Lots of fun.
Life
A couple weeks ago I promised to share how I am able to do as much as I do. I was planning on focusing on productivity and technology, but I wanted to touch briefly on inspiration and motivation because these are the true reasons I pursue solutions to accomplish more.
Vision
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry once said, “If you want to build a ship, don’t herd people together to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”
The importance of vision, direction, purpose, goals, etc.cannot be overstated. Without a destination, even the most advanced navigation system is just a worthless box.
We have our Family Mission statement and my company has a vision. I am working on my personal vision as well.
Prioritize
Apple has about ten products and has a market cap the size of many competitors with hundreds of products.
Jesus worked on the Sabbath. When Jack Wench took over GE he sold or closed every business they had that was not either number one or had a good chance to be within a couple years.
Paul, at the end of his life, recognized he has put it all on the line, there was nothing left. He did not coast through his “retirement” years.
I try to make all my decisions based on the priorities spelled out in these vision statements.
Learn. A lot.
No one knows everything. Even if you are the exception to this rule, disruptive changes are happening in nearly every industry on earth right now.
The most prolific and accomplished people in history have always been the Renaissance men (and women of course). Individuals who dabbled in multiple disciplines, interact in multiple cultural contexts, engage with people even when they do not agree (especially when they don’t agree).
So that’s how I do it. How do you stay focused?
We’d love for you to be there. Details here.
Thanks for all the cards and notes and tweets and what nots. Yesterday was Micah’s birthday. We all spent the day at the park. It was a lot of fun.
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| 2010-01-04 Micah’s Bday at Irvine Park |
Below is a presentation I gave at the Unleashing Beauty Conference in Irvine, Ca this last week. I have embedded my slide show and put my notes, expanded and with links to various websites and webapps mentioned through out. If your organization would like to talk about a more personalized solution lets set up a time to talk.
Unleashing Beauty Online: the power of social media for social justice
1. Welcome
A. Who Am I?
a. freelance marketer and social web developer for the last year and a half
b. in process of launching intersection creative strategies
c. site lead for laundry love santa ana
d. husband, father of 2 kids under 3
B. What we are not discussing
a. philosophical or theological implications of social media
b. philosophical or theological implications of social justice
c. politics
C. Presuppositions I am starting with
a. Social Justice is a good
b. Social Media is ok (moral, legal, ethical, permissible, etc.) for churches, NPO’s and NGO’s to use
c. Social Media is a powerful tool for influence
d. You are here to learn HOW to use social media for social justice (ie: not to debate these other items)
2. Format
A. Not So Great Examples
B. Great Examples
C. Practical Steps
D. The Vision
E. Q&A
3. Not so great examples
A. Motrin
B. Social Media Gurus
C. Ning communities (w/ some exceptions)
4. Great examples
a. Mark Horvath
b. Invisible People
c. Road Trip
d. Impact
B. Twestival
a. a quick mention
b. a simple website
c. a few well placed mentions
d. press, npo’s and gov’t notice
5. Practical
A. The Right Platforms
a. Website/Blog
b. Facebook
c. Twitter
d. Other
B. The Right Tools
1. Ping.FM
a. Status updates to 30+ sites
2. Posterous
a. blogs, pics, links to 10+ sites
3. TubeMogul
a. video to 40+ video sharing sites
4. Twitterfeed
a. posting of rss feeds through twitter or ping.fm
5. TweetDeck
a. multiple saved twitter searches
b. keep track of conversations on twitter, facebook, even myspace
c. multi account posting and listening
d. columns for keeping track of friends, family, best donors, etc
6. Other
a. niche sites, geographic specific sites, etc
C. The Right Content
1. relevant
a. to your topic
b. to your demographic
c. to YOU
2. funny
a. funny spreads fast
b. funny gets people talking
c. funny keeps people coming back even when the big picture is bleak (ie sex trafficking, gang violence, etc)
3. personal
4. unique
a. not found elsewhere
5. shared
a. point people towards orgs, links, articles that are interesting or useful in your space.
6. universal
a. low cost of entry. if you want to get people to rally around something, make sure it is something they can rally around. don’t ask them to agree to a set of theological or philosophical propositions to join your movement. Don’t make it cost too much. 6. Vision
A. Worldwide Scope
B. Little Regulation
C. Little Cost of Entry
D. Viral Potential
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Laundry Love Santa Ana is happening on Thursday. Check it out. Last month is was a lot of fun and pretty hectic. Pretty sure it is going to be the same this month.
