360 Convos

How to write a resignation letter

2012-01-04T05:08:00.000-08:00

This time last year, I was mentally preparing to walk into my boss' office and give notice.

I'd spent a good deal of time crafting what I felt was a straightforward resignation letter. What took so much time was working through all the verbiage that, momentarily, would make me feel triumphant, but would be less than professional and not reflective of my career.

I'd invested a lot in the company – probably over invested myself – so I wanted a sense of dignity to hallmark my exit.

Here's what I said:

It is with utmost appreciation that I celebrate the talent gathered here and am so grateful for the resources that have been invested in me for both professional and personal development.

I am resigning my position as Advertising Saies Manager and look forward to gathering what you need from me in the final days of my tenure ending January 14, 2011.

Sincerely,

Carol Doane

Here's what I felt:

Elated.

Sad.

It's been an educational year. Not what I'd expected.

Jobs remain elusive for unemployed

2011-11-15T06:00:00.000-08:00

In April, Washington State had 47,026 unemployed workers who had exhausted their unemployment benefits.

Unemployment benefits normally last 26 weeks. When the regular benefits are exhausted, extensions have been available. Some unemployed people have drilled through extended benies and emergency compensation that carried them up to 99 weeks.

To discover what happened on week 100, the state conducted a survey. The goal was to understand barriers job-seekers encountered, review programs and services the unemployed used to look for work, and find out where they landed in the spectrum of the pursuit of a job.

The survey used a point-in-time sample representing all recent exhaustees and was conducted in support of the “Retooling Washington” initiative. This initiative is an effort of the workforce-development system to identify ways to make a difference, and do that quickly.

Basically, Retooling Washington asks two questions:

1) How do we work together to help the unemployed who need to have their skills retooled for jobs now and in the future?

2) How do we work together to respond to needs of employers when they come to us to help them have the workforce they need now and in the future?

Acording to the report, “Only about 25 percent of those who responded to the survey had found work. Most of these said they used online resources and networking to find their jobs.”

A quarter of the job seekers looked online. Most of the online seekers found a job.

How did you get your last job?

Opportunities, do we seize them?

2011-10-17T07:57:00.000-07:00

A recent email sent out by Storables promoted countertop compost pails.

Storables is a specialty retail chain in the United States [wikipedia reference]. Their communication was timely and was selected to promote a solution to a problem that area residents face.

Beginning Oct 31, single-family homes in Portland, OR will start composting food scraps with yard debris. The Storables line-up of kitsch came with prices from $19.95 for a simple waste can to $34.95 for an upscale bamboo pail.

The same day the Storables email went out a similar communication from Staples was released.

Staples is a large office supply chain store [wikipedia reference].

Staples selected an array of items and promoted top brands, but . . .

Staples only promoted price.

While price is a salient factor in most purchases, is this an effective way to advertise? If it is, then Staples should promote all these items on Groupon where consumers are known for seeking out discount pricing.

The difficulty with Groupon-esque business models, though, is that it is not a sustainable business model. How can a business afford to keep discounting prices, and at what point is the market immune to the percentage off fad?

As was asked early in What will last longer, the shoe or me?, deep discounts raise skepticism in viability of a product, the viability of the business and the viability of the economy.

Look outside the business for opportunity, seize them and promote them like there's no tomorrow.

Because without a good marketing plan there may be no tomorrow.

NEW disruptive technology: rest and reflect

2011-10-11T07:23:00.000-07:00

In honor of Columbus Day, I took Monday off from blogging, and (going backwards) Sunday, Saturday, Friday and Thursday. Illness, albeit brief, kept me from any thoughtful musings on that fateful non-blogging Thursday, and then in the scramble to catch up, it wasn't until last night that I counted the missed days.

Blogging is useful as a goal process – there is much to be said about deciding to do something and then actually doing it – and for a writer, the practice of writing everyday creates a groove in the brain that propels continuous ideas.

The challenge is to keep writing, no matter what.

At the first of the year when I changed jobs, I noticed that writing on my fiction manuscript slowed. When the new job morphed into more management responsibilities (I got a promotion) my fiction writing slowed to a trickle. Then stopped.

I filled the fiction writing void with blogging. I weighed in on several topics: non-profits helped by Dining for Women, the cool things that Umpqua Bank is doing, how the Internet disrupts family relationships, the psychology of negotiating, struggling with email and what gets in the way of accomplishing our goals.

I wrote about the results of blogging everyday. For seven weeks I blogged about the analytics that resulted of consistent blogging. I served up my favorite quotes from things I read or heard.

And I mulled over why I had stopped writing fiction.

The manuscript, that is currently in the works, is inching close to a part that is emotionally powerful, potentially explosive and crafting it well can define who I am as a writer. I've taken classes by Bill Johnson who wrote, A Story is a Promise. He would pose the theory that halting writing at this critical juncture would intimate that I'm afraid of the emotions the manuscript unveils.

I don't think I'm afraid at all.

But what if I am?

The only thing that cures fear is to face it. This week I plan to open the WORD doc of my manuscript and re-read it. The consecutive blogging is disrupted. The manuscript has rested long enough. I've had some well days to reflect.

I'm curious to know what will happen next.

If it's not too scary, I'll let you know.

Do managers need simple parenting skills?

2011-10-05T20:36:00.000-07:00

A co-worker asked me to draft a post for a program she had recorded with a family counselor. I picked up her notes and went to town.

"Disciplining your child is a challenge all parents face. Decisions revolve around what is the right amount of discipline andwhat is too much."

I drilled down through the notes typing 90 miles an hour.

"Here’s another thought, what if when you asked your children to do something, they did it right away?"

I wrapped up my work, sent it to the printer and slung my draft on her desk with a smug smile.

She reviewed my output, peered at me over her glasses, sighed and tossed it aside. "That's not what we talked about at all."

I put some time and effort into that draft and thought I should get some mileage out of it. I rewrote it for the 360 Convos blog. EXCEPT, instead of discussing parents and children, I substituted boss and employee.

Here's what I mean.

"What if, when you asked your employees to do something they did it right away?"

(Here's the rest of the 'edited' article). That is the approach, one consultant takes when she addresses this issue with frustrated managers. She identifies it as ‘first time obedience.’

Consider her assertion that once you have to say something twice, you’ve made yourself weak.

She suggests, "Say it onceand get action."

How?

She uses a simple three-step process, but don’t try it just one time and give up. To see measurableresults in behavior, managers need to try these steps on employees for at least a month.

The first step is to avoid questions. Being a manager is a position of authority, and not one of peer-to-peer, so she recommends starting with a statement. "Please turn off gmail and clean your desk."

The second step is a question, but offered in the form of alternatives, for instance, "Do you want to turn off gmail and clean your desk, orwould you like me to?"

Over time, employees learn that the choices the manager offers may have negative side effects whenthey don’t respond quickly.

The third step, well, for this the consultant suggests you ask employees to leave the conference room. It is the secret that makes thetechnique work. The manager needs to not ‘care’ what decision the employee makes.

Overall, her advice is for leaders to give themselves time to see the results of using the three-steps and to keep uptheir efforts, even when the employees don’t appreciate it.

"Don’t expect adult behavior and don’texpect perfection. Prepare for the long haul." She also says, "Employees may not say 'thank you' until they retire."

The goal is to help managers develop employees withgood problem solving skills who have the ability to build healthy work relationships.

~end of edited article~

If you have parenting questions, feel free to pose them on a parenting blog.

If you have employee questions, feel free to make something up.

It appears I did.

Downtown treasures and hidden spaces

2011-10-04T06:30:00.000-07:00

About six years ago, I spent every weekend in the Columbia River Gorge looking at property to purchase.

Garage next to the music store, because the guitars are BIG?

I looked at manufactured homes on an acre or two, stick built houses on small lots, an old school house and a commercial building. I liked the idea of anything cheap. I also liked the idea of anything unique. That pursuit took me through a couple of retired grange halls.

One of the halls sparked an interest. They had tenants! To find out how much a group paid to rent the space, I went on a telephone adventure and had an interesting conversation with AA. I did not disclose to the woman who answered the phone that she was my prospect. Likewise, I did not try to dis-sway her from the misconception that I was her prospect.

Some things cannot be explained.

During the course of my property search, I learned to look at everything with the idea of seeing what others do not, of remodeling possibilities, of imagination gone wild.

I gathered that same adventurer's spirit and took a Sunday stroll down lower Main in Vancouver and wandered over to Washington St. where I checked on an old advertising prospect. I eyed the street before crossing, ambled up to the big windows and peered inside. The stores were closed, it was Sunday after all. I walked away, turned back and raised my camera. I snapped the above picture.

I never did buy property in the gorge. I decided to be a little more mobile. But I still find old, odd buildings interesting. And I'd like to know what's next door to Briz Loan & Guitar.

What will last longer, me, the shoes, or the store that sold them?

2011-10-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

My new shoes, available in limited sizes for anyone with $8.74

I purchased a pair of Trim Step tennis shoes at a box store known for good bargains, Target.

I'm known for sniffing out good bargains on end-caps, bottom shelves, and any odd assortment of places stores make interesting to browse.

Here's the 'kicker,' the shoes cost $8.74.

After the bloom of the purchase wore off I began to wonder why I could buy shoes at such an awesome price. They came with shoe strings. They aren't cheap feeling. I stumbled into a shoe design that encourages muscle toning in the legs, improves posture and reduces stress on feet, knees and back. They have that new roll bottom that promotes a healthy, active lifestyle.

I'm all for those kind of auxiliary benefits, especially when it comes in my size.

I did a quick look on the Internet and noted that, today, I could have purchased the same shoes online from Target for $12.24. At the branch where I made my purchase they are now listed for $5.54. At two of the company's other stores, within 10 miles, they were $6.99, $10.91, and $11.74.

