Archive for October, 2008

Here is my “decompression” post from Highlight Midwest, held this week in Kansas City.

First and foremost, there are a lot of very neat things being done in Iowa and the surrounding states.  There is absolutely no reason why the company I work for can’t compete with the major web production studios in California, New York, Philadelphia or anywhere.   That being said…

One of the main things I got out of the conference was that everybody there was there because of one reason:  they want to be the best <something>.   It may sound egotistical at first, but once you peel it away, it makes sense.

The only reason to be doing what we are doing is to be the best.   If you don’t want to be the best, then find something else you want to be the best at, and do that.   This is true both on the personal side and the corporate side.   If I could, I would walk into our programmer area and say “Anybody who doesn’t want to be the best web design and hosting company in Iowa, leave now.”

These people don’t describe themselves as “one of” anything.  For instance, there is a social marketing company in Des Moines called Lava Row, started by a classmate of mine at Ames High.  When they go speak, they don’t get up and say “Hello, I’m Nathan Wright, and I am with Lava Row, one of many social marketing companies in Iowa.”   He says “Hi, I’m  Nathan Write and I work at Lava Row, *THE* social marketing company in the state.”

Believing you are the best at what you do is half the battle to becoming the best.   But it can’t just be programmers, it has to follow through with all departments in your company.   If sales doesn’t think you are the best, how can they represent you fully to clients?   If they don’t think you are the best, they may feel like your prices are too high, other people unmotivated, and their sales numbers will suffer to.  Think of a cold call that goes “Hi, this is Troy and I’m from Captain Jack Communications, the best web developer in Central Iowa, is XXXX available?”   vs “Hi, this is Troy and I work at a web design company in Des Moines, can I talk to XXXXX?”

Everybody has to be on board with making the company #1 in its field.

Next, I learned that it doesn’t take a lot of money or resources to do neat things.   There are a lot of free tools on the Internet that people are using to further their businesses.  Whether they are harnessing the power of hundreds of servers hosted at amazon.com or using Basecamp as their project management software, utilizing the tools that have come out of this “web 2.0″ era of web design and development is key to a successful company.

Along with that comes the next thing I learned.   If you are going to try and make a product based on what someone else has already done, you better make it better.  If you can’t make it better, just use the product that already exists.   Facebook saw MySpace and knew they could make it better.   Twitter has spawned a bunch of third party web sites that use its technology to make different services.   If you are going to try and make a Slinky ripoff, you had better make sure it goes “up the stairs” as well as down.

And the last “overall” theme from Highlight Midwest is that companies are not alone anymore.  Where once we stood within our walls and refused to communicate with other companies because they are the “enemy” and our secrets were to be held close to the vest, the new era of doing business is about openness and transparency.   Networking has always been a key strategy of the business owner, but usually it was a network of unrelated fields at a “BNI” group or “business after hours” round table.  Today, it is a group of like-minded, similar fields that come together to share ideas and insights not necessarily about projects each is doing, but where they would like to see the industry as a whole, in the area and the world, go.

Very. Powerful. Stuff.

Here are the specific panels I attended:

Iowa Web Awards / Iowa Flood with Andy Brudtkuhl (Des Moines)
It was hard not to keep socializing with people from the #dmtweetup group, but I really was interested in what Andy had to say.   He has done a lot of work with Wordpress CMS systems, as well as Yahoo Pipes – pulling in content from a lot of sources to make one “point of contact” super-site using RSS feeds.   Good stuff.

Building a Better City Web Site with Dusty Davidson (Omaha)
This one interested me because the city web site for Ames is really bad, as is one of the “city portal” type sites in town, as well as the local newspaper.   Dusty has built a platform of content aggregation, sorting and display that will blow the other city web sites, newspapers, and media outlets out of the water.

SmartyPig with Michael Ferrari
The SmartyPig panel was less about the technology and more about the service, so a little disappointing… only since I already knew a lot about it.   Still, it was interesting to hear Michael talk about the origins of the company, and where it was going.  I only wish he would have come to Captain Jack’s instead of Happy Cog for his site design, if for nothing else but to stay local.

Comics on Rails with Scott Kahler and Doug Sparling
This panel was about uclick, the online comic site that combines the properties of a major publishing house that syndicates Garfield (among others).  Of particular interest was a discussion about how everything was dynamic on one of their redesigns, and it brought their servers to their knees.  Then, they redid everything as static pages and things were happy again.  Definitely a lesson in using database content efficiently in there someplace.

Messages, Membership, and Money with Christina MakiChristina
I attended this panel since I had been having some issues getting our local community theater to embrace technologies such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.  She provided some good starting points for non-profits to get into the space, most of which I had already tried … but good info.

Bringing a Japanese Phenomenon West with Derek Maune
Derek spoke about a new web site / service he created to help with a specific kind of microblogging – writing a book.  Apparently in Japan, many people are using short updates via SMS on their cell phones to write books.  His company, Quill Pill provides an online reader that is easy to use for your book, and plans to offer the ability to order a real book with the service in the future.