As you can tell, my site doesn’t look the same. It is still a bit buggy, and a teeny bit of the design is not how I want it yet. But I know that folks are starting to find it, Google is now crawling it and its popping up again as number one in my vanity searches. Beyond that I will be at Catalyst West this week and know that people I meet will be checking out the site. So here it is, in its not quite yet finished glory.
Poke around and let me know what is still broken. I know of a few things, but would love the help to make sure its great for you guys.
And if you are going to be at Catalyst hit me up on Twitter.
Over the next several weeks I will be posting much less rambling abstract thoughts regarding the Idea Camp, but wanted to let you know why I threw out so many tweets about this great unconference.
Also, for those who could not be there, there is a Vimeo channel up with videos being added every day.
1. There was only one traditional presentation the whole time and it was one given at TED a few weeks ago, so who could complain? The rest was all interview and Q&A in the main sessions. This made the focus more on ideas than on hero worship. Difficult to do when you are sitting a few feet away from some serious thought leaders in various fields. Also made presentations more honest, raw and authentic. Very few canned speeches.
2. By bringing together a lot of leaders from different fields it pushed people out of there comfort zone. Watch the video with Dave Gibbons interviewing John Park from Google and Maxim Karp (sp?) from Yang Dang. I went out with a lot of pastors after that talk. There minds were all blown.
When you bring together interdisciplinary thought leaders the potential for Medici effect type moments is huge. Would have liked to see more business leaders represented but social entrepreneurs, church leaders and non profit leaders is already pretty broad. Especially when most conferences only provide one of those and no breadth within a given category.
There were engineers, marketers, producers, pastors, consultants, non profit executives, artists, entrepreneurs, and all sorts of other people. Oh yeah, they even let me show up.
3. The huge focus on ideas and implementation made everything super practical and actionable. No esoteric “what ifs” or “if only’s” or idealistic theory.
4. It was affordable. Often times a conference will cater to learners who are virtually identical to the presenters. By putting successful folks on stage and allowing the Not-quite-there-yet’s to come in (by virtue of low cost of entry) it opened the doors for a lot of folks who may not have gone to a typical progressive thought conference in any one of the many fields represented.
5. It was extremely open. Text in questions all throughout. All presenters were out and about during the whole conference. I got to hit the water fountain with Scott Harrison (Charity: Water). Spencer Burke parked next to me in the parking lot. Zack Hunter checked in with his mom (who is a kind of a big deal in her own right) while I was talking to her in the hall. There were no false gods at this conference. Everyone there was there to learn, help, network, innovate.
I would love to talk more as I decompress and get in touch with all the great folks I met and promised some time to this weekend. If you went to the conference let me know your thoughts in the comments. If you have a favorite conference you have been to let me know that too. What makes it special?
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Close your eyes and visualize your customers using your product or service. What do you see? How do you feel? Can you do it?
What I see with many of my clients is that an exercise like this just feels funny and they are not able to really know what their customers think and feel in their day to day life. What does your product mean to their life? Does it change it? Make it easier?
By learning the answers to these questions we are able to not only focus our marketing message, but also improve upon that crucial customer experience. If your product or service is EXACTLY what your customer needs or wants, then you no longer have a customer, but a Fan and Evangelist.
Of course, the question becomes, HOW???
The answer is fairly simple. Listen, engage, repeat.
Use the tools that are available today. Try out the new ones. Find ways to make THE CONVERSATION part of your daily routine. There are far too many tools to list here today (although I have one in the works), but here is what I use.
Listening
Google Reader, Twollow, Social Too, Tweet Deck, Twitter Hawk, Friend Feed, Google Alerts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace (one of my clients in largely focused in the indie music scene),
Engage
Tweet Deck, Twitter Hawk, Social Too, Facebook, Twitter Search, GMail, Comments, Blogging, Phone (I’m a dinosaur, I know), Skype (less and less lately with the advent of…), TokBox.
You will see quite a bit of overlap between the two lists as many of these tools are more like places than tools. When using Twitter, you can be a fly on the wall and watch the conversation, or actively engage in it.
When your customers start knowing you personally they become friends. When they start to love your product or service they become fans.
What do you use to engage the crowd? When was the last time you made a change to your service based on a Facebook post? Would you consider your customers friends? Does your business have any fans?