Living in the land of NIKE, heightens your expectation of the cost of shoes. Finding sports, or sports-like shoes for less than ten dollars seems surreal. Finding them in your size is both surreal and of fairy tale proportions.

This leads me to two conclusions: the store selling them has issues and when shoes are less than ten dollars, the economy is tanking.

A superficial search online shows that prices are dropping in a variety of categories. Motorola dropped the price on it's Atrix 4G phone, Walmart plans to drop the price of its Xbox, Nientendo dropped the price of the 3DS, and Price Pinx and Free Price Alerts, among others monitored everyone's fall.

Venture outside of electronics and price dropping is just as prevalent. In August, gas dropped eight cents across Texas. Across the nation and in every neighborhood, home prices dropped.

Taxes, however, did not drop.

Nevertheless, if shoes continue to be available for less than ten bucks, I agree with Business Week, the store selling them, "needs to refine its strategy." The addition of groceries at Target, and the additional five percent off when you use the company-issued debit or credit card have helped revenue, but not the bottom line.

Not enough profit.

Here's some advice for a refined strategy: sell shoes for fifteen bucks.

While I ponder the inevitable, that despite all common sense, taxes will only increase, I shall ponder that thought while walking a mile everyday just to see how long these $8.74 shoes will last.

What do you think will last longer, me, the shoes, or the store that sold them?

Analytics reveals one pageview makes a difference

2011-10-02T06:30:00.000-07:00

Sundays, we take a backwards glance at 360 Convos and review a week of posts, to see how they did within two-weeks of being released.*

In this instance, we examine the week of August 28.

The Sunday post got a little more play than the others. It disclosed the difference one pageview can make.

In fact, Sunday had more than double the audience response than the second place 'winner,' the Tuesday's post on the Tension between work and friends.

Third place was a almost a tie between sex and newspapers. The truth about seniors, teens and the sexes online was picked up by The Customer Collective, where it received a few additional reads. The post that featured a newspaper that served lunch, thus resolving the dilemma of how to reinvent journalism, wrapped up fourth place.

Curiously, about the time the editorial board believed that the 360 Convos audience was beginning to wane, the board realized that Friday of that week slid into a holiday, thus upsetting all convo applecarts.

Next week, how did 360 Convos fare after Labor Day weekend?

DATE	POSTS WEEK OF AUGUST 28 (chronological order)
Sunday	Analytics show the number one post won by one pageview
Monday	The truth about seniors, teens and the sexes online
Tuesday	The tension between friends, lunch and work
Wednesday	Surprise me, reinvent the J.C. Penney brand
Thursday	Vanity comes in classy QR codes
Friday	Fav quotes and a newspaper that serves lunch
Saturday	Eat. Hydrate. Think.

*Source: Google Analytics.

Extraordinary Measures: the movie, the media and me

2011-10-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

A news organization spent a year in a $42 million environment, a beautiful open space of larger-than-life cubicles, water that tasted good, and air that felt fresh when everyone breathed in the new ambiance.

Televisions ran 24/7 throughout the third floor. Televisions played silently in a comfortable lunch room stocked with super-sized vending machines, double refrigerators, double microwaves, double giant toasters. On every floor large glass panels etched with company history separated break rooms from open spaces.

This was a space so expansive gawkers on the second floor watched Faith Ford deliver lines flawlessly for an infomercial filmed in the lobby.

This was a space so unique that Harrison Ford brought in his crew and filmed Extraordinary Measures on the second floor.

It rewarded managers and some supervisors with individual offices.

Automatic prestige.

Automatic assumption the company was doing well.

Automatic everything...including failure.

I worked for the news organization that built the building.

After a year in the new digs, we nodded our heads in sweet recollection of our luxury accommodations, tidied up after ourselves, and waved good bye. We returned to our roots—the original building that the company had been unable to sell or lease.

Thank goodness.

Upon our reentry at our original structure, employees began calling it the 'old building.' I hated that term. I am acutely aware of how semantics affect how we view our situation and coined the company phrase, 'the classic building.'

About the same time I started my more work oriented Twitter account and pegged myself as @TheClassicCarol, and included this bio: "The Classic Carol returns to the classic building. We create our future. We are the media's future. Build our community: get out there and sell something!"

I've amended that several times. The Classic Carol is not so much about work as about thought, opinion, and ideas.

Just like the building and the bad economy, that spiraled the news organization into reorganization, I reorganized my twitter, my bio, and my blog. Within a year of the company's successful emergence from bankruptcy, I left. I reorganized myself, too.

I'm glad I got to experience both the new building and the return to the classic building. There was a lot of risk taking to throw the shovel into the ground and build a $42 million building and I learned from that. But tere was a lot we lost when we headed for brand-spanking new. There was a lot we gained when we returned to the synergy of our roots.

There was a lot of extraordinary people who returned tp the classic building and were glad to have a career they loved and a place where they could practice their craft. I learned from that, too.

Do what you love and love what your doing until you can do something different, even if it takes extraordinary measures.

Fav quotes and nosey, old men

2011-09-30T07:38:00.000-07:00

Thumbs up from the guy spying on my work at the coffeeshop

Sunday last week, I enjoyed the company of many Starbucks' customers and one that enjoyed everything on my laptop.
Here's the rest of the week's favorite quotes. Enjoy!

Found	Quote
Fri, Sep 23	“Jury duty today. So far... zzzzzz.” Anonymous (I don't rat on my friends)
Sat, Sep 24	“The thing is, you don't actually NEED to know how to crochet. You NEED to know how to drift, escape handcuffs, and swordfight.” Bill Cameron.
Sun, Sep 25	“The Gentleman next to me at coffee shop is snooping on my screen. I am especially interesting to nosey, old men.” Carol Doane
Mon, Sep 26	“HAPPY B-Day, kiddo.” Mom of a great kid :-)
Tue, Sep 27	“Don't copy your competition because they are probably doing it wrong.” Jimmy Mackin, on the worst mistakes you can make on Facebook.
Wed, Sep 28	“I know I'm a little late to the game but I've become a fan of The Big Bang Theory.” Karen Kuzmack.
Thur, Sep 29	“Arrrrr. 'Twas a successful catarrrract surgery. It'll be sad to lose the eyepatch, though.” Steve Woodward.

Mid-year editorial calendar

2011-09-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

Old fashioned way to keep a calendar, now we Google it.

In July, I went on record as posting my editorial calendar. No longer a hodge-podge, grab bag of blog posts, 360 Convos was officially a calendar referenced mish-mash.

It was an ad hoc affair, everytime I read something of interest, instead of posting it to Twitter, I threw the link in my Google Calendar as an event, forgot about it until it was time to write a post.

Thus began my adventure to post everyday.

On the pre-eve of October, I thought I'd draw attention to this successful strategy to keep the blog tumbling along. I've taken on assignments as eagerly as I've handed them out. I've detoured assignments when something better came along. I let my other blog on writing and life languish to really gear up 360 Convos. The results? I wrote about that, too, albeit a tad tongue in cheek in, How blogging for 30 days led to international acclaim.

So, now it's time for a few heartfelt thank-you's.

.
Cheers, to everyone who has successfully blogged more than 30 days consecutively.

Cheers, to everyone who has experimented with more than one blog.

Cheers, to everyone who reads blogs.

But especially, cheers to everyone who stops and takes the time to write a comment.

That's the real payoff for a blogger.
.

Newspapers' collaspse reported by insiders, the cut that keeps bleeding

2011-09-28T06:30:00.000-07:00

There's a group of people in the neighborhood discussing what it means to be a newspaper. The print vehicle, which currently experiences downward pressure on doorstep distribution, and the electronic version that competes with every other website in the information arena, bobble along searching for identity.

During the identity crisis, the dueling concepts of newspaper—print or online—occasionally sound like children asking, "Are you my mother?"

Except it sounds a lot like, "Are you my audience?"

What does it mean to try and keep a toe-hold in the current disrupted, disloyal marketplace? How does it affect your business model, your view of life, and the life expectancy of your job?

At the first sign of business distress, watchful employees will administer an online search of available jobs. Instead of finding comfort, Google produces an intense list of newspapers that have executed layoffs.

Another looming list appears when the eager inquirer searches for newspapers that have recovered from the economic crisis. 'Newspaper reorganization' produces items such as:

Baltimore Sun offers employee buyouts
Chicago Tribune trims staff
Newsroom staff cut by 25% (or more)
Calista Corp liquidates six newspapers
Gannet lays off 700

. . . and on, and on.

To adjust the toe-hold on the changing landscape, some newspapers have drifted from full disclosure to less than robust reporting, Inquirers now must rely on competing media outlets to post the behind the scenes events:

The Oregonian admits to more layoffs
Dozens laid off
Photography and sports departments cease to exist
Star confirms 52 laid off.

The business model has morphed. A little scandal now flavors the mix. Read Guardian Broke the News of the World Hacking Scandal and Santa Barbara News-Press Found Guilty of Multiple Labor Violations and you've got a tangled mess of journalistic pursuits.

More disruptions by the minute.

The reports from the newspaper industry get pushed deeper into the void because non-disclosure agreements buy silence as a condition of severance pay. Sub-industries have formed to bring clarity to newspaper staffers, as well as others in the community who care about what is happening. An intriguing site called Paper Cuts is found at the URL NewspaperLayoffs.com.

Site owner Erica Smith, a currently employed newspaper multimedia producer (and print designer), tabulates the job cuts. She started her list in 2007. She moved the stats to a blog in 2008, and at the end of 2010 determined the total exceeded anyone's expectations.

Mid-August, Ericia Smith gave 360 Convos a recap of the situation:

2007: 2,293+ (not the complete year; project started mid-year)

2008: 15,993+

2009: 14,797+

2010: 2,907+

2011: 2,988+ so far

Total: 38,978+ reported layoffs and buyouts.

