My first speaking gig

Last week went by about (snap) that fast. Sure, it was busy at work – when is it not – but Tuesday afternoon I slipped out of my day-to-day and boogied my way (via United Airways and damn them times ten for now charging for checked bags) to do something I’d been both excited about and dreading for more than a month.

My first speaking gig.

A little back-story: one of the things I do at work is manage our Online events. That’s just a dressed-up way of saying webinars, but it’s a gig that takes more than a bit of thinking and one that I genuinely get quite a bit of pleasure from doing. At any rate, our technology provider (the guys that handle the back-end of our events) invited me to join them on a panel at the Marketing Profs Digital Mixer in Chicago and talk about how we use webinars to capture high-quality leads and promote the actual events using social media. 

In a word, awesome.

I was on a panel with two other people, so there was very little stress once things got rolling. It helped that I made the audience laugh about 10 seconds in, but as this was my first time getting up in front of a group of people and speaking there was a little apprehension going in.

I could produce quite a few paragraphs about the experience, but I’ll sum it up briefly. I met absolutely great people (see here and here), the panel went swimmingly (see the review and comments here) and I’m, to use the technical terms, totally stoked to do this again.

Cheers.

How to pump it up

 

Do you ever find yourself thinking, “Self, I wish I were better at (insert at will)?” I certainly do. The things I’d like to be better at are many and varied, but I think it’s fair to say that most of the time my little wish, usually said quietly in the back of my head, is as far as I go to actually do anything about it.  

I’m thinking I’m probably not alone in this.

My friend Tim, who might be steadily becoming absolutely wearyof being mentioned here, has talked with me about this a number of times; generally about this blog. But first, as a few people (to include my mother) have requested I do so, I present you with a Boot Camp story:

Before I joined the Corps I’d discharged a firearm only twice in my life. Once, and even now I shudder at the stupidity, I and a handful of other knuckleheads fired shotguns into the air on New Year’s Eve. The second time occurred when my father and I went on our (only) duck hunting trip. That time I fired another shotgun into the air (hitting nothing except perhaps one of the eight million mosquitoes in the area) and shortly after we called it quits. As I didn’t enjoy hunting, or (at that time) spending time with my father, I was more than ready to get back to the safety of my room and sink into the melodies of a Yaz or Depeche Mode album through my headphones. 

And yet it’s generally the guys exactly like me, those with little or no experience with firearms, who perform the best on the firing range once trained. Instructors say it’s because we don’t have a mass of bad habits that we need to break. There’s probably a post about that idea (Tim, Russ – the gauntlet is thrown) but that’s for another day.

And while I’m certain the lack of bad habits had something to do with it, I’m more than convinced “Snap-in” was actually the key to my success with an M-16.

You see, Boot Camp provided two weeks of rifle training – one week of position training (Snap-in), and another week of live-fire practice and testing. While going through it, Snap-in was horrible: five days, eight hours a day, of sitting or lying on the ground, holding a rifle and staring off into the distance, imagining your target floating between the sights.

What I didn’t understand at the time was that I was building muscle-memory in those five days. That because of standing up, sitting down, kneeling, or lying in a the prone position, over and over, I was teaching my body the correct way to get my trunk, arms, and legs out of the equation when it came to tracking, targeting, and eliminating a target.   

When week two finally began I was a “natural.”

Okay, so how does that apply here?

Tim told me a story a few months ago about a Comic Book artist who, when asked by an aspiring artist how to get into the business, suggested that the inquiring individual draw 10,000 sketches. Yup, not a typo – that’s four zeroes. 10,000 sketches and you’re going to know your way around a drawing, was the idea. “Chops,” you could say.

So I wonder – out of all those things, those wishes that we’d like to be better at, just how awesome would we be after a week of Snap-in or 10,000 practice swings? Want to get in shape? Start tracking the miles you walk or run. Or the number of push-ups you do. Seriously – imagine how your arms or chest would look after ten thousandpush-ups. What will this blog look like after 10,000 posts?

Of course, it’s far, far easier to look into the air and wish we knew how to do this or had more talent at that and chalk it up to genetics or talent. Which will you choose?

Image by RightIndex

Zombies and pedicures

You might be wondering what could these two things possibly have in common. Other than the former could probably really, really use the latter, I mean. The answer is that they were both topics covered in a rather odd meeting at work not long ago.

I guess ‘meeting’ is a bit of a misnomer. It was actually a group of about 15 people hanging out in a conference room during lunch on a Friday, laughing and chowing down on greek-style pizza, kicking-off our first  Pecha Kucha party.

In a nutshell, Pecha Kucha is a presentation where a brave soul queues up 20 images or slides and delivers a presentation dedicating twenty seconds per image. Meaning, each presenter gets up and does their thing for a total of 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Awesome.

