Author: Zex PRwire

• Attorney Gita Sankano is asking lawyers and legal professionals to put their skills to use through pro bono and volunteer work connected to affordable housing.

A skills gap that volunteers can fill

Washington, D.C., Sep 14, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Affordable housing finance involves a lot of paperwork most people never see: loan documents, use agreements, closing packages, tax credit filings. Nonprofits and community groups working on housing often do not have the budget for that kind of legal help.

Gita Sankano, an attorney whose work has centered on affordable housing finance, says this is exactly where legal volunteers can make a difference. “You do not need to be a housing law specialist to help,” she says. “You need to be willing to read a document carefully and explain it in plain language to someone who needs that.”

Where the need shows up

Sankano points to a few common gaps she has seen over the course of her career:

• Community groups that need someone to review a lease or a use agreement before they sign it.

• First-time homebuyers who do not have anyone to explain closing documents to them.

• Small nonprofits trying to understand financing terms tied to public funding sources.

None of these require a courtroom. They require time and attention.

What she is asking legal professionals to do

Sankano is encouraging attorneys, paralegals, and law students to look for volunteer opportunities tied to housing, even informally.

“Start with what you already know,” she says. “If you work in real estate, offer to review a document for a local nonprofit. If you work in contracts, help someone understand what they are signing. You do not have to change practice areas to help.”

She also points to law schools and bar associations as a starting point. “Most bar associations have pro bono committees. Most law schools have clinics. Those are the easiest doors to walk through if you do not know where to start.”

Why she frames this as a professional habit, not a program

Sankano is careful to describe this as a habit worth building into a legal career, not a formal initiative she runs. “This is not about signing up for one big thing,” she says. “It is about looking for small, regular ways to use what you already know.”

She points to her own education as part of why she thinks this way. During law school, she served as Associate Symposium Editor for the Business & Technology Law Journal and as a Staff Editor for a housing law digest, work that required reading dense material and making it useful to others. “That kind of work teaches you that legal knowledge is only valuable if you can hand it to someone who needs it,” she says.

A starting point, not a full plan

Sankano is not laying out a formal curriculum. Her message is simpler: legal professionals with time to give should look at housing as one place that need is real and ongoing.

“You do not need permission to start,” she says. “You need an hour and a document someone needs help reading.”

About Gita Sankano

Gita Sankano is an attorney based in Washington, D.C. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Public Administration from CUNY John Jay College, and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Maryland School of Law, where she graduated cum laude. Her legal career has centered on affordable housing finance, including work with mortgage banking clients and lenders operating under Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and FHA insurance programs.

• New AI-powered capabilities help sales teams, recruiters and agencies qualify prospects, personalize outreach and manage LinkedIn campaigns more efficiently

WILMINGTON, Del., Sep 14, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Linked Helper, the only full-featured desktop LinkedIn automation platform, delivers a safer and more controllable approach to automated outreach. The company today announced a major product update introducing its new AI Suite, an enhanced Campaign Inbox and a redesigned Dashboard.

The Summer 2026 release is designed to help sales professionals, recruiters, founders and marketing agencies move beyond volume-based automation and build more relevant, personalized and human-centered LinkedIn outreach campaigns.

By combining AI-powered lead qualification, message personalization, engagement and reply assistance within a single campaign workflow, Linked Helper enables users to automate outreach more strategically while retaining control over targeting, communication and campaign execution.

AI ICP Detection Brings Automated Lead Qualification Into Campaign Workflows

AI ICP Detection analyzes the information available on each prospect’s LinkedIn profile against the user’s ideal customer profile and a selected match threshold. Profiles that meet the criteria continue through the automation, while non-matching profiles are moved to the Failed list before invitations, messages or follow-ups are sent.

This helps teams focus LinkedIn’s limited weekly invitation allowance on better-fit prospects. More relevant targeting can support stronger acceptance and reply rates, create more opportunities for sales conversations and reduce the risk of tighter invitation limits associated with low acceptance.

Teams can also use Linked Helper’s existing Data Enrichment action to retrieve available prospect and company data from Linked Helper’s database without visiting each LinkedIn profile. This can shorten processing time, reduce unnecessary activity on LinkedIn itself and leave more capacity for invitation, messaging and engagement actions.

AI Personalized Messages Scale Research-Based Outreach

Linked Helper’s AI Personalized Messages feature generates individualized invitations and follow-up messages using information from each prospect’s LinkedIn profile.

Rather than relying exclusively on basic variables such as a first name, job title or company name, the system can incorporate relevant career details, professional achievements and other profile context into the message.

Users can define the objective, structure and tone of their outreach while allowing AI to produce personalized drafts for larger prospect groups. For high-value leads or campaigns, teams can leave automatic approval off and review, edit or regenerate each draft before it is sent. For broader campaigns, they can enable automatic approval and let messages continue through the workflow without manual review, reducing routine work while preserving control where it matters most.

AI Comments Help Teams Build Familiarity Before Direct Outreach

The update also introduces AI Comments, which creates context-aware comments based on a prospect’s LinkedIn posts or articles.

The feature can be incorporated into a campaign as a pre-outreach engagement step. Linked Helper posts a comment only after liking the post or article, so LinkedIn can surface both interactions to the prospect before a connection request or direct message is sent.

A relevant comment shows that the sender engaged with the prospect’s actual ideas and professional activity, helping make the later introduction warmer and more natural.

AI Reply and Editor Accelerate Day-to-Day Communication

Linked Helper’s AI Reply and Editor tools are designed to reduce the time required to prepare and manage campaign communications.