"I'll be adding more tonight."

And the bleeding goes on.

If you were handed a newspaper company, with the current business model, current marketplace and current life expectancy of the job, would you buy billboards and pass out flyers like the guild trying to save the Chicago Star?

Or would you try something else in this disrupted, disloyal marketplace?

Relevant links:

ERICA SMITH
Website: newspaperlayoffs.com
Facebook: facebook.com/newscuts
Twitter: @newscuts

Social media central drawn in a real life perspective

2011-09-27T06:30:00.000-07:00

An engaging graphic, released recently by Column Five Media, illustrates what social media networks would look like if they were actually real life. Imagine online as an apartment complex and each apartment as a different social site,It may look something like, "What if social media sites were your neighbors?"

I'm wondering how they'd draw my blog, 360 Convos. A table of analytics with little crowns on the best days? A web of intertwining thoughts, an assembly line of sweet and sour topics. A thought bubble of what I'm thinking, but not saying . . .

What's your guess?

(to enlarge click image)

Embed the above image on your site

Infographic by: Column Five Media

Groupon loses best bargain to Google

2011-09-26T06:30:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned Groupon in three different articles:

Jul 22, 2011
"Focus on what is truly important or else we'll lose sight of what matters." A quote from Augie Ray about Groupon earning a billion dollars and losing half of it. 360 Convos: "Forgot passWARD?" and other quotes.

Aug 02, 2011
"Shoppers will be encouraged to bundle their purchases, but fresh off the Groupon tide, they will shop for sport, hunting for low ticket items—or value packages—to fulfill pent up anxiety of not spending during bad economy." 360 Convos: 'Preductions' the art of predicting the known.

Aug 04, 2011
"56% of Americans check online news daily, and the remaining 44% check Groupon." 360 Convos: The Flipside of the news.

Giorgiadis, short stint at Groupon

Today, 360 Convos gives you the fourth reference to Groupon. After five months, the COO of Groupon, Margo Georgiadis, quit and went back to Google.

Those weighing in surmise "skepticism of the company's business model."

As the business community continues to second guess Georgiadis' decision and the reasons behind it, I'd like to cut to the chase. It only took Georgiadis five months to figure out what I knew all along.

Groupon is no place for smart people.

A retailer or service company cannot run a successful business model on the idea of anesthetizing the consumer to price. Consumers need to believe in the value of the product or service they are receiving. Employees need to see the value beyond the big paycheck they may have been wooed with. They need to see the value in the company,

Shed the focus on price. Sell the value.

Or, like Google does, give everything away free, and sell the consumer.

Analytics puts the week in dead heats

2011-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sundays, we look back through the 360 Convos lens, approximately four weeks back, to see how the posts did for a two week period.* It's not an exact science, after all, the Sunday post could potentially have more play than the others, so take everything with a grain of the proverbial salt, my favorite mineral.

The week of August 21, was a great week for the blog. It was a dead heat for first place between Tips for blogging everyday and Jeremiah Owyang helps me take down Google.

Everyone survived: me, Jeremiah and Google.

The dead heat continued into second place between my daughter, who's famous for keeping me in line with her quips–which I dutifully write down in a little blue notebook so I can remember what the heck I was laughing about, pulled in one more page view than Great is the enemy of good. The enemy piece was a thought process of finding the balance between productivity and the quality we yearn for in our projects.

I'll take the one page my daughter's piece had that pulled it out in front as a sign I'm barely ahead of average on parenting skills. Like the wise people say, "You don't know how well you did as a parent until you meet your grandchildren."

I can wait.

Here's where it gets interesting, the first two posts pulled into 38% of the pageviews, the next two posts pulled in 30% of the pageviews, the next three the last 32%. An even week, where it was hard to truly determine what dominated.

I continue to search for the balance between good blogging, feeding the audience and balancing my time.

Try that for one day.

DATE	POSTS WEEK OF AUGUST 21
Sunday	What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang that allowed me to take down Google*
Monday	Tips for blogging everyday
Tuesday	Great is the enemy of good and other things I learned from blogging
Wednesday	How blogging is like throwing stones
Thursday	How blogging for 30 days in a row leads to international acclaim
Friday	Fav quotes from my daughter (who's embarrassing who?)
Saturday	'Dale Chumbley' it. What I learned blogging everyday

*Source: Google Analytics.

The new black: Blackity-Black-Black

2011-09-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today's piece is from guest contributor Melanie Sherman. Sherman blogs at Meanderings of Melanie Sherman, and the following is her dark reflection on how the color black weaves itself into the office environment, making a few things uncertain.

Photo: Centers for Disease Control, public domain.

Sometimes, at work, I'm presented with dilemmas which require a great deal of perspicacity. In fact, it isn't unusual for a group of us to skip our break and gather around a desk and brainstorm. It is hard work, but someone has to do it.

Yesterday I placed an order for some black material. You'd think that would be simple.

It wasn't.

This morning, the supplier wanted to know if I wanted black, or black/black.

"What is the difference?" I asked.

"Well, there is black, but the black/black is darker than the black," she explained.

"What could be darker than black?" I asked.

"Black/black is darker than black."

"Black/black isn't even a color," I accused. "Black/black is someone just saying black twice."

I could hear a pen tapping on the other end.

"I mean," I said, "you don't say blue/blue is darker than blue. You say navy blue is darker than sky blue, or periwinkle blue, or robin's egg blue. You don't just say there is blue, and there is blue/blue."

I heard a sigh. "Black/black is very black, darker than regular black."

"So what is the name of this black? It has to have a name. Is it end-of-the-world black? Or black-hole black?"

"Hmmm." I could hear her shuffling papers, as if she were looking at the data sheet. "It doesn't have a name other than black/black."

"Well, I think we want the black. But I'll check with the project manager, just in case we want the black/black."

I checked with both project managers and the document control person. This required some brainstorming and research, but it turned out we wanted the black, mostly because it was less expensive than the black/black, and more readily available.

But, it still concerned me that the manufacturer had not given the black/black a name. I mean, really. Would anyone say, "I'd like of can of gray/gray" in the Home Depot paint section?

Naturally, when I sent our supplier our answer, I also passed along this list to give to the manufacturer, as possible names for the black/black.

1. Zombie Black

2. Deep Space Black

3. New Moon on a Cloudy Night Black

4. Black Widow Black

5. Void Black

6. Absence-of-Light Black

7. Witch Hat Black (offered by Tami)

8. Doomsday Black (offered by Angela)

And what if we wanted a color darker than black/black? I offered this possibility:

1. Blackity Black Black

By the way, the above picture was taken by James Gathany and downloaded from Wikimedia commons with this note attached: This image is a work of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, part of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, taken or made during the course of an employee's official duties. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.

Glad they are watching out for us. Looks like their job is as difficult as mine.

******

Editor's Note: The supplier has become used to dealing with Melanie Sherman, and no one was hurt during the course of the above conversation. And, of course, thank you Melanie Sherman for sharing your post.

Fav quotes and a kitty on the math quiz

2011-09-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

This week's discovery was a clever writer, Randal Houle, who gave us a couple of howls with the tweets about his son, including the one where Houle discloses that his kid drew Godzilla destroying some buildings on a test AND GOT FULL CREDIT!

Get full credit for your best quotes -- send 'em on in to 360 Convos. We're 'quoting' every Friday.

Here's our favorite quotes from the past seven days . . .

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, Sep 16	Twitter	“It only takes having 12 crazy kids in my house to make me so thankful for my small family #happybirthdaykids,” Cheryl Bledsoe, celebrating the small things.
Sat, Sep 17	Twitter	“My son wasn't sure about his answer on a math quiz, so he just drew a picture of a cat.” Randal Houle.
Sun, Sep 18	Twitter	“Know artists by the pen marks on their hands and paint covered clothing. We're not dirty, just afraid to throw inspiration away.” @Schoolbound, from where apples get wet.
Mon, Sep 19	Blog	“The beauty of community service...it doesn't require any special skill,” Laura Baverman (@laurabaverman)
Tue, Sep 20	Twitter	“Why is coffee addictive? Because the coffee bean has a distinctive aroma that makes you forget how painful it is to be awake.” @Schoolbound.
Wed, Sep 21	Twitter	“I got up this morning, turned off my alarm clock, circled the bed once and crawled back under the warm covers. #thankGodformoms. Schoolbound, from where apples get wet.
Thur, Sep 22	Twitter	“Oh, to write on the novel or the new script? I like to dabble in too many things.” PL Anne Anderson, covering the gamut of a writers dilemma.

Is Kindle the life raft of newspapers?

2011-09-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

The newspaper built its reputation by writing the equivalent of a novella every day, printing it while we slept and delivering it to our door by the time we turned on the morning coffee pot.

Now, paper--as in the paper product--feels either like a luxury we can't afford, due to the cost of the tree it takes to print it, or the whole idea of a printed newspaper feels old-fashioned.

Fewer of us want an information push. We want information customization.

Fewer of us want to read a report of what happened at a meeting (read the minutes of any board meeting). We don't want verbatim, we want to know what it means.

Newspapers are both the most objective voice in the community, and at the same time they harbor some of the most cynical (flip to the opinion section, or have a beer with a reporter).

Newspapers have the greatest reach in the community, bar none, and they are losing audience for the print product at a steady, tumbling pace that probably hasn't hit rock bottom.

That makes newspapers the biggest loser. On TV that makes you a winner. In real life, well, that remains to be seen.

For an industry that hasn't changed all that much in the last 400 years, with the exception of the entrance of the Internet, I wonder what would happen if tomorrow the paper wasn't delivered to my door. Would I be able to figure out where to buy groceries, where to eat for lunch, what's playing at the movie, what the next workshop at city hall is about, when the school board meets.

