Mario Cavolo

Since returning to Shanghai late Spring this year, I've fallen in love with the impeccably restored Langham Hotel, one of 1920s Shanghai's magnificent Art Deco buildings, and now one of the city's poshest boutique hotels, very nearby People's Square. This includes hosting our private monthly executive advisory lunch sessions at the Langham each month. Check out the Langham link at the bottom for some great photos.

Considering Mike Chinoy's two decades of service as CNN's Hong Kong and Beijing Bureau Chief,talk of business surrounded by nostalgic Shanghai is the right lead-in to proudly introduce Mike as our newest strategic partner and co-trainer for our media training and communication skills workshop on October 18th at the Langham. Mike is currently the Asia Managing Director for News Certified Exchange, an organization which trains and certifies professionals to be included in their powerful resource database of media-ready experts for journalists. As well, I am pleased to be included in that database as the media industry grapples with change and needs new ways to access knowledgeable experts on China who are also media-savvy.

More About Mike Chinoy

As Vice President and Managing Director for Asia, veteran correspondent Mike Chinoy oversees all business development and certification operations in the region. Mike spent over two decades with CNN, serving as the network's Hong Kong and Beijing Bureau Chief and its Senior Asia Correspondent. Mike is also a Senior Fellow at the US-China Institute at the University of Southern California and authored the book Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis.

About the Media Training Workshop, Langham Hotel, October 18th, 2010

Limited to only three individuals per session, participants will spend a separate half-day session with both experts. For example, the morning session with Mike and the afternoon session with Mario. The content of both sessions will cover the broad theme of expertise and strategic communication with the media

Mr. Cavolo’s session will focus more on detailed scripting and phrases; deep awareness, control and design of all related speech delivery to the media and in other executive/leadership situations.

The session with Mr. Chinoy will focus more on the nature of the newsgathering process, how to prepare for interviews, tips for effective interaction with reporters, and specific pointers for developing a strong presence in front of a camera, including the opportunity to videotape a “practice” interview.

With attendance limited to six, please don't hesitate if you are interested to attend; Contact KBC China's event coordinator, Harry Wong at harryw@kbcchina.com for additional information. The fee for this media training workshop is USD $3000 per person including video and follow-up.

"Critical Communication Skills For Executives" Four seats still left for this event on Sept 16-17th with myself and guest Daniel Smith. If you are an established or rising executive and your interest is critical, detailed communication and behavior skills, without the need to focus on media training, then join us at the Langham on Sept 16-17th "Critical Communication Skills For Executives" with superb guest trainer Daniel Smith

It is always a pleasure to post the announcement for my next ChinaArt concert performance. Two weeks ago the first half of my debut concert at the Liaoning Grand Theater was recorded on video and will be available in a few weeks.

This Sunday April 25th marks my return to the Hangzhou Grand Theater as part of Hangzhou Culture Week. The performance will include as always a wonderful selection of jazz standards and Broadway musical hits plus Por Una Cabeza, the fabulous international tango written by Carlos Gardel in 1935, heard in many of our favorite movies including Schindler's List, True Lies, and Scent of a Woman.

I'm having trouble uploading new files so I've temporarily posted the previous Hangzhou program which features many of the same songs for now. There are several folks I know who are coming down for the weekend from Shanghai, I'd love to hear from you if plan to attend!

Cheers, Mario

There's nothing better nor more enjoyable in my life in China than the jazz piano concert tours I do across China with ChinaArt Hangzhou, taking my mind off the stresses and strains of life's more mundane demands and market swings. My concert tour continued this past Saturday evening with an extra special touch as Shenyang happens to also be my wife's hometown. The audience at the spectacular Liaoning Grand Theatre let out a heartfelt sigh and applause when I announced that my lovely wife and mother-in-law were in the audience that evening.

For myself as the evening's performer, the pleasure was also something I'll remember for a very long time; I played the theatre's acoustically excellent space for an audience of 1800 on their spectacular Steinway concert grand without any amplification; it was undoubtedly the finest piano I have ever played. Normally a great piano makes a piano player play even better. I had also played a Steinway 10' concert grand in Ningbo but for whatever reason, it didn't touch my soul. This particular piano, which I was told was six years old and had a price tag of 1.5 million rmb, had a character and resonance so spectacular, part of me actually felt intimidated more than honored; the unapproachable perfect woman yet there she was under my respecting fingertips as I played through the standards by Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jobim, and Ellington. These my dear readers are the good things in life...

Speaking of spectacular on a related note focusing on Shenyang's commercial, property and hotel developments, here's a photo of the also spectacular Forum 66 multi-use luxury project which continues under construction right next door to the Liaoning Grand Theatre. Shenyang, which lies about 800km north Beijing sporting a population of 9 million, is no exception as one of China's cities blossoming with massive commercial and property projects including two new subway lines all due for completion in the next couple of years. Regarded as a second tier city, property prices are currently in the 6 to 12,000rmb per square meter range. At the high end of the international brand hotel and property market developments, you'll find quite an impressive lineup with the new Shangri-La, Hong Kong New World Center, Doubletree, and Kerry Centre projects coming online.

With this set of developments and market conditions, I would rate Shenyang a low risk, high reward environment for property investment, though not expecting this market to achieve heights equal to China's first tier cities.