The Editor can translate, correct, rewrite or shorten outreach templates while maintaining the user’s intended tone. Within the Inbox, AI Reply can generate context-aware response drafts using the available conversation history.

Users remain in control of the final communication and can review or modify drafts before messages are sent.

Redesigned Dashboard and Campaign Inbox Provide a Unified Control Center

Alongside the AI Suite, Linked Helper has redesigned its Dashboard and enhanced the Campaign Inbox to give users a clearer view of campaign activity.

The updated interface brings pending AI-generated drafts, active conversations, replies and automated tasks into a more centralized workspace. Key campaign indicators are surfaced more prominently so users can identify conversations requiring attention and take action at the appropriate stage of the outreach process.

Workspace permissions extend this visibility across teams. Authorized colleagues can review account sections and campaign results, and remotely connect to an active LinkedIn account running on a teammate’s computer when deeper oversight is needed. With Cloud DB, shared campaign data can be viewed directly from the workspace without first opening that account’s Web View.

Together, the Dashboard and Campaign Inbox are intended to provide a practical control center for managing automated and manual interactions across campaigns.

A Shift From High-Volume Automation to Strategic Outreach

The Summer 2026 update reflects Linked Helper’s broader focus on making LinkedIn automation more selective, contextual and human-like.

Instead of treating every prospect in a search result identically, users can now qualify leads with AI, engage with their content, generate profile-based messages and manage replies from a unified workflow.

The new functionality complements Linked Helper’s existing campaign-building, lead collection, data enrichment, CRM integration, team workspace and campaign safety capabilities.

The Summer 2026 features are now available to Linked Helper users.

About Linked Helper

Linked Helper is the only full-featured desktop LinkedIn automation platform built for lead generation, prospecting, recruiting and relationship-based outreach.

The platform enables users to collect and enrich leads, create multi-step campaigns, send personalized invitations and messages, manage LinkedIn conversations, synchronize prospect data with external CRM systems and coordinate outreach across team workspaces.

Linked Helper provides users with greater control over campaign execution through configurable activity limits, randomized delays, working schedules, local campaign operation and dedicated proxy support. These capabilities help teams build safer, smarter and more human-like outreach workflows.

For more information, visit: https://www.linkedhelper.com/

Media Contact

Linked Helper
2810 N Church St
Wilmington, Delaware 19802
United States

Website: https://www.linkedhelper.com/

Why a self-check, and why now

Florida, USA, 12th September 2026,  ZEX PR WIRE, Ronel Lamour Junior has spent about 16 years working on residential and light-commercial HVAC systems across South Florida. Most of the emergency calls he takes in peak cooling season share a pattern: a problem that started small and got ignored until the system stopped altogether.

“By the time someone calls me on a Saturday because the house is 85 degrees, the actual failure usually started weeks earlier,” Ronel said. “A dirty filter, a clogged drain line, a thermostat that’s been acting strange. Most of it gives you warning signs.”

He built a short list of checks a homeowner can run in about ten minutes, without tools or technical training. He is releasing it publicly rather than keeping it as something he only mentions on service calls.

What the self-check covers

The list has five items, each tied to a common failure Ronel sees repeatedly in Florida homes:

Airflow at the vents. Weak airflow from multiple rooms often points to a dirty filter or a blocked return, not a failing compressor. Ronel recommends checking the filter first, before anything else.

Water near the indoor unit. Standing water or a musty smell near the air handler usually means a clogged condensate line. In Florida’s humidity, this is one of the most common calls he gets, and it is often caught early if someone notices the water before it damages flooring or drywall.

Outdoor unit clearance. Leaves, mulch, or grass clippings packed against the outdoor condenser restrict airflow and make the whole system work harder. Ronel suggests a quick visual check for anything piled against the unit, especially after storms.

Thermostat behavior. A thermostat that seems to lose its schedule, shows inconsistent temperature readings, or won’t hold a setting is worth noting before it fails completely, particularly for households running smart thermostats.

Unusual sounds or smells. Grinding, clicking, or a burning smell are signs Ronel tells people not to wait on. Everything else on the list is a “watch it” item. This one is a “call someone now” item.

Why he is putting it in writing

Ronel has said that trust with customers is built slowly and lost quickly. Part of how he tries to build it is by giving people enough information to know what is actually urgent and what can wait.

“I’d rather someone catch a small problem themselves than pay for an emergency call that could’ve been avoided,” he said. “And if they check all five of these and everything looks fine, that’s useful information too. It usually means the problem is something else, and I don’t have to guess when I get there.”

He also sees it as a way to cut down on unnecessary anxiety. Not every strange noise means a system is dying, and not every warm room means the compressor failed.

“A lot of people panic before they need to,” Ronel said. “If you know what you’re looking at, you make better decisions. Do you need someone today, or can this wait until tomorrow morning? That’s a real difference for a family with kids or elderly parents in the house.”

Who this is for

Ronel built the checklist with South Florida’s climate in mind specifically. Condensate line clogs, humidity-driven mold near indoor units, and outdoor units packed with storm debris are more common here than in drier climates, and he wanted the list to reflect what actually goes wrong in this region rather than generic advice.

He plans to keep the list simple rather than expand it into something more technical.

“The moment it needs a multimeter, it’s not a self-check anymore,” he said. “This is meant for someone standing in their hallway trying to figure out if they need to make a call tonight or if it can wait.”

To read more, visit the website here.