I wonder for about two seconds, because, of course, I can find all that information online.

What would happen if the newspaper was delivered, not to my doorstep, but to my Kindle? Would I feel differently about the newspaper, would I read it differently, would I connect with it differently, would I pass it along as easily as I forward an online link or place an open newspaper section on someone's desk?

In July, Geeky Gadget reported that "Amazon’s Kindle App now offers 100 newspaper and magazine subscriptions."

Is this the last throws of a drowning man splashing in the Internet pool, or a way for consumers to highlight, tag, and archive the content they want?

I wonder.

What are the top three newspaper publication dates that you would keep on your Kindle? 9/11, Obama Wins, the article of your kid?

Let me know -- I'm pondering at the crossroads.

Mobile payments: the money is stuck in my phone

2011-09-21T06:30:00.000-07:00

I worked with a fellow who balked at creating a gmail account because he didn't want too many passwords out there (here's the post).

"It puts my bank account in danger," he explained.

My guess is, he still uses his cell to make phone calls.

My other guess is that the rest of us use our cell phones to check our gmail, listen to music, google the earth, check on our blogs, our twitter, our foursquare, our LinkedIn, our fitness plan, our stock prices, jot notes to ourselves, and record a voice message.

I shudder to think what my former co-worker will do when he discovers he will be making payments via his mobile phone.

According to a post on the Reflections of a Newsosaur, phones will replace currency and credit cards.

"It’s not a matter of if, but when," says Alan D. Mutter.

"The check's on the phone," we'll promise creditors.

During their follow up contact we'll swear, "We got disconnected before I could complete the transaction!"

If you lose your phone, as I did recently, and thank you Stephen King for it's safe return, you'll be making payments with what? Cash? The importance of the receipt will rise and bury us in unneeded slips of paper. We'll have to prove we paid that bill in cash with another piece of paper. Or, a scan of a piece of paper.

We will no longer have credit reports, we'll have phone numbers that denote our status of good payers. It will morph to our 'phone-it-in' score. A good score will make our KLOUT rise along with our perks of unnecessary offers.

We'll be drowning in credit-connectness, personal QR codes based on our ability to pay, finance, float or dodge. Our phones will act as personal transponders that open doors, gates and bridges.

Waving our phone at someone will be an honor of respect and will probably leech a few dollars out if we shake it too hard.

Google will be our new bank.

And you thought gmail would always be free.

Three things to shake office dread

2011-09-20T06:30:00.000-07:00

8 a.m. Frustration.
Commitment sieved through pursed lips.
Tension.
5 p.m. Despair.

When the day begins with dread is it time to look for a new job?

When the boss is the one who doesn't 'get it' is it time to look for a new job?

When the career would be perfect except for the pay, the co-workers, the meager or missing benefits is time to look for a new job?

Yes. Yes. And Yes.

It is always a good idea to know what else is out there. It doesn't hurt to keep your interview skills sharp. It is a killer plan to continue to seek new connections.

Then again, it might be prudent to try and salvage present circumstances.

1. What is sitting on your desk right now that is unfinished, that someone else is waiting on, that is annoyingly urgent to the other department and absolutely not important in the big scheme of things to you?

Dust a little of the dread off and get that thing off your desk. Whatever it takes. Make a commitment to yourself that by the end of the week it will be gone.

2.What has been rumbling through the halls that you love to gossip about, that makes you feel better for the 60 seconds you take to gripe about it and then gives you that ever slight tinge of guilt because what you said wasn't really all that nice?

Next time it comes up. Walk away.

3.What have you sensed coming that you detest, it gives you stress thinking about it, you and your co-workers are certain it will tow the company straight to the poor house and you've been digging your heels in ever since it was first mentioned?

Get on board now.

Q: How do you know when it's time to move on?

A: When you can't do numbers one through three. When you believe the problem is everywhere else. When your mind is closed to new ideas, concepts, and you have names behind the scenes for all of them.

If your job is not revving you up. Pretend until it does.

It could be all about them.

It could be.

Tall book critic prefers short novels

2011-09-19T04:29:00.000-07:00

The Northwest is rife with readers, writers, and those of authority called published authors.

Besides the obvious college and adult education classes, there are more than a dozen organizations, clubs and bookstores with monthly events aimed at improving the craft of writing and getting that writer promoted to published status.

Being published is not the end of the journey, though. Before the book is hot off the press or fresh from the Internet, the job of marketing ensues. Blogging, social media forays, speaking engagements, workshops, and waiting with tying fingers crossed for the platinum review keeps the author on a virtual roller coaster.

A balding, unassuming, yet tall, man can make that roller coast ride worth it or almost worth it.

Jeff Baker, The Oregonian’s book editor, launched the fifth season of the Northwest Author Series hosted by the Wilsonville Public Library and The Friends of the Wilsonville Public Library. Baker told the audience, which consisted mostly of writers and subscribers to The Oregonian, that he weighs the merits of a bad review against the benefit of introducing Oregonian readers to a book they might actually buy. Baker believes there’s got to be a good reason for a bad review.

“Sometimes I pick up stuff I don’t like,” he said. When that happens, “Let ‘em have it, but don’t be mean.”

Baker writes the reviews, writes and features, assigns everything else, and edits while blogging and tweeting and juggling an ever constricting budget. If one reviews the comments left on the online site it would appear to be a thankless job.

The upside for Baker is that he gets to choose what he wants to read and farms out the rest to freelancers who write 500 word reviews for about 30 cents a word. When his budget is depleted (hello, December!) he pulls stuff off the wire.

Baker receives about 500 books a week. That equates to an hour a day of unpacking and organizing before one book spine gets cracked and perused for possible review. Those most likely to be chosen for one of the five weekly review slots include local authors, books that have a Northwest setting, or authors booked for a local appearance.

Baker offered his insight on how to write a review offering this short list:
1. What’s the book about
2. Do you like it
3. Why
4. Include a quote.
“You want to give people a feel of the writing style,” he said.

Currently, Baker is reading Hemmingway’s Boat, by Paul Hendrickson which he will review soon. Expect a very positive review. Other authors he mentioned included graphic novelist Craig Thompson, Karl Marlantes who wrote Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, and Justin Torres with his 144 page book “We the Animals.”

You can judge a book by its cover, says Jeff Baker, and you can also judge it by its page count.

“250 pages is better than 500 anytime.”

Upcoming events for the Northwest Author Series

The Northwest Author Series takes place at the Wilsonville Public Library once a month on these Sundays, 3:30 p.m. DIRECTIONS

October 23
Emily Chenoweth, Memoir or Fiction? Make The Most of Your Choice

December 4
Christina Katz, The Writer's Workout: Whip Your Literary Ambitions Into Shape

January 29
Karen Karbo, Passions Into Paychecks: Make A Living Without A Brand

February 26
Bill Johnson, A Story Is A Promise: The Essential Elements of Storytelling

March 18
Pamela Hill Smith, For The Love of Research: How To Write Biography

April 15
Kevin Sampsell, The Book World: From Reader To Published Author

May 6
Heather Vogel Frederick, Much Ado About Middle Grade: Mastering Setting, Character & Plot

The Northwest Author Series
Wilsonville Public Library
8200 SW Wilsonville Road
Wilsonville, OR 97070
503-682-2744

Sundays 3:30 p.m.
DIRECTIONS

Analytics reveals stranglehold of email: it's hell

2011-09-18T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sundays, 360 Convos reviews our conversations. It’s a 360 snapshot that looks back approximately four weeks and captures how the posts did for a two week period.*

The week of August 14, the post with the most pageviews was Email hell, struggling with the inbox. This piece talked about letting go of the stranglehold of email.

Giving up email for one day has its upside and downside. The post recommended not taking on everyone else's problems, but prioritizing your own tasks, and taking action before opening up the inbox.

The post did not disclose the hell that that one day created for me with the backlog of unanswered email.

I continue to search for the answer, the quick fix, the nirvana of email dominance.

I continue.

Second place post addressed negotiating without arguing.

Try that for one day.

DATE	POST’S WEEK OF AUGUST 14
Sunday	The times that define us and the media we use to survive them
Monday	New psychology of negotiating: never argue
Tuesday	Take charge and take five
Wednesday	Email hell, struggling with the inbox
Thursday	Animals in the backyard, which one would you choose?
Friday	Fav quotes of the week and maybe too much coffee
Saturday	Would you like to clean up your desk, or would you like me to?

*Source: Google Analytics.

Success is a squirrel, a beaver and a goose away

2011-09-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

The employees believe the boss doesn't understand. The boss believes the employees don’t understand.

Neither ‘side’ sees the point of wasting time on the other’s project.

Perfect setup for work conflict.

How do we get ourselves in a position to understand each other and be better aligned when it comes to core values, shared vision and goals?

Recently, someone shared a book with me by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, Gung Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization.

The story is about a young woman who basically tells the emperor he has no clothes – she writes a report disclosing that the boss’ plan is wasting a million dollars annually. As a reward for her fine report, she is sent to manage the worst production plant in the system, which appears to be the boss’ exit strategy for her.

She’s bright. In hours she figures out which department is leading the company in efficiency and maneuvers to discover their secret. The man heading up the department is a Native American who has taught his staff lessons from Nature. She falls in eager to be his student, adopts his practices and broadcasts them throughout the company.

This saves the plant, saves her job, and saves the town.

Can it be that simple? Sure. To back up that assessment Amazon has over 100 positive book reviews.

The book offers an easy 1-2-3 summary at the back that notes that the leader chooses the goal, defines the job and employees succeed when they share the goal and understand they are making a difference not only in the company, but in the world, and they receive heavy doses of praise.

The caution is that the goal may not be adopted by the employees. It’s a hurdle any business faces, not everybody thinks the same way.

