me believing that '99 may be my breakout year:

1. TV or Not TV? Two weeks ago, at eight in the morning, an Associate Producer at ABC-TV News in New York City calls asking if I can recommend a couple that are dealing with the husband's anger for a next day news show. And it's serious…Barbara Walters is doing the interview. As one client said: "If it was Jerry Springer, I probably would have done it. Who cares if you come across like a schmuck on that show." My second cast into the marital waters was even less successful. I called some old friends from our New Orleans days. Betsy was a bit upset that I thought of them. Her husband, Paul, a fellow narcissist, was ready to go. (ABC would fly the couple to "The Big Apple"; put them up in a hotel, all expenses paid. Hey, I'll consider eloping for such a honeymoon deal. The next time ABC calls, any volunteers to be an 11th hour angry mate? ;-)

You know what the weirdest thing about all this was besides ABC-TV locating me on the web? (Actually, my offline anger support group was the search engine billboard that caught their eye.) The truly mind-blowing question in all of this is quite simple: Why the hell was ABC-TV calling Washington, DC? Don't tell me they couldn't find one angry couple in New York!

2. Northern Southern Exposure. The second connection started via email. This total stranger titles her note, "Hiya Darlin," and it's not a come on for a XXX website. As a native of Louisiana she's just "doin a what comes naturally." And the rest of the letter is equally engaging. First, Miss D, shares how she is surveying my website articles for an assignment in a Master's Level Information Technology/Instructional Techniques course. Then she mentions that her company, a major aerospace technology corporation, has lost a big contract and there will be major reorganization. My emailer asks if she can mention my "Practicng Safe Stress" workshops to some execs. And she provided both email address and home and work phone numbers.

This one merited a phone call…even if it was practically across the country in Idaho. I wasn't prepared for what followed. Miss D had just used some of my articles for a live classroom presentation on burnout. Having this woman with her southern accent, the charm oozing through the receiver, walk me through highlights of her presentation with that playful and sultry delivery, proclaiming to the class that I was her mentor…Well this was a hoot beyond words. I'll keep you posted. ;-). And I'll complete the storied fortnight next time. Until then...Practice Safe Stress!

Mark Gorkin, "The Stress Doc," Licensed Clinical Social Worker, is a nationally recognized speaker, workshop leader and author on stress, reorganizational change, anger, team building, creativity and humor. He is also the internet's and the nation's leading "Psychohumorist." The Stress Doc is a columnist for the popular cyber-newsletter, Humor From The Edge . Mark is also the "Online Psychohumorist" for the major AOL mental health resource network, Online Psych and Financial Services Journal Online -- http://fsc.fsonline.com/fsj . And he is an offline writer for two mental health/substance abuse publications -- Treatment Today and Paradigm Magazine. His motto: Have Stress? Will Travel: A Smart Mouth for Hire! Reach "The Doc" at (202) 232-8662, email: Stress Doc@aol.com, or check out his "Hot Site" website: http://www.stressdoc.com . (The site was selected as a USA Today Online "Hot Site" and designated a four-star, top-rated site by Mental Health Net.)

** For his free newsletter, Notes from the Online Psychohumorist ™ or for info on the Stress Doc's Online Coaching program, email stressdoc@aol.com .