About Ronel Lamour Junior

Ronel Lamour Junior is a Senior HVAC Service Technician based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with about 16 years of experience in residential and light-commercial heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration work. He holds an EPA Section 608 Universal Certification and has spent much of his career diagnosing airflow, electrical, and refrigerant problems across South Florida homes. He is working toward starting his own HVAC company built around transparent recommendations and long-term customer relationships.

• After more than four decades in accounting and business, Kauffman brings years of operating experience back to the classroom as he continues his education at Pepperdine University.

LAS VEGAS, NV, Sep 11, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — After a career spanning public accounting, corporate finance, business ownership, and consulting, Darryl Kauffman is continuing his formal business education at Pepperdine University, where he completed an MBA in 2026.

For Kauffman, returning to school after decades in the workforce offers a different educational experience than when he first studied accounting at California State University, Chico. He now approaches business concepts with years of practical experience to compare against what he encounters in the classroom.

“When I first studied accounting, I was learning the concepts before I had any experience applying them,” Kauffman said. “Going back to school later in life is almost the reverse. Now I can hear an idea and immediately think about situations where I saw it play out in an actual business.”

Kauffman believes that the relationship between education and experience can be valuable throughout a career. His own decision to continue his education reflects a broader view that professional experience does not eliminate the need to keep learning.

Bringing Four Decades of Business Experience Into the Classroom

Kauffman earned his accounting degree from California State University, Chico, in 1984 and began working in public accounting the following year. He remained in public accounting until 1993, then moved into corporate leadership as CFO of Strings Restaurants.

That transition gave him an early opportunity to see the difference between studying financial information and making decisions inside an operating business.

“When you are working inside a company, the numbers have a story behind them,” Kauffman said. “A change in a report might come from staffing, pricing, purchasing, operations, or several things happening at once. Understanding the number means understanding the business that produced it.”

His career later included work as a senior financial analyst at Dole and as a regional controller for McDonald’s. He also served as controller for Sr Care Advocates.

Working across different industries reinforced the importance of context. Although many accounting and finance principles remained consistent, the operating environments could differ dramatically.

“You cannot assume that because you understand one business, you automatically understand another,” Kauffman said. “The questions you ask have to reflect how that particular organization actually works.”

How Experience Changes Business Education

Kauffman’s return to higher education has allowed him to examine those experiences from another perspective.

A business case or management concept that might once have been purely theoretical can now remind him of a decision he encountered as a CFO, controller, analyst, or business owner. In some cases, experience reinforces what is being taught. In others, it highlights how unpredictable real business situations can become.

Kauffman said this is one reason he believes education can remain useful well beyond the early stages of a career.

“The advantage of experience is that you have more examples to draw from,” he said. “The danger is assuming those examples mean you have already seen everything. Business keeps changing, and there is always something you haven’t encountered before.”

That willingness to continue learning has also been part of Kauffman’s work outside large organizations. In 2007, he established DK CPA and operated the practice through 2018. Running his own business added another perspective to the corporate experience he had accumulated earlier in his career.

Ownership, he said, made some business concepts much more immediate.

“When it is your own operation, decisions look different,” Kauffman said. “You are thinking about time, customers, employees, expenses, and what needs attention first. It gives you another way to look at the same business principles.”

Learning Does Not Have to End With Experience

Kauffman continues to study business beyond his formal coursework. Reading is part of his regular routine, and business books have long influenced how he approaches his work.

He is also currently involved at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a college student and faculty assistant, studying New Venture Management and Quantitative Finance.

Kauffman views continued education as a way to test old assumptions as much as it is a way to learn new concepts. After decades spent working with financial information and business operations, he believes curiosity remains important.

“Experience should give you context, but I don’t think it should make you stop asking questions,” Kauffman said. “Sometimes learning something new confirms what you already believed. Sometimes it makes you reconsider it. Both are useful.”

For Darryl Lynn Kauffman, returning to business school is not about starting over. It is an opportunity to combine formal education with decades of experience while continuing to examine how businesses operate, make decisions, and adapt.

About Darryl Kauffman

Darryl Kauffman is a Las Vegas-based accounting and business professional with experience in public accounting, corporate finance, business ownership, consulting, and business coaching. He earned a degree in accounting from California State University, Chico, and an MBA from Pepperdine University. His career has included roles as CFO of Strings Restaurants, senior financial analyst at Dole, regional controller at McDonald’s, and controller at Sr Care Advocates. He later operated DK CPA from 2007 through 2018. Kauffman is also a faculty assistant at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Outside of business, his interests include playing guitar and bass, SCUBA, automotive work, woodworking, reading, and exercise.

• Corporate finance professional Roberto Cioffi explains why strong financial planning combines disciplined frameworks with the flexibility to respond when assumptions no longer match business conditions.

CALGARY, Alberta, Sep 11, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Every budget and financial forecast begins with a set of assumptions. Companies estimate revenue, expenses, demand, interest rates, operating conditions, and other factors based on the information available at the time. The challenge is that businesses rarely operate in an environment where those assumptions remain unchanged.

Roberto Cioffi, a Calgary-based corporate finance professional with nearly two decades of experience in financial planning, forecasting, budgeting, financial modeling, and business analysis, believes this is why flexibility should be considered an important part of financial discipline.

“A forecast is based on what you know at a particular point in time,” Cioffi said. “When the conditions or assumptions change, the value comes from understanding why they changed and what that means for the business.”