In this day of bad economy, layoffs and bankruptcies, I would add, when the job appears, say "send me." Even if it’s something you don’t want to do. Learn quickly, be resourceful, don’t upset the canoe stepping in, and paddle the same direction as the boss.

Today, there are fewer and fewer resources for any of us to do our jobs. From employees inside our company to the customers we serve, everyone is asked to do more with less. Getting the end result that saves the company, saves the career and saves the town is a squirrel, a beaver and a goose away if you read Gung Ho.

Fav quotes and Melanie Sherman's brain cells

2011-09-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

A good blogger will make you think.

A great blogger will make you laugh.

Melanie Sherman delivers every time. Her post this week took us straight into the brain.

"It is said we only use 10% of our brain. I like to think of that 10% as a thriving metropolis, like New York City (and I'm the mayor). But as in NYC, there are brain cell murders going on, and drive-by shootings by the "Stress Gang." So if I started getting low on virtual memory, why wouldn't I get on Amazon.com and order some new cells from the suburbs of my brain (the 90%) that aren't being used, to be delivered into my memory center in the heart of my city? I mean, really, what are those brain cells in my suburbs doing, anyway?

So I did a little research and found out the brain cells I'm not currently using are all part of a National Park System in my brain, and they cannot be used for any other purpose. My brain is made up of 10% city, and 90% National Park." From Meanderings of Melanie.

Let's get out into the park service and collect our brains, and here's my favorite quotes of the week!

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, Sep 9	Twitter	“I thought I was an only child, but it seems I have a sister.” Bill Cameron, objecting.
Sat, Sep 10	Facebook	OH (overheard) by Ken Bilderback: “We didn’t make whiskey, and they didn’t milk cows.”
Sun, Sep 11		(Drawn. Not spoken). Original artwork from David Speranza, deaf cartoonist living in Vancouver. His work debuted here.
Mon, Sep 12	Stories Matter	“Write a book about idealism clashing with reality and the need for both to be present in our lives.” Chris Martin. [Amen]
Tue, Sep 13	Twitter	“OH by @TheClassicCarol: Nixon was the original Palin.”
Wed, Sep 14	Bike Portland	“Nobody cares more about price than a newbie.” Michael Andersen, a guy who goes almost everywhere by carrying his bicycle on TriMet.
Thur, Sep 15	Blog	“...a hormone called cortisol, which kills brain cells in the hippocampus (I think that was the campus where I lived during my college years--).” Melanie Sherman, covering the brain on her blog.

If it's your anniversary and nobody says anything, did it happen?

2011-09-15T09:50:00.000-07:00

As I write this I realize, had I been at my old job I would have celebrated my 30th Anniversary.

It is rare in today's climate to work for a company for more than a decade, let alone two. I almost reached three.

It is rarer still, after 30 years, to leave and not retire.

To survive the old job as long as I did I had to morph, flex, mature, morph, flex and mature some more. I survived some incredibly bad bosses. I had the pleasure of working with some incredibly good ones. I was an average sales rep, grew into an above average revenue producer and built a stellar experience.

I was promoted to supervisor, and soon thereafter to Advertising Sales Manager.

I knew the business inside and out. I knew the community from the west to east. I wore a suit and served on the Board of Directors of the Portland Advertising Federation. I pulled on jeans and served on the Board of Directors of the Clark County Fair.

Near the end, I could have done my job with my eyes closed and slept my way into retirement.

Instead, I left.

I learned something about myself. I learned I was thoughtful yet decisive. For months I considered the move, but I decided the day of one interview

I was willing to give up the world I had known since my early twenties to launch myself into the complete unknown. I was a risk taker. Who leaves a secure job to go work for a start-up? Me, I guess.

Upon arrival at the new port, I had to morph, flex, reflect, and learn while running faster than I could have imagined. I've had the pleasure of meeting incredible people. I've had to say goodbye to other incredible people. I stepped in to fill a hole and received a promotion.

During the first months I would hear myself say, "I can't believe I left."

I don't say that anymore.

A lot of thoughts and baggage gets lost in the hectic pace of how I drive my life, my career and my writing. What doesn't get lost are the people. My calendar 'pop-ups' tell me who's celebrating a birthday and who's celebrating a company anniversary. That may create a phone call, an email, a tweet from me and occasionally a celebration lunch.

Then I sit back and reflect, that on the 29th anniversary, no one said a word.

The day slipped by only recognized by me in the middle of a decision process.

The wordless reception of something significant was not reason to leave. But it was a reason not to stay?

Jonathan's Card: charity for the middle class or nice gesture?

2011-09-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

I pegged my editorial calendar to write about Jonathan's Card when I first heard about it. Then, when the effervescent idea got shut down I didn't delete the 'assignment,' I merely pushed it out.

It popped up again. I drifted over to the URL I had saved to tug me into a pithy paragraph or two and re-read the post on spydergrrl on the web: Social Media Lessons From Jonathan's Card: The 6 Things He Did Right.

I was struck by the idea that a Pay it Forward card at Starbucks is like charity for the middle class.

In order to know about it you had to have Internet access. In order to take advantage of it you needed a smartphone. Truly, the people in that category can afford their own coffee.

The guy who scammed the program and led to the shut-down was gaming the system. He was likely the middle-class wannabe, right? The almost yuppie who wants to show us all that it can be done 'if you're smart enough' and many of us weren't smart enough to grab that charity java juice in time. Or, we did and reveled in the moment of sipping a free coffee, until the tug on our better judgment coerced us into adding more than our fair share to the card in order to feel middle-class magnanimous.

What does all this prove? For some, that people are basically bad. For others, that one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. For me, that if you have an idea, do it before you decide it's not such a great idea afterall.

Do it before you talk yourself out of it.

Do it before you change your mind.

Do it just because you thought of it and thought it was a good idea at least once.

I've found if I get a thought and act, I feel better, I work better, I write better. If I have a great idea and am slow to take action I hear the nagging ping of guilt. "You should have done that" or "you should have done that sooner." It drips like rain off the gutter of guilt.

Before long it's too late, has no meaning, and feels like a missed opportunity.

It's like a car door you forgot to lock before your cell phone, radar detector and Kindle got stolen. Next thing you know, you're kicked out of middle class straight into middle-of-the-road memory loss.

It's like a thank you card you forgot to write. For a limited time frame it will make the other person feel good. Thereafter it becomes the after thought, or you become the thoughtless.

Seize your idea. Draft it. Do it.

Tell me what happens.

I'll buy the coffee.

Check out our other post:
Fav quotes of the week and maybe too much coffee

How many times should you tweet a blog post?

2011-09-13T05:03:00.000-07:00

Twitter is a revolving door of social experiments

One of the things that blogging daily has created is a heightened interest in analytics. I have a couple of different measures on the blog, so I can get a good feel for what is happening with the 360 Convos audience. I've also done a little experimenting to see what combination, for instance of tweets, seems to work best in announcing a new post and building an audience.

Mark Suster wrote about how many times the experts were tweeting after he sat on a panel with Guy Kawasaki. His post, Both Sides of the Table, reports that Kawasaki tweets a blog post four times.

Up until a few months ago, I'd been tweeting a link twice—as soon as I post, and then letting the automatic feed release it a second time.

More recently, I began to notice that I personally didn't pay attention to others who tweeted only once and disappeared. As I flipped through my stream it wasn't enough to make me pause. I did, however, notice when the same avatar showed up in my stream in a clump, meaning the person was tweeting several things in a row.

Currently, I follow about 1000 people on Twitter and have that and about a third more following me as @TheClassicCarol. My experience shows that tweeting a blog post just once has a low affect on drawing a reading audience.

Not everyone sees every tweet. Not everyone is on Twitter all the time, therefore you need to send info out at different times during the day.

That's more anecdotal than research, but it gave me a place to start, and I began tweeting in groups of three. Not always the same blogpost, but three things from the blog.

Was this smart? Let's look at what 9,000 other bloggers are doing.

Problogger has been running a poll since May 19, 2010. Their results from over 9,000 respondents show:

26% never tweet their blog post
33% tweet their blog post once
40% tweet their blog post two times or more times

Of the 40%, the highest portion of that comes from those who tweet a blog post five or more times. That puts them in the Kawasaki category.

The 360 Convos experience shows that three will generate a higher response to the blog than a one-time shot. It has created more conversation and retweets from followers which has had a positive effect on my KLOUT score. I noticed an increase of over 10 points.

Has the multiple tweets annoyed the audience? I've seen no visible difference in the unfollow rate. The outcome I do see follows a standard principal in marketing, you need to send the message out more than once, or as I like to say, "one ad does not a campaign make."

When has a tweet series produced a measurable outcome for you?

Riding the wave of change

2011-09-12T06:30:00.000-07:00

Surviving in today's economy is as slippery as a surfboard.

Today, the biggest obstacle we face is change. Business models have to change. Companies have to change, which mean, in order to survive, people have to surf the crest and roll of changes.

Our ability to cope with this 'business tidal wave of change' may mean the difference between a relevant career and one that slips and gets buried in the next big wave of upsets.

In the book, A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter, the theme of change is abundant. From the preface on, Kotter pegs our ability to change with the ability to survive, except he calls it the ability to operate with a sense of true urgency.

In his research, he noted that in the cases where “substantial change was clearly needed” 70% of launches to change not only faltered, but absolutely failed, but 10% of the launches achieved more than anyone could have imagined.

What separated the 70% from the 10%?

Organizations that were able to “create a high enough sense of urgency among enough people.”

Kotter sketches the outline of relevant people in an organization and asks us to assess their sense of urgency. Then he asks us to support our answer with evidence. The evidence has to be more than working hard. Frantic activity can be false urgency. It's that flurry that happens right after the boss cracks the whip.

For over a decade I worked as a salesperson and saw the short-term and long-term results of cracking the whip. Inevitably, it launched unsustainable effort and a frightening atmosphere on the sales floor.