The topics, as you might have noticed, can be just about anything. Zack’s presentation on zombies – and I had no idea zombie culture is as popular as it is - had us shaking our heads and cracking up, one after the other. MB had us all convinced that the secret to productivity at work was to take the time to give your toes some love.

Am I a total nerd, or does this seem like something that would be fun to do at a party? (If you’re in the Austin area, you can check out a local gathering here)

Photo by Eric Ingrum

A word or two on service

I think it’s fair to say that when I first started at Hoover’s I had a little difficulty adjusting to an office gig. Which is remarkable, considering just how laid-back the organization and culture is at the office. Consider – in the four or so years I’ve been there I’ve worn slacks into the office twice and I think I’ve only tucked in my shirt a few more times than that.

Still, going from bartender and freelance writer to sitting at a cube and interacting professionally with people every Monday through Friday was a challenge.

In the years that have passed (although it’s infinitely more difficult without an oak bar between me and them) I’ve slowly gotten better at that interaction. My language is sometimes inexcusably inappropriate, but, luckily, they cut me some slack knowing that I’m working on it.

In any case, in all that time, it’s always been fairly clear to me that everyone at Hoover’s takes treating the customer right pretty seriously. It’s one of the things that makes working there something I can (genuinely) be proud of. And, because the economy is what it is, it’s something all of us have been keenfully aware just how important it is to keep doing well. 

Which is why I’m so irritated about a personal situation, I felt the need to tell you about it.  

The short version is this: the contract for our pest service was up as of April and Sarah and I have been checking out options for a new vendor. Last Thursday, or old vendor came out during the day, treated our home (we have a system that allows them to do everything from outside) then left an invoice for about 30% higher than we paid before.

This is after we cancelled our service with them in April.

So I’ve spent the last few days, original contract in hand, arguing with their office. And I’m not trying to get over – it was time for a treatment, and even though we’d cancelled our service with them we haven’t yet found a replacement; so I’m happy to pay for the services we received. Just not at a 30% mark-up. And still they argue.

Sarah and I, in our original contract, decided to pay for the entire year of service up front. So I ask you – isn’t that the kind of customer you want to not only keep, but also take care of? These guys seem to want to demonstrate some shady practices and then hope their customer will simply fold.

Sorry, not gonna happen.

A friend has written about this kind of thing before, see here, but now I’ll ask you: in an environment where every interaction counts, what are you doing to take care of and keep your customers? Given my recent experience, I’d love to hear some good examples…

image by yummiec00kies

Bad advertising, courtesy of Burger King

I came across this not long ago and sometimes I’m just lost for words.  Not only did a creative team come up with this idea, such as it is, they actually had the stones to take it their creative director. That CD then took it the account rep. Finally, once all was said and done, the agency gathered up their storyboards and mock-ups and pitched it to the client.

Who, for reasons passing understanding, somehow said yes.

Now don’t get me wrong – I’m a former Marine and a long-time bartender, so sketchy humor is essentially part of my genetic make-up – so I’m not offended with the ad. At least not in the traditional sense. I’m simply left, pardon the pun, with a really, really bad taste in my mouth.

I’v said this before, and I’ll no doubt have countless opportunities to say it again, but there is some absolutely horrible advertising out there. Ads that don’t really do much more than lean on a dick joke to one degree or another and then exit stage left.

And maybe most people don’t expect much more. They’re just ads, right?

Except they’re not. Not when they’re good. There are some absolutely phenomenal ads that have been written and produced that not only manage to make us think, or smile, or talk to one another; they represent a business or product in such a way that we consumers choose to do business with them. Gladly.

But doing both is hard, and because of that you get crap like the Burger King ad pictured here. On the other hand, you can find an example of a banner ad that rocks here. What are some great/horrible ads you’ve seen?

What do AIG and Darfur have in common?

Efforts to save them might be misguided…

Most weekdays I spend my drive to and from work listening to NPR. I’ve written about it before, but I can’t say it enough – I loves me some NPR. The exceptions are those times when the state of things, for whatever reason, is just a bit too much; when every story seems to do little more than make me sad, tired, or frustrated.

Those times I think, I swear to God, if I have to listen to any more political bickering or depressing world affairs I’m just going to turn around, go back home, and crawl into bed until Friday. Then take a vacation day and crack open a cold one* to celebrate a three day weekend. That’ll teach ‘em.

As you can imagine, that doesn’t happen too often.

A program a couple of weeks ago featured a story about Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir (the same gent who has an arrest warrant for him issued by the International Criminal Court, by the bye). Because this post has taken far longer to write than I anticipated, you’ve probably heard about it by now. But, on the off-chance you haven’t, the skinny is this: Sudan’s president has directed all foreign aid groups leave the country within one year. This mandate comes not long after the government had the good sense to kick out about two dozen other groups.