Cioffi currently works as a Director of Corporate Finance, where his responsibilities include corporate financial planning, annual budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling, capital allocation, expenditure reviews, business opportunity analysis, and supporting strategic planning. His experience has given him a close view of how financial plans interact with changing business conditions.

Financial Plans Depend on Assumptions

Budgets and forecasts can provide companies with a framework for allocating resources and measuring performance. However, Cioffi believes leadership teams should also understand the assumptions supporting those plans.

Interest rates may change. Operating costs may rise or fall. Consumer behavior can shift. Revenue may develop differently than expected. Broader economic conditions can also affect the environment in which a company operates.

When those factors change, comparing actual performance against the original plan can help leadership understand what has happened and why.

“The difference between a forecast and the actual result is often where an important conversation begins,” Cioffi said. “Instead of only asking whether the company was above or below the forecast, it can be more useful to understand what caused the difference.”

A variance may reflect a temporary event, an incorrect assumption, a change in operating conditions, or a larger trend. Identifying the reason can give leadership better context when deciding whether the original plan still makes sense.

Flexibility Does Not Mean Constantly Changing Direction

Cioffi cautions against interpreting flexible financial planning as a reason to continually rewrite plans whenever results differ from expectations.

Instead, he sees financial discipline and flexibility as complementary ideas. A clear budget or forecast gives an organization something against which it can measure performance. Flexibility allows leadership to recognize when new information is significant enough to warrant another look at the assumptions behind that plan.

“A strong financial framework creates consistency,” Cioffi said. “The goal is not to change direction every time something moves. The goal is to recognize when the facts have changed enough that the original assumptions need to be reconsidered.”

This approach can be particularly useful when leadership teams conduct regular reviews of financial performance. Rather than treating the annual budget as a document that remains untouched throughout the year, companies can use actual results and updated information to better understand how the business is developing.

Understanding the Story Behind the Numbers

Cioffi’s perspective has developed through years of working at different levels of corporate finance. He began his career as a Financial Analyst before advancing to Senior Financial Analyst and Finance Manager roles. As his responsibilities expanded, he became increasingly involved in annual planning, forecasting, operational analysis, business performance, and discussions with senior leadership.

Those experiences reinforced his belief that financial information is most useful when it is considered alongside the operational context behind it.

“Numbers tell a story about how a business is performing, but you still have to understand the decisions and circumstances behind those numbers,” Cioffi said. “That context is important when you are trying to determine what should happen next.”

For example, an unexpected increase in expenses may appear negative when viewed alone, but the reason for that increase matters. It could reflect an unplanned cost, or it could result from an intentional business decision. Similarly, revenue that falls below a forecast can have several possible causes, each of which may require a different response.

Cioffi believes finance teams can contribute to these discussions by connecting financial results with information from other areas of the organization.

Financial Planning as an Ongoing Business Process

Cioffi views effective financial planning as an ongoing process rather than a one-time annual exercise. That process includes establishing expectations, measuring actual performance, examining meaningful differences, and revisiting assumptions as new information becomes available.

He also believes communication is an important part of that work. Financial models can become complex, but leadership teams still need to understand the key assumptions and implications behind them.

“Financial information is most useful when the people involved in the decision understand what it actually means,” Cioffi said. “The technical work matters, but so does the ability to explain what the information is telling you.”

As business conditions continue to evolve, Cioffi believes the companies that approach planning with both structure and adaptability can be better prepared to understand change. The purpose is not to predict every development correctly. Instead, it is to create a framework that helps leaders recognize when expectations and reality have started to move apart.

About Roberto Cioffi

Roberto Cioffi is a Calgary, Alberta-based corporate finance professional with nearly two decades of experience in financial analysis, budgeting, forecasting, financial modeling, business performance, and strategic planning. He graduated from the University of Alberta in 2007 after studying finance and business and has progressed through Financial Analyst, Senior Financial Analyst, Finance Manager, and Director of Corporate Finance roles. His professional interests include corporate finance, economics, Canadian business, financial planning, business strategy, and the role finance teams can play in supporting informed organizational decision-making.

Illinois, USA, Sep 11, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Every day, businesses invest thousands in advertising that doesn’t convert. The copy sounds impressive. The product looks polished. Yet sales remain flat. The problem isn’t the product or even the budget. It’s that most marketing messages fail a simple test: they don’t speak to what the customer actually wants.

Kevin Trudeau learned this lesson as a teenager writing direct mail pieces. Before he turned 18, he had generated over $1 million in sales by focusing on one question: what problem am I solving in order for the customer say yes? That early experience became the foundation for campaigns that would go on to sell over $450 million of the Mega Memory course between 1989 and 1993, and later drive a health book to outsell Harry Potter in the year it launched.

“People don’t buy features,” Trudeau says. “They buy the feeling they’ll have after the problem is gone.”

Trudeau built multiple businesses across media, publishing, and e-commerce with no college degree and limited formal training. His method for testing whether a message will work comes down to clarity, not creativity.

The Three-Second Gut Check

Before any marketing piece goes live, Trudeau recommends a simple filter. Read the headline out loud. Then ask: does this allow the customer to picture the solution I provide?

Vague claims like “innovative solutions” or “premium quality” don’t pass. The reader can’t see what they’re getting. Compare that to “remember names after hearing them once” or “sleep through the night without waking up.” Both paint a clear picture of the result.

Most marketers bury the result under layers of explanation. They describe the process, the ingredients, the technology. But the customer doesn’t care how it works until they believe it will work. The headline’s job is to make one specific point that the reader wants to be true.