The next few years, I managed salespeople, some who survived the latest devastating economic downturn and some who did not. On both sides of the fence—sales and management—the demand for urgency rose to tsunami levels and threatened to drown those not getting on top of the curve of the wave.

Earlier this year I asked the question, “What opportunities exist and what risks?”

When a career is on the line, a sense of urgency can be extremely high. But if a salesperson operates with desperation, the end result is less than satisfactory for everyone involved in the transaction from inside the office all the way to the customer and back. And if the salesperson operates in a bubble, believing that the problem is everywhere else, the results can be just as devastating.

The opportunity at hand is learning quickly how to ride the wave of change, and recovering quickly when we fall off our flimsy surfboard and rebalancing.

It's recognizing opportunities at hand, embracing the risks and realizing we need to operate with a sense of urgency.

Who have you seen 'surfing' business changes and surviving? Drop me an email, I'd like to explore this topic more.

Analytics chalks one up for motivation

2011-09-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sundays, 360 Convos is reviewing our conversations. This snapshot goes back approximately four weeks and looks at how the posts did for a two week period.*

Photo Andrea Booher, FEMA Public Domain.

But before we do. Let's take a brief moment to acknowledge that the reason why we are able to review seemingly trivial matters is because we have been given the gift of citizenship, either by birth or adoption that allows us to live each day as our own. To change the course of our life because of the choices offered to us. Seize the opportunity.

The week of August 7, the post with the most pageviews was Words motivate and keep us engaged, lessons from #wwcon11.

This piece was a recap of the Willamette Writer Conference. During the event I met former CNN journalist, Porter Anderson. He let me tie my audio recorder into his laptop for power. He simultaneously found me on Twitter, retweeted my #wwcon11 post, and we've been tweeting friends ever since. He also emailed a link of the post out to about conference attendees (800) which boosted the numbers.

The Chalk it up story about Umpqua Bank's partnership with Chalk the Walks, a full sprint at sidewalk graffiti, took second place. Most of the pageviews came from Umpqua Bank, and that is fine. I'm a fan. They support local businesses including sponsoring a bi-monthly networking event, The Breakfast Club.

They love animals. Outside the downtown Vancouver branch they keep a water dish full for pooches that frequent Esther Short Park.

Umpqua Bank loves people. On rainy days anyone (customer or not) can borrow an umbrella.

Yes, all the umbrellas are returned.

Eventually.

DATE	POST’S WEEK OF AUGUST 7
Sunday	City shares good ideas (mine)
Monday	Words motivate and keep us engaged, lessons from #wwcon11
Tuesday	Top ten posts depending on where you start the count
Wednesday	Educate a girl, change the world
Thursday	Chalk the walk and chalk it up to more good Umpqua Bank id
Friday	Fav quotes of the week and maybe too much coffee
Saturday	Would you like to clean up your desk, or would you like me to?

*Source: Google Analytics.

Unhook the phone line, but they'll still find your face(book)

2011-09-10T18:21:00.000-07:00

It doesn't matter how many bells and whistles the phone company offers me. I have cut my land line.

What propelled me was not inconsistent quality, bad service, shoddy knowledge of the customer service people, or steep price. It was the second week in a row where I realized that the only people calling me were computers. The auto-dialers that generate leads for inside sales people.

My family sends me text messages. My friends send me gmails. My office calls me on my work cell phone. What in the world would compel me to continue to pay for a conduit into my home for pesky sales calls?

Nothing.

I unhooked the tool that businesses used to market to me. I did not, however, unhook their need to get their product and services in front of my face.

Face?

Yes.

Visited Facebook, lately?

It is where marketing funds have been diverted. Why? Because we hang out there a lot.

In April 2011 BlogHer reported that 93% of adult US Internet users are on Facebook. And where the people gather the marketers will follow.

Does it work as a marketing tool? According to Hubspot, yes.

67% of B2C and 41% of B2B companies that use Facebook for marketing have acquired a customer through this channel. (source: HubSpot State of Inbound Marketing Report 2011)

It makes me wonder, though. How much are we going to enjoy social media when it becomes the next used car lot of unsavvy marketers?

Fav quotes beginning with chicken, ending with bacon

2011-09-09T09:25:00.000-07:00

Go ahead. Speak your mind. Do it online. Don't chicken out.

Someone is listening.

Here's my favorite quotes of the week!

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, Sep 2	Twitter	I walk out into my yard and make clucking noises. They quiet right down.” Bill Cameron, NW author and Chicken Whisperer.
Sat, Sep 3	Twitter	“Confirmed, submitted, #vaguetweet.” Cheryl Bledsoe, Emergency Manager and vague tweeter.
Sun, Sep 4	Twitter	“I have only worn flip-flops for the past two weeks. My feet aren't happy about putting shoes on for church this morning!” Chris Hyde, pastor and anti-shoe activist.
Mon, Sep 5	Twitter	“Just took my 1115th mugshot! http://www.dailymugshot.com/DaleChumbley.” Dale Chumbley, Realtor® and self-photographer.
Tue, Sep 6	Twitter	“I'm still here. That is all.” M. Rae Anderson, Author and bliss follower.
Wed, Sep 7	Twitter	“Sometimes I wonder if my office neighbors are only paid to throw things against our shared wall.” Michael Perozzo, before installing earplugs.
Thur, Sep 8	Twitter	“A few brave poets are sampling our hot bacon latte special.” Cover to Cover Books, bookstore and purveyor of bacon.

Where's the most interesting place you've seen bacon?

Send us your bacon story!

Is it time to cut the cord on the television?

2011-09-08T22:50:00.000-07:00

Penetration of traditional pay TV services may have peaked.

A decade ago, I was a media sales rep and consulting with a spa store owner on an advertising buy. I was learning his business and digging down deep into his business acumen in order to create a sound marketing plan.

As our discussion progressed, I realized that Mr. Golden had read everything he could get his hands on to be successful in business. I was impressed and began to enjoy our discussion even more.

We entered the point in our conversation of sizing up the competition.

He had come to the conclusion that the other spa companies in town were not his competition. He could beat them hands down on quality, service, knowledge and price. The real competition, he believed, was everything else in life vying for his customer's leisure time.

I was young enough to be surprised by his conclusion.

I was old enough to consider it.

Mr. Golden was right.

The competition was not other businesses trying to be a mirror-image of his, or a even a close second cousin. It was all of life's distractions that diverted his customer's time, energy, money and motivation from visiting his store and buying a spa.

I thought about Mr. Golden today. Several years ago, he died unexpectedly, and at his funeral I clenched my emotions tight to be able to share what his friendship meant to me and how we had laughed when I'd leaned back in a patio chair in the store, lifting the two front legs off the floor, and almost fell over backwards when the plastic chair wobbled. His unexpected leap to save me from falling on my head is an embarrassing yet favorite memory.

Right now, it feels like the front legs of business are lifted off the floor and we're balancing precariously between who we think our competition is and what really stands in the way of reaching our intended destination.

I read with interest a forecast from research firm SNL Kagan estimating the number of US families who will cut the cords to their cable, satellite or telco TV service in deference to Internet video options. I've never understood pay-TV, and I've never paid for cable. Why would I pay someone to watch their commercials?I may not have the variety of choices on Hulu, but I when I push play, it's on my time, not theirs, and without any fancy equipment programming.

The competition is not a better cable company, a better television program, or even unlimited channel choices. It might be Hulu. It might also be Facebook, Foodspotting, Foursquare, Gmail, Goodreads, LinkedIn, Plancast, Posterous, Slideshare, Twitter, Upcoming, Yahoo or UStream.

It may be my blog.

As the online landscape morphs and rolls in earthquaking variations, I wonder where the legs of the business chair will land.

I just hope there will be someone like Mr. Golden who can see what will happen if someone doesn't jump in before it's too late, grab the chair firmly and get all four legs on the floor so we can focus on our business model, understand who or what the competition truly is and plan accordingly before we fall on our head.

Who is your unexpected competition?

What high school sports taught me about the future of newspapers

2011-09-07T21:17:00.000-07:00

"Welcome to high school swimming," declared coach Heidenriech, as he passed out a 12-page document complete with the team's slogan, "You Have To Believe."

I thumbed through the packet and skimmed through page one on expectations. My eye caught the two-inch ruled line hovering above 'Parent or Guardian's signature.'

I'll have to sign there, I thought.

I flipped to the next page that detailed how to earn a letter in swimming and wondered if a Letterman's jacket was in store for the swimmer in our house. I ran my finger over the page looking for the issue that had caused consternation at the household. Apparently, the rules were more restrictive this year with the new coach.

Couldn't find it. Moved on.

The next series of pages were mapquest aids to get the parent from Point A, the school, to Point B, the select pool for each of the swim meets.

Once the packet had been thoroughly scoured and assimilated we moved on to other topics of merit: who would bring snacks to the meets or practices, making sure your student athlete took vitamins with an iron supplement, last year's biggest competitor graduated their fastest swimmers, and the upcoming fundraiser organized to underwrite the purchase of matching sweats.

"Is it too late to run an ad in the paper?" one mom asked.

The entire room erupted in unison (I kid you, not),"You can run an ad on Craig's List."

And that, dear friends, tells me that newspaper classifieds are dead.

Are you biased? Who gets to vote on that?

2011-09-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

'Being human' becomes our excuse when we are fallible and our defense when we are, well, human. I found myself in the unique position of responding to a newspaper story, today. The owner of the start-up that I manage is funding candidates for political office. The implication was that my new employer was biased and that was the reason candidates for office had declined our invitation to participate in a debate.

It was surreal.

The newspaper is my former employer.

You cannot defend that you are not something. You can't defend a negative. How would you prove you're not biased?

What if you are biased?

