Steven Mark Weiss is the president of Straightforward Communications, a marketing and research consultancy specializing in the areas of consumer demography and trends. His uncanny ability to identify mass market values and their commercial applications has made Steve a favorite of many household name clients in the consumer goods & services, restaurant, and retail industries. He has participated in landmark projects for clients as diverse as Hilton Hotels, Denny's, California Closets and the California Department of Agriculture.

A magna cum laude graduate of New York's Binghamton University and an honors graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, Steve spent the early part of his career as the executive food & beverage editor of Restaurants & Institutions magazine. His work there earned him a Jesse Neal award for editorial excellence from the American Business Media, and his stature in the foodservice industry was recognized with a term as president of the International Foodservice Editorial Council. Today he continues to journalistically serve the restaurant world as the regular monthly marketing columnist of QSR Magazine.

In 2005, Steve co-authored The Consistent Consumer, an in-depth study of the values-based characteristics of America's major generational cohort groups. His other author credits include: I Was A Food Writer for the CIA; The Culinary Olympics Cookbook; and Signs of Taste, this last an amusing analysis of dining predilections based on astrological signs. Steve has also written extensively for consumer publications ranging from the Chicago Tribune, to the Phoenix New Times, to American Astrology, and he was the on-camera talent and co-creator of The Convenient Gourmet, a series of video news releases produced by General Foods on behalf of its dessert division.

Steve's new book, Signs of Success, takes the astrological theme to a greater depth level, and represents the culmination of a lifetime avocational interest in the field of astrology. Rather than deal with the issue of "belief," Steve points out the brilliance of the astrological conceptual framework with regard to the description of human values. "The modern field of demography has made a great contribution to the understanding of cultural phenomena," says Steve, "but astrology is a field that's been working on such material for 5,000 years."

Visit Steve's website, Signs of Success, by clicking here.

Read Steve's blog, Signs of Weiss, by clicking here.