If the point isn’t clear in three seconds, the message is already lost.

What People Really Buy

Trudeau’s experience selling everything from memory courses to nutritional products taught him that customers don’t buy information. They buy the life they think the information will give them.

A memory course isn’t about mnemonics. It’s about confidence in meetings, not forgetting a name at a party, and feeling sharper than you did last year. A health book isn’t about research. It’s about waking up with energy, avoiding the doctor’s office, and taking control when everything felt out of reach.

The product is the vehicle. The transformation is the sale.

This insight applies whether you’re selling software, consulting, or physical goods. Ask what the customer’s day looks like after they buy. Then put that day in the headline.

Testing the Message Before You Spend

Trudeau used direct mail in an era where every piece cost money to print and ship. That forced discipline. If a headline didn’t pull, you knew within days. The feedback loop was immediate.

Today, digital ads offer the same advantage, but most businesses waste it. They test images and colors instead of testing the core benefit. A weak benefit won’t convert no matter how many times you tweak the button color.

Start by writing five different headlines, each making a different point. Show them to people who match your customer profile, but don’t explain anything. Just ask which one they’d click. The one that gets the most genuine interest is your lead.

Then write the rest of the message to support that single promise. Every sentence should either prove the claim or remove a reason to doubt it. Anything else is drag.

The Role of Proof

A bold point without proof sounds like hype. But proof without a point is boring. The sequence matters.

Trudeau’s approach: lead with the result, then immediately answer the objection. If the headline says “remember names after hearing them once,” the next sentence needs to explain why that’s possible. Not with jargon. With a reason that makes sense to someone who knows nothing about memory techniques.

Testimonials work when they describe the same transformation the headline promised. Numbers work when they’re specific. “Over 450 million in sales” is more credible than “widely popular.” The tighter the proof, the less resistance the reader feels.

When the Message Is Right

You know a marketing message works when people repeat it back to you in their own words. They’ll say, “So this helps me remember names?” or “This is the one that helps you sleep better, right?” They’ve internalized the promise.

If they ask what your product does, the message isn’t clear yet. If they ask how it does it, you’re halfway there. If they ask where to buy, you’ve won.

Trudeau built a career on messages that people understood immediately. No confusion. No second-guessing. Just a clear picture of what life looks like on the other side of the sale.

To read more, visit the website here.

Applying This to Your Next Campaign

Before you launch your next ad, email, or landing page, run it through this filter. Can someone who has never heard of you read the headline and know exactly what they’ll get? Does the promise matter to them? Is the proof strong enough to make them believe it?

If the answer to any of those questions is no, rewrite before you spend a dollar. The best marketing doesn’t need a big budget. It needs a message so clear that the right person can’t ignore it.

Most businesses fail at marketing because they try to say everything. The ones that win say one thing well.

• Since entering the telephone answering service industry in 1995, Randy Ripkey has watched technology, customer expectations, and business operations change, while the fundamentals of good service remain familiar.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla., Sep 11, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — When Randall John Ripkey entered the telephone answering service industry in 1995, the technology behind the business looked very different from what operators use today. Over the next three decades, he watched the industry adopt new systems, respond to changing customer expectations, and find new ways to measure and manage operations.

What has interested Ripkey most, however, is not simply how much has changed. It is how many of the industry’s basic challenges have remained the same.

“The tools are different, but operators are still trying to answer many of the same questions,” Ripkey said. “How do you provide reliable service? How do you manage your people well? Are your accounts priced appropriately for the work you’re doing? Those questions don’t disappear just because the technology improves.”

Ripkey owned Accurate Messages from 1995 until January 2026. He is now President of TAS Concepts, Inc., which develops billing and analysis software for the telephone answering service industry, including TASbiller and TASbillerCloud.

Technology Changed How Answering Services Operate

For Ripkey, one of the clearest changes over the past 30 years has been the growing role of software.

His connection to technology actually began before his answering service career. After working at Radio Shack through high school and college, Ripkey began writing custom computer programs. That early experience taught him to look at technology as a way to solve a specific operational problem rather than as an end in itself.

As answering service technology advanced, operators gained access to information and capabilities that would have been difficult to imagine when Ripkey entered the business.

The shift toward cloud-based systems is one example. Information that once depended on local systems and more manual processes can now be collected, organized, and reviewed much more efficiently.

Yet Ripkey believes more information only becomes valuable when an operator knows what questions to ask.

“Having data and understanding data are two different things,” he said. “A report can give you a lot of numbers. The important part is figuring out what those numbers are telling you about the way the business is actually operating.”

Customer Expectations Have Also Changed

Technology has not only changed the operator’s side of the business. It has also influenced what customers expect.

Businesses today operate in an environment where speed, responsiveness, and access to information are often assumed. Answering services must meet those expectations while continuing to provide the personal attention that has long been central to the industry.

Ripkey sees that balance as one of the industry’s ongoing challenges.

“The technology should support the service,” he said. “It shouldn’t make you lose sight of why the customer hired an answering service in the first place. At the end of the day, somebody needs their calls handled correctly and professionally.”

That basic expectation has remained remarkably consistent even as the systems behind the service have evolved.

The Numbers Behind an Account Still Matter

Another issue Ripkey has focused on throughout his career is profitability analysis.

He is frequently asked to speak about the subject at answering service conferences. His interest comes from his experience as an operator and the difficulty of understanding an account based only on how much it is billed each month.

Two accounts can generate similar revenue while placing very different demands on a service. Call volume, operator time, instructions, and other requirements can all affect what it takes to serve a customer.