I would hazard a guess, all of us are biased on some level. We cannot escape that we have our own unique belief systems, value systems, and political leanings. When we find others of like minds we may cluster.

And we may not.

In reality, I don't proclaim my political party, political leanings or political beliefs.

If asked if I support gay rights, gay marriage, gay couples, I will answer, "I support monogomy."

When my friends who are Democrats, ask me to march in the Hazel Dell Parade of Bands to support their candicacy for public office, I move through my inbox and find the email from my Republican friends. I give the same response to both. "Thanks for thinking of me, I'm unable to participate."

Is that right? Is that fair?

I don't know. Chalk it up to being human.

That parade I'll participate in.

Read the columbian.com article here: Candidates decline to do video for rivals’ donor. Wealthy activist says his website is a fair venue

Or, skip to my comments here: Let the reader decide -- we welcome debate.

Message 'Not made in China' hit wrong target

2011-09-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

Woman poses in restaurant so t-shirt can be photographed.

This gal posed for me so I could get a picture of her t-shirt with the slogan, "Not Made in China."

I couldn't think of a snappy comeback, so I returned to the table to finish dinner with my Chinese (and born in China) family.

What would you have said?

Analytics embraces confessions, especially when its public

2011-09-04T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sundays, 360 Convos is reviewing our conversations. This snapshot goes back approximately four weeks ago and looks at how the posts did for a two week period.*

The post with the most pageviews was Confessions of a social media strategist. This post was also picked up by The Customer Collective, where it lived on, received more pageviews, and drew more comments.

Second place went to Tyler Presnell, the victim of a vehicular collision that stole his memory.

Interesting week. I didn’t realize that I’d blogged twice on one day. Buying myself some blogger ‘credit.’

DATE	POST’S WEEK OF JULY 31
Sunday July 31	Confessions of a social media strategist
Monday Aug 1	Sprouter uproots and closes
Tuesday Aug 2	'Preductions' the art of predicting the known
Wednesday Aug 3	When the customer can't be consoled, console the employee
Thursday Aug 4	No memory of the conversation, meet Tyler Presnell
Thursday Aug 4	The Flipside of the news (blogged twice that day!)
Friday Aug 5	Fav quotes of the week and big bugs
Saturday Aug 6	The shredder, the closet and the business woman's strategy

*Source: Google Analytics.

Eat. Hydrate. Think.

2011-09-03T19:07:00.000-07:00

Lessons can be learned in any number of venues.

I found this to be true.

Yesterday.

In preparing for the holiday weekend I realized I should have eaten earlier. I should have drank more water, sooner. I should have washed the RV a week prior.

And I should have unhooked the RV's shoreline before driving out of the driveway.

Some lessons are costly dollar-wise. Some are costly career-wise.

Make sure you eat, drink and think before attempting your next turn onto the highway.

Fav quotes and a newspaper that serves lunch

2011-09-02T06:54:00.000-07:00

Winnipeg News Cafe

Conversations, lively banter and laughter happen all around us. Most don't make the newspaper. That may change. A Winnipeg newspaper pushed their reporters out of the news room and into a cafe.

I'm not sure the newspaper staff is making sandwiches yet, but they're making headlines: Chats don’t have to be online: A newspaper finds success with its downtown news cafe

BUT here's my favorite quotes of the week!

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, Aug 26	Twitter	“I successfully completed the unofficial first leg of #hoodtocoast in which i caught my bus and boarded with all my stuff!” Becca Pollard.
Sat, Aug 27	Twitter	“...Blog @360Convos rocketed into the international scene with a featured post on @Renbor \| http://t.co/IYyWXzd,” Tibor Shanto, speaker, author and top sales trainer.
Sun, Aug 28	Twitter	“Now updating my LinkedIn bio to include the words "award-winning pie-maker." Yup.” @mediaChick, M. Rae Anderson.
Mon, Aug 29	LinkedIN	“Don't wait for someone to promote you. Promote yourself.” Ken Bilderback
Tue, Aug 30	Twitter	“Currently installing a Bootcamp partition on my Mac Pro at work. It's necessary, but I still can't help feeling a little dirty.” Gus Torres, dirty Mac user.
Wed, Aug 31	Foursquare	“Oh Drupal you vex me today! #fb (@ Multnomah Library Administration) http://4sq.com/ruKcXm” @pattipdx.
Thur, Sep 1	Twitter	“I'd like to be deported to Paris please. Or maybe New Zealand.” Bill Cameron, NW author and humorist.

Leave your best stuff it in the comments section. Let's share!

Vanity comes in classy QR codes

2011-09-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

Take a peek at kazina, a cool Japanese site that allows you to create a vanity QR code.

In the space where it says, "http://kazina.com/" input the website you want the QR to direct people to, I used 360convos.blogspot.com.

Below that spot and to the right, substitute the word 'kazina' for your name or your website, or whatever you would like to see inside the code.

In the checkerboard box click on the quadrant where you want your text to appear.

Play around with the color and rotation buttons and then to apply your choices, click the button that says, 適用. That is the apply button.

Once the visual you desire is created, right click and save the image.

Good luck!

Surprise me, reinvent the brand

2011-08-31T06:00:00.000-07:00

JCPenney announced new CEO. Photo: Vancouver, Washington store.

Mid-June, department store J.C. Penney’s announced they had captured Ron Johnson, a big-name retail strategist. Previously, Johnson had success securing both profits and positive brand-buzz for the world’s largest technology company, Apple. Johnson made it to Apple via a department store name Target.

Can an Apple guy who pinged off the bulls eye of Target combust old thinking and reinvent a department store founded in 1902?

Maybe.

An article by Knowledge Wharton, the business journal of the University of Pennsylvania, said JCP will need to shed an archaic image, develop a new niche and embrace mobile technology.

That sounds like a recipe for success for any business.

First, though, distinguishing the brand from other retailers that are almost mirror images of each other is demanded. How many times have you been to the mall and thought one store was as good as the next? How many department stores does a community need? Just the one with the best price? Not really. Consumers need quality balanced with price, consumers need choices, and consumers need surprises or humor to help them distinguish one brand from the next.

Distinguish your brand by being down-to-earth or out of the stratosphere. But either way surprise us.

Developing fashion channels outside the U.S. could be the next surprise from J.C. Penney’s. Delivering more advanced mobile technology than a coupon texted to a phone could be another.

There are plenty of companies like J.C. Penney’s that could use some brand exercise. To compete with online venues, many brick and mortars need to reinvent and rejuvenate themselves. They need to think and think fast.

The question remains whether anyone of them can think fast enough and act on it within slim budgets.

Watching Ron Johnson work within the confines of a tight economy will be both educational and entertaining.

If you could shop anywhere for your next CEO — where would you start?

The tension between friends, lunch and work

2011-08-30T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sales staff discusses issues at lunch

There’s the people you work for, and there’s the people you work with.

Usually you spend more time with the people you work with, but those relationships usually don’t pay the bills. So, how do we balance both ends of the work-interaction spectrum?

The tension between the two reminds me of Hollie. She was hired as a category sales rep to zero in on a specific type of business, those outside of the local area. In order to create a territory for her, the manager peeled regional accounts off of everyone else’s territory, mine included, and gave them to Hollie.

No weight was given to customer-rep relationships, difficulty of customer to deal with, or how upset it made the reps losing customers, and thus taking a pay cut. In other words, fewer customers equaled lower commissions.

Needless to say, most were pissed.

After Hollie came on board, everyone realized she was a nice person and decided to make the best of it. Only Hollie put no energy into getting to know us.

People were more pissed.

“Being friends with us is not going to put food on her family’s table.” I said, as we chowed down at a Chinese restaurant, a favorite lunch spot for the gang of sales girls.

There was general disgruntlement, but it was clear, we were not Hollie’s top priority. Working hard, getting out of the office to jog, ride horses, live on a farm, enjoy her husband and her child was her focus.

Work isn’t about friends, having a good time, and creating fond memories. That is a by-product of proximity, camaraderie, friendly competition, and working towards a common goal.

Work is not about ignoring everyone else, either. But until the sales goals are met, there should probably be a lot less lunch.

Note: Hollie (not her real name) and I became friends and are still friends. We never meet for lunch (we probably should). We do cheer each other’s career changes via Facebook.

The truth about seniors, teens and the sexes online

2011-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

A year ago, I wrote on the numbers of men vs. women using the Internet and the portion of men using the Internet who were not white [Are you man enough to be global].

It was an arrow aimed at a variety of assumptions that had been made in marketing circles and coffee conversations: people over sixty are not tech savvy, if you need a social media guru hire a teen, more men than women are online.

No longer an overlooked segment, seniors are now recognized as an online audience to market to. In an August 2011 report by the Journal of Information Systems Applied Research, it says that senior citizens are “rapidly growing into a major segment in the online social networking market place.” [JISAR PDF]. The report also asserts that this growing group of online users finds a wide-range of benefits including building relationships.

While technology may be enriching the lives of seniors, Sherry Turkle, Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT, says that overuse of technology stunts the emotional development of teens. Teenagers flooded with communication gadgets are, “unable to converse effectively, to develop empathy and – just as importantly – cope with being alone or with awkward social situations by ‘bailing out’ via their cell phones.” [Source]

While I subscribe to the philosophy that smart marketers will observe college students to forecast the future of entertainment industry, and thus the future of online, we should not, nor do we need to, rely on a teen to craft our company's next social media campaign.

Reality is that social media is no longer only My Space and Facebook. It is no longer considered a hobby for high-schoolers. A recent report defines it as a career with social media evangelists embedded in multitudes of companies.

As proof, take a look at the latest study by the Altimeter Group. Their report demonstrates how deep the commitment to social media runs in the corporate community. The corporations they talkied to are not mom and pops where the family’s online fanatic chains him or herself to a computer, but in corporations boasting up to 100,000 employees: 1 in 330 Employees Publishes on “Official” Social Media Accounts.