Microblogging, Macro Impact with Mike Templeton
Mike, another Des Moines tech evangelist, spoke about the different microblogging platforms, and how his new web site is providing a way to keep track of all the micro-blogging solutions out there.

Cleared For Landing: Building a Social Media Business in Flyover Country with Nathan T. Wright and Hillary Brown
Nathan and Hillary or Lava Row gave a good representation of how to build a social marketing business no matter where you are located.   Between the two of them, they are very engaging.   The panel focused mainly on Lava Row itself, and not necessarily on tools, tricks or techniques per se.

Bottom Line – if you don’t want to be “the best” – then get out.  If you want to be the best then there is a huge, welcoming community waiting to help you get there.  And yes, there are some really cool things happening in the midwest.

I’m usually not big on costumes for Halloween, however at the office we have a costume contest and the last few years I have made my own.

The first year I made a homemade “Cobra Kai” Gi – which spawned a completely separate web site cobrakaidojo.com.

The next year I went as Adam Curry, from MTV and podcasting fame.

Earlier this year I decided to dress up for the Can’t Stop the Serenity event.  I had seen a post at Costume Girl about how easy it was to make, so I decided to give it a try.

Initially I spent a lot of time and effort making the medical symbols by scratch in Photoshop, but then I wimped out and bought a patch set on eBay.  Still,  in the spirit of sharing, I thought I would put up my source files here for you to enjoy/download/print in case you want to make your own Firefly Ariel EMT costume.

I don’t have a picture of me IN my costume, yet, but I’m told one exists someplace.  In the meantime, here are the different files I used to create the medical badge seen on the show, and even the big back patch.

click on any of the Ariel EMT costume graphics above to view/download the larger version.

I’ve had the idea for a new business / hobby for a while now.   It was something I was somewhat involved in when I lived in Los Angeles, and I even wrote a book about it.  Sounds like the perfect niche, right?

Almost.

See, like in so many businesses and niches, there are people always out to destroy you.   Just as we are seeing in the presidential race, people judge you by the associations you have had in the past – no matter how minor.   The fact of the matter is, that if you put yourself out there enough, eventually you are going to have dealings with, or encounters with, people whom you later find out are “bad.”

But back to the niche…

Besides the fear that people will judge me by my past associations (the bad ones, not the good ones) there has been one thing holding me back.   One thing that I can point to and say “If I only had … that!    If I only had one, it would make a difference.  Man, if I only had one I would get this business started and it would take off.   Man, if I only had one of those, I’d be happy.”

What is it?

A label printer.

Now before you laugh and call me names, hear me out.  Think about this great business tool.  No more would I need to waste a whole sheet of labels to mail out just one letter or package.   A label printer- a personal label printer (preferable a Twin Turbo) is all I need to be successful.

If only I had…. a label printer.

I had been blaming my inability or laziness starting the business on this inanimate object.  This thing that had a simple function – to print out an address on a sticky piece of paper.  But yet it was the most powerful thing in the universe.   It was stopping me from realizing what could be my dream.

Thursday I bought my label printer.

Show-time.

What obstacles have you created in your mind that are stopping you from reaching your goals?   Are they real or just mental blocks you have installed so you don’t hold yourself responsible for your actions or inactions.  Pick an obstacle today and decide to remove it… see what happens.

For the past several months I have been directing a play at the community theater called  Big based on the Tom Hanks film of the same name.   Almost a year ago when I first read the play, I thought it would be fun to do, so I challenged our play selection committee over it, and eventually won my case.  Secretly (or not so secretly – I wanted to play the lead)

Things change, and somehow I agreed to direct rather to audition.   Last year I directed “High School Musical” for the theater and it was one of the most profitable shows we had ever done.   So of course I was ready for the challenge of Big.

Or so I thought.

The production was filled with its own little controversies here and there, eventually leading up to postponing the opening weekend another week until the cast and musicians were comfortable with each other.   More drama than I can even think of, but eventually it pulled together.   And I thought, just a minute, that everything would be ok.

The two weekends came and went, with minor tempers flaring between some of the adults and kids – which is to be expected.   Then a “cast party” incident through another wet blanket on the event, causing even more hurt feelings and my own sort of depression.

But perhaps the single-most thing that really gets to me about the whole experience was the turn-out for the play.  I know canceling the first weekend hurt admissions, and I can write an entire blog on publicity and marketing for community theaters.   The part that gets me is this:

I have been involved in a lot of things in Des Moines and Ames.   I grew up here, I know a lot of people in the town, a lot of people with $$$ and without $$$, I volunteer a lot in Ames and Des Moines… I would think that getting people to come to the show would be easy.

None of my friends and family (save 1) came to the show.

Ok, so that may be an understatement.  See, I have a lot of “friends” from the theater and of course they came to the show.  What I mean is co-workers, family, close-friends, even the twitter community.