“Revenue doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about an account,” Ripkey said. “You have to look at the work involved. An account can look good until you start examining how much time and effort it takes to service it.”

For Ripkey, this is one area where modern technology can help operators answer an old business question more clearly.

Better information does not make the decision for an owner. It can, however, make it easier to see where further attention may be needed.

Industry Involvement Offers Another Perspective

Ripkey’s view of the industry has also been shaped by his involvement with professional associations.

He served as President of the Southern Telemessaging Association from 2000 to 2001 and has served on various answering service association boards, including the board of ATSI. In 2023, he received the ATSI President’s Award.

Ripkey has also participated in the annual ATSI Hill Walk in Washington, D.C., representing the organization and its members.

Those experiences allowed him to hear from operators facing different circumstances and reinforced how much answering services can learn from one another.

“No two answering services are exactly alike, but you hear many of the same concerns when you talk with operators,” Ripkey said. “Sharing those experiences is one of the ways the industry gets better.”

What Has Not Changed After 30 Years

After more than three decades, Ripkey believes the industry’s future will continue to involve new technology. Those systems will change, just as they have since 1995.

But he does not expect technology to eliminate the fundamentals of operating an answering service.

Operators will still need to understand their customers. They will still need reliable teams. They will still need to know what their services cost to provide. And they will still need to make decisions based on what is happening inside their businesses rather than simply following the latest technology.

“The industry has changed tremendously since I started,” Ripkey said. “But good service, good information, and knowing your business are still important. I don’t see that changing.”

About Randall John Ripkey

Randall John Ripkey is the President of TAS Concepts, Inc. and a longtime member of the telephone answering service industry. He entered the industry in 1985 as the owner of Accurate Messages and remained with the company until January 2026. Today, his work with TAS Concepts includes TASbiller and TASbillerCloud, billing and analysis software developed for telephone answering services.

Ripkey is a past President of the Southern Telemessaging Association and has served on multiple industry association boards, including ATSI’s board. He received the ATSI President’s Award in 2023 and has participated in the organization’s annual Hill Walk in Washington, D.C. He is also a frequent conference speaker on profitability analysis for telephone answering services.

Lisle, Illinois, Sep 10, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Garrett Kappel Marketing has announced the expansion of its brand consistency services for businesses managing marketing across multiple communication channels. The expanded offering is designed to help organizations maintain a clear and recognizable brand presence as they increase their use of websites, social media, email, digital advertising, content marketing, and other customer-facing platforms.

The new service offering from Garrett Kappel Marketing focuses on one of the practical challenges facing growing businesses: keeping brand messaging consistent when different teams, platforms, and campaigns are involved. The company will work with businesses to review existing communication, identify areas of inconsistency, and establish clearer guidelines for how their brands are presented across channels.

Addressing a Common Challenge in Multi-Channel Marketing

Businesses have more ways to communicate with customers than ever before. A single organization may manage its website, social media accounts, email campaigns, paid advertising, sales materials, and online content at the same time.

That wider reach creates opportunities, but it can also make brand management more difficult. A company may use one tone on its website, another on social media, and a different message in its advertising. Even small differences can make a business appear less consistent to potential customers.

Garrett Kappel Marketing developed its expanded services to address this issue. The company will help organizations examine their communications as a whole rather than treating each marketing channel as a separate activity.
Consistency does not mean every piece of communication has to sound exactly the same, said Garrett Kappel, marketing professional. “It means customers should be able to recognize the same company, values, and promise wherever they encounter the brand.

Building a Clearer Brand Foundation

The expanded service begins with a review of a company’s existing brand communication. Garrett Kappel Marketing examines messaging, positioning, tone, audience priorities, and the way key information appears across different channels.

The process is intended to give businesses a practical picture of where their communication currently stands. Rather than introducing unnecessary changes, the company identifies areas where small adjustments may create greater consistency.

For growing organizations, this work can become particularly useful when marketing responsibilities are shared among employees, agencies, freelancers, or different departments. A clear framework gives everyone a common reference point when creating new materials.

Garrett Kappel Marketing also considers whether the brand’s communication reflects the company’s broader objectives. A consistent message has greater value when it supports what the business is actually trying to achieve.

Connecting Digital Channels With the Overall Brand

Digital marketing has made it easier for businesses to reach audiences, but it has also increased the number of places where brand communication appears.

A potential customer may discover a company through a search engine, visit its website, see an advertisement later that day, and then encounter the business on social media. Each interaction contributes to the customer’s understanding of the brand.

Garrett Kappel Marketing’s expanded services are intended to help businesses create continuity across those interactions. The company reviews how core messages are communicated and whether each channel contributes to the same overall positioning.

This approach allows businesses to maintain flexibility in their content while keeping their central message intact. A social media post can have a different format from a website page, but both should still feel connected to the same organization.

Supporting Growing Companies

The expanded brand consistency services are intended for businesses at different stages of development, particularly organizations that are adding marketing channels as they grow.

Smaller businesses often begin with a single website or social media presence. As their customer base develops, they may introduce paid advertising, email marketing, video, partnerships, or additional platforms. Without clear communication standards, the brand can gradually become difficult to manage.

Garrett Kappel Marketing helps organizations establish practical standards before inconsistencies become difficult to correct. These standards can cover areas such as messaging priorities, brand voice, customer-facing language, and the presentation of important business information.

For established organizations, the process can provide an opportunity to review existing communication and determine whether different teams and channels continue to represent the brand in a consistent manner.