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Apologies for last week's technical difficulties; we are back this week at the regularly scheduled time - Tuesday 8pm Beijing Time / Monday 8pm PST. Enjoy listening with our radio show player on the right or check out the Grassroots Talks Radio website and player at the links below

Back to back on Monday evening starting at 8pm til 10pm PST / Tuesday Noon - 2pm Beijing time

Grassroots Talks Money with Mario Cavolo - Monday 8pm EST / Noon Beijing time (+15 hours)
Grassroots Talks Health with Mario Cavolo - Monday 9pm EST / 1pm Beijing time (+15 hours)
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Dear Readers,

We are happy to share with all of you that 2009 was a wonderful year.

Keeping in mind the difficulty that many people all over the world are facing because of this past year's economic crisis, we genuinely appreciate all that we have.

With much appreciation for your support, especially our advertisers and partners, we wish you a Merry Christmas and Many Blessings for the New Year 2010.

Cheers, Mario

Grassroots Talks Health & Wellness - co-hosted by Dr. Allen Brown and Mario Cavolo featuring the "20 Question Freight Train" on Health. Sunday Evening @ 9:00pm PST / Monday 1:00pm Beijing Time

12/20 HEALTH SHOW RECAP Watch out for key words that should warn you about product claims including words like secret, miracle, breakthroughs, or cure. In fact, today it is easier than ever to check a person's credibility and products claims by starting at Google to research....finally, remember that "new and improved" on labels is usually nothing more than a market gimmick to sell more product; they'll make a small change to the ingredient combination and call it "new and improved" or "new formula" etc...don't be stupid!!!...what are you doing spending $3-4 USD for a bottle of specialty tea drinks which include ginseng or gingko or vitamins or other herbs in such small amounts that they are of no therapeutic effect or value to your health....Come on people!!!! Wakeup!!!....in fact, sometimes "breakthroughs" from research or discovery of new products are legitimate, are real and genuinely great for you!!!...such as glucosamine/chondroitin/hyaluronic acid for joint problems/arthritis sufferers...You can also include boswellia, cumin, and turmeric which are known natural anti-inflammatories. Curry foods, by the way are high in cumin and turmeric and other herbs/spices including garlic and ginger which are good for the body and good for the joints. The lowest incidence of arthritis and other joint-related problems is in India, whose diet includes a high intake of curries.....rotate your foods and nutrients...you don't need to take your multivitamin or CoQ10 or Ginseng or Vitamin C/E or green powder drink or anything else 365 days per year...favor taking more of a certain set of nutrients and foods for a month or two, then taper back on those and take different ones for a couple of months...same with food; this month focus on eating only one meat such as beef, which is high CLA's (conjugated linoleic acids), and lots of broccoli and cauliflower and mushrooms, then next month focus on eating more seafood like broiled salmon and mackerel which are high in healthy fish oils for your brain, plus more fresh tomatoes, fresh mexican salsas with lots of fresh onion, tomato, cilantro, garlic....great! Enjoy eating a variety of foods by rotating them more often....and by the way if you want to rotate from McDonald's one month to KFC the next...oops, you've definitely missed the point...Cheers and good health, Mario

Grassroots Talks Money - co-hosted by Dr. Allen Brown and Mario Cavolo featuring the "20 Question Freight Train" and "Mario's Monologue" wrapping up every show. Monday Evening 8pm PST / Tuesday 1:00pm Beijing Time

12/21 MONEY SHOW RECAP

Al hit me with questions about stock investing, particularly investing in smaller, less known stocks and other businesses, which are often scams to beware...smaller stocks have a higher risk/return profile, so that means you could earn and you could lose more, even ALL of your investment, especially with regarding to penny stocks and even so-called "private placement" offers by small companies...what to do? COMMON SENSE - Don't be a sucker - DO YOUR DUE DILIGENCE!...if it seems to good to be true it is....watch out for "pump & dump" games where the original investors each receive a % of the company stock, then the marketers pump up the price to the public so the original investors can get out with their profit...all along the game, nobody really cares if the company survives or not, its just speculative investment games people play by people who know how to bend the rules...any business investment should include a look at the company's financials...if its GE, or Johnson & Johnson or Coca-Cola, you know those are big, conservative companies and there is plenty of analysis available on such larger stocks such as through investment sites and brokerage firms... For smaller companies, look even closer before you invest...limit the portion of your funds that you might invest in stocks and other assets such as ETF's with higher risk/reward profiles...NEVER invest money you can't afford to lose...limit your investments in gold/silver to 5-10% of your portfolio, unless you do alot more research and are much more familiar with trading those markets or any markets...watch out for any start up pyramid schemes and multi-level marketing companies...80% of them will be gone within the year or two and so will your money...those companies are always started by insiders who will make lots of money leaving everyone else holding the bag...if you want to knowingly speculate in high risk businesses, scams and stocks such as these, you might make alot of money but more than likely, you'll lose your money and your wasted time and energy...Cheers, Mario

It's easy to listen in right here at Grass Roots Talk Radio with Dr. Al & Mario Cavolo. Just click on the play/chat button.

On the right column you'll find the blog talk radio player which let's you listen to the shows live during the show or anytime after the show has aired.