Nobody came.

As depressing as it sounds I used to think that if I got hurt and ended up in the hospital (or worse) I couldn’t keep track of all the flowers, cards and well wishers in the room.   Now I’m not so sure.

We are a society of acquaintances.

It makes me wonder why I keep doing this.   Why I keep going through the turmoil to help put on these shows when nobody that I know even comes to see them.  All it does is make me upset, except for the one or two days when I can see the whole thing, and how far we have come, and smile.

Its not that my actions are dictated by whether or not friends and family approve of them.   But I am quickly losing the energy to keep doing things that cause me excessive stress, and then nobody cares to even come see.  I’ve been talking about it for 8-10 weeks, I’ve been saying I can’t do other things for 8-10 weeks, aren’t you just the least curious how it turned out?

Even on the inside of the theater, I gave my time last year to every production we had, thinking that when it came time that I would need them, I would have people to back me up.  That didn’t happen.  People today ask too often “what can you do FOR me” rather than realize what people have already DONE for them.

I’ve been reflecting on Seth Godin’s book, “The Dip” and how he urges people to quit the things that are holding you back so you can focus on the things you enjoy doing and can excel at.

It has me thinking whether I need to do what I directed my actors to do …

Exit, stage left.

I first was introduced to the poem “State of Mind” when I attended “Leadership 2000″ at the YMCA Camp in Boone, Iowa run by Dr. Ray Pugh.    As part of the session, we were given a spiral-bound book written by Dr. Pugh (that I have sadly lost over the years) that contained the poem.   I typed it out on the computer, printed it out, and kept a copy on my wall throughout High School.

I had a lot of things to overcome.

Over the years, whenever times got tough, I would read that poem again, and it would renew my energies, making me strive for something better.   I am going to repost it now, along with some commentary by Robert Collier.  I could use some of the lessons spoken of right now, maybe you can too.

It may be that you have been deluded by the thought of incompetence. It may be that you have been told so often that you cannot do certain things that you’ve come to believe you can’t. Remember that success or failure is merely a state of mind. Believe you cannot do a thing—and you can’t. Know that you can do it—and you will. You must see yourself doing it.

“If you think you are beaten, you are;
If you think you dare not, you don’t;
If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t;
If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,
For out in the world you’ll find
Success begins with a fellow’s will—
It’s all in the state of mind.

“Full many a race is lost
Ere even a race is run,
And many a coward fails
Ere even his work’s begun.
Think big, and your deeds will grow,
Think small and you fall behind,
Think that you can, and you will;
It’s all in the state of mind.”If you think you are outclassed, you are;
You’ve got to think high to rise;
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.
Life’s battle doesn’t always go
To the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the fellow who thinks he can.”

There’s a vast difference between a proper understanding of one’s own ability and a determination to make the best of it—and offensive egotism. It is absolutely necessary for every man to believe in himself, before he can make the most of himself. All of us have something to sell. It may be our goods, it may be our abilities, it may be our services. You’ve got to believe in yourself to make your buyer take stock in you at par and accrued interest. You’ve got to feel the same personal solicitude over a customer lost, as a revivalist over a backslider, and hold special services to bring him back into the fold. You’ve got to get up every morning with determination, if you’re going to go to bed that night with satisfaction.

There’s mighty sound sense in the saying that all the world loves a booster. The one and only thing you have to win success with is MIND. For your mind to function at its highest capacity, you’ve got to be charged with good cheer and optimism. No one ever did a good piece of work while in a negative frame of mind. Your best work is always done when you are feeling happy and optimistic.

And a happy disposition is the result—not the cause—of happy, cheery thinking. Health and prosperity are the results primarily of optimistic thoughts. You make the pattern. If the impress you have left on the world about you seems faint and weak, don’t blame fate—blame your pattern! You will never cultivate a brave, courageous demeanor by thinking cowardly thoughts. You cannot gather figs from thistles. You will never make your dreams come true by choking them with doubts and fears. You’ve got to put foundations under your air castles, foundations of UNDERSTANDING and BELIEF. Your chances of success in any undertaking can always be measured by your BELIEF in yourself.

Are your surroundings discouraging? Do you feel that if you were in another’s place success would be easier? Just bear in mind that your real environment is within you. All the factors of success or failure are in your inner world. You make that own inner world—and through it your outer world. You can choose the material from which to build it. If you’ve not Chosen wisely in the past, you can choose again now the material you want to rebuild it. The richness of life is within you. No one has failed so long as he can begin again.

Start right in and do all those things you feel you have it in you to do. Ask permission of no man. Concentrating your thought upon any proper undertaking will make its achievement possible. Your belief that you can do the thing gives your thought forces their power. Fortune waits upon you. Seize her boldly, hold her—and she is yours. She belongs rightfully to you. But if you cringe to her, if you go up to her doubtfully, timidly, she will pass you by in scorn. For she is a fickle jade who must be mastered, who loves boldness, who admires confidence.