Keeping Messaging Relevant Without Losing Identity

Brand consistency does not require businesses to remain static. Garrett Kappel Marketing recognizes that companies need to adjust their messaging as markets, customer expectations, and communication habits change.

The challenge is determining which changes strengthen the brand and which ones simply create unnecessary movement. A business can respond to new platforms or customer preferences while maintaining a recognizable identity.

The expanded services therefore place emphasis on establishing a stable foundation that allows businesses to adapt without losing clarity. New campaigns and communication formats can then be evaluated against that foundation before they are introduced.

This helps organizations distinguish between meaningful changes and short-lived marketing decisions.

A Practical Approach to Brand Management

Garrett Kappel Marketing has structured the expanded offering around practical recommendations that businesses can apply within their existing operations.

The company does not expect every organization to have a large marketing department or extensive resources. Its approach takes into account the people, tools, budgets, and processes already available to each business.

Recommendations may include adjustments to messaging, communication guidelines, channel coordination, content planning, or internal review processes. The objective is to give businesses a system they can realistically maintain.

“Brand consistency works best when it becomes part of everyday marketing rather than an occasional exercise, Kappel said. Businesses need guidelines that people can actually use when they are creating content, speaking with customers, or planning campaigns.

Supporting Customer Recognition and Trust

Consistent communication can also influence how quickly customers recognize a business and understand what it offers. When core messages remain stable across different interactions, customers have more opportunities to become familiar with the company.

Garrett Kappel Marketing views this familiarity as an important part of building lasting customer relationships. The company believes businesses should make it easy for customers to understand who they serve, what they provide, and what distinguishes them from alternatives.

Clear communication can also reduce confusion when customers move between different channels. A website, social media profile, advertisement, and email campaign should provide a connected experience rather than appearing to come from separate organizations.

Expanding Support Across Multi-Channel Environments

The expanded services are now available through Garrett Kappel Marketing for businesses seeking support with brand consistency and multi-channel communication.

The company will continue developing its service capabilities as businesses adopt new platforms and communication methods. Garrett Kappel Marketing expects the need for clear brand systems to remain important as organizations manage increasingly varied customer touchpoints.

The expansion reflects the company’s broader approach to marketing, which emphasizes clear positioning, careful planning, consistent execution, and ongoing evaluation.

By expanding its brand consistency services, Garrett Kappel Marketing aims to help businesses create a stronger connection between their marketing channels and the brand customers encounter across them.

• America’s Above Ground Pool Experts™ puts real families, not staged marketing photos, at the center of its yearly celebration

Edison, New Jersey, Sep 10, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — The Pool Factory, recognized across the country as America’s Above Ground Pool Experts™, is marking another year of its Annual Photo Contest, a tradition that invites homeowners to share the story of their backyard transformation in their own words and images.

Every year, customers from every corner of the United States send in photos of their finished above ground pools and semi-inground pools, giving future shoppers a look at what these pools actually look like once they become part of everyday family life. The contest has grown into one of the company’s most anticipated traditions, largely because it hands the microphone directly to the people who matter most: the customers themselves.

“Marketing photos can only tell part of the story,” said a spokesperson for The Pool Factory. “What actually convinces someone to move forward with an above ground pool is seeing a real backyard, owned by a real family, that looks lived in and loved. That’s what this contest gives us every single year.”

A Contest Built to Answer Real Questions

Homeowners considering an above ground pool tend to ask a similar set of questions before they commit. Is installation something an average family can manage on their own? Will the pool actually get used once the excitement wears off? Does this company live up to its reputation? Instead of answering those questions with more advertising, The Pool Factory lets its own customers respond directly through the contest.

To enter, customers submit a photo of their completed backyard along with a short explanation of why they chose The Pool Factory, a description of their installation experience, and their favorite part of owning a pool. Many of the top entries are later featured throughout the company’s website, including on specific product pages, so shoppers can see above ground pools set up in real yards instead of digital renderings.

Every Family Has a Different Reason

Part of what makes the contest special, according to The Pool Factory, is how different every winning story tends to be. Some families wanted to build a space their grandchildren would beg to visit. Others were chasing the feeling of a private resort just outside their back door. Many simply wanted a reason to slow down and spend more time together as a family.

One entrant described the impact this way:

“Our pool has become the heart of our backyard, bringing us together for family time, cookouts, celebrations, and countless summer memories.”

Another customer framed the purchase as something bigger than a backyard upgrade:

“Choosing The Pool Factory wasn’t just about buying a pool. It was about investing in quality time, laughter, and memories that will last a lifetime.”

Proving Installation Is Within Reach

A common hesitation among prospective buyers is whether they can realistically install an above ground pool themselves. Photo contest entries submitted year after year suggest the answer is yes, with the right planning and preparation.

One customer recalled tackling the project as a couple for the first time: “My wife and I installed it ourselves. It was the first time ever doing a pool, and all the parts were there. It ended up awesome.”

Another family made the installation a group effort: “Me, my wife, and our two kids installed it in one day.”

The Pool Factory notes that no two installations look exactly alike, and preparation still matters. But hearing directly from homeowners who have already completed the process gives new customers a clearer, more honest picture of what to expect.