According to President al-Bashir, the goal of removing international aid is to “Sudanese” relief efforts. What that means is anyone’s guess, but given this guy’s history I have trouble seeing that as anything close to a good thing for the population.

But he’s a tyrant. And as a concept, murdering, bloodthirsty tyrants wanting absolute control isn’t all that surprising, right? It was the next story, and concept underneath, that really got my wheels turning.

Economist Dambisa Moyo recently released a book called Dead Aid. It posits that assistance, both monetary and general humanitarian efforts, has actually hurt Africa. Think about that – that’s 23 billion dollars in federal aid from the US (available 2006 numbers) – that she believes has done more harm than good.

Far better, she says, is the type of aid China provides – investments in the economy in the form of factories and other businesses that lead to jobs, new sources of tax income for the state, and the general economic growth that not only builds a community’s economy but also its sense of self-worth.

Click here for a review of her book by Paul Collier.

While researching this post I came across the quote below from another gent in an article from the Washington Post. The article is a few years old, but his point of view is interesting and worth the read if you have a few minutes.

“There is no African, myself included, who does not appreciate the help of the wider world, but we do question whether aid is genuine or given in the spirit of affirming one’s cultural superiority. My mood is dampened …because Africans, real people though we may be, are used as props in the West’s fantasy of itself. And not only do such depictions tend to ignore the West’s prominent role in creating many of the unfortunate situations on the continent, they also ignore the incredible work Africans have done and continue to do to fix those problems.”

So I have to wonder: are they right? Has assistance from the West hindered growth, innovation, and self-reliance in Africa? The (very, very small) conservative part of me appreciates the logic. Arguments have been made asserting blank checks can discourage entrepreneurship, make the government unaccountable, and foster an environment rich with the potential for corruption. And there’s clearly some truth to those ideas.

But the majority of my mind and heart say it’s hard for a society to open small businesses when their children are dying from horrifying, pandemic illnesses. You know, like a cold. And how does a government that can’t seem to provide something as basic as a clean water supply hope to change the tide? “Sudanese efforts,” indeed.

Now apply that thinking to our own economic issues. Is a blank check, read DART, a help or a hindrance to AIG, Fanny Mae, and the rest of their ilk? Two weeks ago purse strings were still pulled tight and the dial that measured bank lending hadn’t seen a twitch in the needle. In fact, small businesses with years of impeccable credit history have been unable to secure loans they’ve received, year after year, critical to operations. And because of that lack of capital they’ve now shut their doors. Add to that many bank’s hesitance to sell off “toxic” loans because they’re not being offered the price they now think those loans are worth and I’m having quite a few WTF moments.

But I’m not an economist. I thank the Maker I’m married to a woman far, far smarter than I am every time I envision helping Ellie with her algebra. But I am a taxpayer. And it’s my money, and yours, that’s seemingly been hurled into the ether from Washington the last six months and all I know for certain is that while I’m lucky and grateful to have a job that I love, unemployment rate at as of April 3rd is 8.5%.

So, is Ms Moyo right? Is the blank check we’ve written to the banking system, Wall Street (and Detroit, for that matter) part of the problem? And, if so, what’s the better plan? Let me know what you think…

*Full disclosure – because I’m a girly-man and don’t drink beer, a “cold one” is actually a Smirnoff Ice. Don’t laugh – they’re yummy.

photo by Amagil

If you don’t know what a Tauntaun is you might want to skip this post

The head our Creative Services department brought this wonderful product to my attention. While it might defy the line, “I thought they smelled bad on the outside,” it does claim to “simulate the warmth of a Tauntaun carcass.” Righteous. Add mock entrails and a glowing lightsaber pull that  mimics slitting open this poor creature’s belly and I know exactly what I’m buying my newphew for Christmas this year.

100 books

I had an idea I thought might be both fun and smart. And while that’s fairly uncharted territory for me, I think I’m going to run with it. You see, not long ago Seth Godin published a post where, among other things, he wrote about the number one habit successful people share. The secret? 

“They read books to learn. They do it often and with joy.” 

In the years since I graduated I can count on one hand the number of books I’ve read to learn. I read a ton on the Web, I squeeze in a Steven Brust or Stephen R. Donaldson when I can, but finding the time to sink into a book that really concentrates on professional growth has proven to be a challenge.

I hope to change that.

You see, in that same post Seth also plugged a new book that just might help. It’s called The 100 Best Business Books of All Time and you can check it out here. My copy should be arriving any day now, and when it does, I’ll begin this new experiment of mine. It goes something like this:

In no particular order (as I can find them, more than likely) I’m going to read these 100 books. Then I’m going to tell you about them, so maybe you can learn a little bit as I’m doing the same. I’m hoping that by the time I get through the list I’ll have picked up at least a portion of wisdom that I can apply to my career. What do you think?