A Backyard Transformation, Not Just a Pool

The feedback collected through the contest consistently goes beyond swimming itself. Customers describe their finished backyards using language that reflects a much bigger lifestyle shift. Entrants have called their spaces:

• Their private resort

• A peaceful retreat

• The centerpiece of family gatherings

• Their favorite place to unwind after a long day

• A place where children and grandchildren build lifelong memories

For The Pool Factory, that shift in tone says something important. Customers aren’t just describing a pool purchase. They’re describing a backyard that has become central to how their family spends time together, season after season.

That kind of language rarely shows up in traditional advertising, which is part of why the contest carries so much weight internally. It is one thing for a company to claim its above ground pools change the way families use their backyards. It is another thing for dozens of homeowners to say it themselves, unprompted, year after year.

The company also points to the range of entries as proof that above ground pools and semi-inground pools work for a wide variety of homes. Entries have come from small suburban lots, sprawling rural properties, and first-time homeowners tackling a backyard project for the very first time. Despite those differences, the underlying theme stays the same: a once-unused backyard becomes the place everyone wants to be.

Supporting Customers Beyond the Sale

The Annual Photo Contest reflects a broader philosophy at The Pool Factory: helping customers get real, lasting value from their above ground pools and semi-inground pools long after the initial purchase. As America’s Above Ground Pool Experts™, the company has built its name on guiding homeowners through every stage of the process, from selecting the right pool for their backyard to supporting them through setup and beyond.

By continuing to feature authentic customer photos and firsthand accounts rather than staged photography, The Pool Factory gives future customers something advertising alone cannot offer: proof, straight from the families who have already made the investment.

Homeowners interested in viewing past contest entries, reading customer stories, or exploring The Pool Factory’s current lineup of above ground pools and semi-inground pools can visit https://www.thepoolfactory.com/.

About The Pool Factory

The Pool Factory is America’s Above Ground Pool Experts™, based in Edison, New Jersey. The company works to help homeowners across the country find above ground pools and semi-inground pools that fit their backyards and their families, supported by a customer-first approach and a growing community of homeowners who share their backyard transformations each year.

• Italian-born writer on golf course architecture Tancredi Marchiolo launches a series of essays examining the restored Medinah layout, the Bendelow-to-Ogilvy lineage, and what the September team event reveals about classic design

Medinah, Illinois, Sep 10, 2026, ZEX PR WIRE — Golf writer and course architecture enthusiast Tancredi Marchiolo has announced a new series of essays timed to the 2026 Presidents Cup, which brings the biennial competition between the United States and the International Team to Medinah Country Club’s Course No. 3 from September 22 through 27. The series will look past the leaderboard to the ground itself, tracing how a 1920s Tom Bendelow design became one of the most heavily reworked championship courses in America, and what its latest transformation says about the direction of modern golf architecture.

Medinah’s Course No. 3 arrives at the Presidents Cup fresh from a full-scale redesign by OCM, the Australian firm co-founded by International Team captain Geoff Ogilvy. The project rerouted the closing holes, removed thousands of trees, widened fairways, enlarged greens, and introduced broad expanses of fescue in place of the dense parkland corridors that defined the course during its three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, and the 2012 Ryder Cup. For Tancredi Marchiolo, that shift is the story of the week.

“Medinah is a fascinating case because it has never stopped being rebuilt,” said Tancredi Marchiolo. “Bendelow laid it out across rolling Illinois farmland, and for a century afterward committees kept adding trees, narrowing corridors, and asking the course to play harder. What OCM has done is turn the clock back toward the original idea of width, angles, and options. Whether that produces better match play is exactly the question I want to sit with over four days.”

The essays will examine several threads that run through the writer’s broader work on the game. The first considers the tension between a course built to punish and a course built to reward thinking, a distinction Tancredi Marchiolo has long argued in favor of the Scottish links tradition. The second explores tree removal as the defining restoration movement of the past two decades and asks what is gained and lost when a parkland course is opened to the sky. A third piece looks at the peculiar relationship between architects and captains, given that Ogilvy will lead the International side across holes his own firm reshaped. Later entries will draw comparisons between Medinah and the courses on the writer’s own list of essential walks, including Muirfield, Royal Dornoch, and Circolo Golf Villa d’Este above Lake Como in his native Italy.

Tancredi Marchiolo came to golf later than to his other lifelong pursuits, taking up the game in his thirties and finding in it the same qualities he values in opera and wine: patience, attention to setting, and a refusal to be hurried. He plays for the walk as much as for the score and prefers courses laid out across natural terrain to engineered modern designs. His writing on golf leans reflective rather than technical, with a particular focus on the history of the game and the architects who shaped it.

“The Presidents Cup will be decided by putts and pairings, and I follow that with real interest,” Tancredi Marchiolo added. “But the part of the week that will still matter in twenty years is the course. If Medinah proves that a great old parkland layout can be restored rather than simply toughened, it will influence how a lot of clubs think about their own ground. That is worth writing about carefully.”

The series will be published on TancrediMarchiolo.com, with the first essay appearing ahead of the opening four-ball session on Thursday, September 24, and further installments following each day of competition. Additional writing on golf, opera, and wine is available across the author’s personal platforms.

About Tancredi Marchiolo

Tancredi Marchiolo is an Italian-born writer and devoted student of three classical pursuits: opera, wine, and golf. His writing on golf focuses on course architecture, the walking game, and the landscapes that give the great courses their character, with the links of Scotland and the historic courses of Italy forming the backbone of his own record-keeping. Beyond the course, he writes on the Italian operatic canon and the bel canto repertoire, and on the wines of Piedmont and Tuscany, reflecting a broader interest in tradition, craftsmanship, and place. Learn more at TancrediMarchiolo.com.