People witb skill in the social media venue can make a living at it.

No longer seeking a career, but rather relationships, senior citizens are harnessing social media as a hobby. According to the JISAR report, it is imperative for organizations to identify the emerging senior market, assess how it will affect business models and plan accordingly, “knowing who uses social networking sites and their motivations may facilitate marketing of products and services.”

Purchasing capability means power.

Or does it?

Aileen Lee, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, wrote an article for TechCrunch: Why Women Rule the Internet. Feminist geeks took offense when she touted purchasing influence as a flag of female power. Fem-Geeks rebutted that women should be focused on creating not purchasing. “Yeah, I’m not really thrilled at being told I rule in the cutting-edge areas of shoe shopping, diapers and coupons. And I say this as someone who buys a lot of shoes and diapers,” wrote Terri in the article’s comment section.

So, women know who they are, but they don’t like it?

Lee’s article makes a case that women are better at advanced planning, care more about saving money, and are likely to listen to advice. Lee suggests businesses should take a look at their team. “Do you have women in key positions?” She goes on to say that a business can rock the world if they “figure out how to harness the power of female customers.”

Advanced planning, saving money, and the ability to take advice–wouldn't that person make a good leader?

What happens if businesses harnessed the power of female employees?

Will women craft a rebuttal for that, too?

Analytics show the number one post won by one pageview

2011-08-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a recap of our 360 Convos conversations. . .

Looking back a month, the post with the most pageviews was Addicted to technology or addicted to distraction?

This article was a mix of how women use smartphones, QR codes, and if retailers are using QR codes in a smart manner. I made the assertion that the option of using them on-site may do nothing more than discount a product a customer may have already intended to purchase.

But I failed to succinctly ask the question (I tried): why discount when the customer is ready to buy? The flubbed point proves the point that a good editor is usually not you, or in this case, me.

That post only won by a thin margin, though.

Smart is the new sexy, but is this smart?, a review of the new brand marketing for newspapers, came in second by a single page view.*

The branding for newspapers, for me, fell a little flat. In other words, you can't tell people what is sexy. They tell you. And really, I don't think the campaign will work, but I'm ready to jump on the band wagon and am trying out my new slogan:

“Read my blog--stay informed--you'll look smart--everyone will think you're sexy.”

Let me know if it works.

DATE	THE LINE UP FROM FOUR WEEKS AGO
Sunday July 24	Addicted to technology or addicted to distraction
Monday July 25	Smart is the new sexy, but is this smart?
Tuesday July 26	Who rescues the graduates from failure?
Wednesday July 27	Keyboard vs the pad, which one wins
Thursday July 28	When is it time to put the laptop to bed?
Friday July 29	Fav quotes of the week
Saturday July 30	Tatoo artist accesses YouTube to 'game' job opportunity

*Google Analytics

In case anyone is asking, here's the blog’s QR Code:

'Dale Chumbley' it. What I learned blogging everyday

2011-08-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

A discussion at the office sent me on a personal trajectory to discover the answer.

I believe posting everyday, even if every post is not a home-run, builds website traffic and, as a by-product, an audience.

I didn't know the exact outcome at the beginning, but I'd seen enough analytics to believe I was right.

Yes, a level of quality needs to be established as a benchmark to evaluate success. And yes, you can summon all the research and all the yay-naysayers you can to support either side of the equation, nothing but quality, consistency is key. But if you stand on the principal that only quality should prevail, and proceed by releasing nothing (until it's ready), that is like expecting a job offer without sending out any resumes.

Silence online means you don't exist.

Show me the perfect job
Trying to be great everyday is like trying to be the perfect parent, the perfect boss, the perfect child, or trying to create the perfect job. No one I know is perfect, and if they were, I doubt I'd like them all that much.

I like a stray hair that looks like it needs to be tucked behind an ear. A little lipstick gone awry means you're not spending all your time concerned first with self. And shoes that don't match communicate you couldn't wait to get to work and dressed in the dark. All those touches of personal human-ness breaks up our day and gives us a chance to connect on a real level. It gives us a chance to laugh at our imperfections. And we should be examining ourselves before criticizing others.

Like grandma said, “Clean your shoes before walking into someone else’s house.”

Choose how you spend your time
Assemble the energy and resources to throw yourself into a project, but hold yourself accountable to the time you have at hand. Refresh yourself with a brisk 5-10 minute walk. Limit chats in the hall that take longer than a break. Invest some time to know yourself, subtract distractions and manage your pace.

At my previous management position, when I would wind up to whine about how much work I had, I would first try to ascertain how I actually spent my time. I devised an excel spreadsheet and input: email, customer interface, employee coaching, follow up with boss. While I was tracking, I became more aware of mishandled time.

Today, resources such as RescueTime can reflect our activity more accurately than my primitive excel spreadsheet, which I could only maintain for three days. But either way, primitive or intense, track it before you weigh in on the 'I'm too busy' conversation. You may be surprised how you actually dole out your business day.

Don't hold someone else up
Is there something on your desk that someone else needs? If you are the bottleneck that creates an unnecessary emergency for the next person, get out of the way. Hack away at the stack on your desk. If a simple signature, review, 'check the box,' thumbs up or weigh in, could get the task onto someone else's desk do it. I heard that admonition in a seminar and remind myself of it constantly. I don't want to be the log jamb, and when I am, I feel bad. The lesson is to feel good by controlling your desk.

Feel good about blogging by getting those nagging items crossed off your list.

Great is the enemy of good
Does your creative output have to be perfect, or does it, right now, need to be good enough to meet a deadline or expected outcome? The answer may vary according to the project, to the assignment and to ongoing personal output. Open a dialogue with your boss on expectations and hopefully, clarity may prevail.

Give in a little bit. If your principals of perfection are getting the company no where, loosen up. Even Voltaire in the 17th Century understood that 'great is the enemy of good.'

Attempt. Proceed. Step back. Evaluate.
You'll learn something by doing, by seeking ways to become efficient. You'll hone your craft, learn shortcuts, become more efficient and increase your ability to become invaluable in the workplace. You'll learn where the sweet spot is for optimum results. Or, you'll complain about quality and artistic pursuits and how much they matter and lose your job to someone who'll figure out how to get it done.

'Dale Chumbley' it
Dale Chumbley, a Realtor® from Washington State, challenged himself to post something unique about his community EVERYDAY for a year: 365 Things to do in Vancouver Washington. Was every post high quality? Or was the man judged by the bulk of his work and the impact it made on his community and his influence thereof? The answer may lie after his adventure ended.

Chumbley received attention on Facebook, 15,000 fans, attention nationally -- invitations to speak at over a dozen seminars, conventions and workshops. Multiple news sites, Realtor resources, and bloggers wrote about Dale Chumbley. I did a quick google check and found:

NATIONAL ATTENTION

Oregon

Clark County Realtor Dale Chumbley reflects on year of blogging '365 Things to do in Vancouver'

Utah

A Blogging Interview with Dale Chumbley

Satire

National Dale Chumbely Day

Video

Dale Chumbley talks about consistency

There's at least a hundred more. Someone should keep a list.

In the meantime, while you're trying to hone perfect quality, who's speeding past you?

40 CONSECUTIVE POST

Fav quotes from my daughter (who's embarrassing who?)

2011-08-26T21:22:00.000-07:00

Me, a volunteer at school with duct tape to promote convos.

Since I started the Friday Fav Quotes series, I've enjoyed plucking the best from my Twitter, Facebook, and news streams to share with you. Today, I make a small departure from that format.

I'd like to celebrate the clever and delightful young woman who prances around my home masquerading as a teen, when in reality she is a wise and soulful friend.

She has three current missions:

1. Make sure I don't wear clothes to work that look like carpet
2. Feed granola bars to beggars stationed at busy intersections
[Read Adventure Hour . . . ]
3. Say things I don't want to forget, so I write them down

She is practically impossible to embarrass and I try wholeheartedly.

Let me know if this works . . .

Overheard	Quote
Fri, Aug 12	“You know, I'm a pack-rat, but I don't collect things, I collect people.” After combing through list of Facebook friends and downsizing from 600 to 300.
Sat, Aug 13	Friend: “Have you heard 60 is the new 40?” My Daughter: “My mom is old, too.”
Sun, Aug 14	“Apparently, there is a limited number of times you can change your name on Facebook.”
Mon, Aug 15	Grandpa: “Ignoring the phone does not stop it from ringing.” Daughter texts me: “I don't think he knows how to ignore calls.”
Tue, Aug 17	Me: “I was born to be chauffeured.” Daughter: “You were born to walk.”
Wed, Aug 17	Me happily checking in on Foursquare Daughter: “People know your location now. They could kill you.”
Thur, Aug 18	Me coming home late from the office Daughter: “Maybe you'll divorce work!”

Leave your best stuff it in the comments section. Let's share!

How blogging for 30 days in a row leads to international acclaim

2011-08-25T22:37:00.000-07:00

360 Convos rocketed into the international scene with a featured
post on Renbor Sales Solutions' blog, a Toronto, Canada Corp.

When I embarked on my 30 Days of Consecutive Blog Posts I had no idea where I would end up. The disciplined effort to blog everyday led to local, national, and even international attention. One of the places I landed was Toronto, Canada as a featured contributor on The Pipeline, the blog of Renbor Sales Solutions, Inc.

Thank you Tibor Shanto.

People south of Canada tuned in, too. In the last two weeks alone, I received pageviews from 33 of the 50 United States: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, New York.

Do it. Figure out which ones are missing :-)

During that same time, 360 Convos also pulled in viewers from around the world including: Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Lebanon, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom.

Some of the posts took on a life of their own and appeared in other places . . .

Dining for Women, a national giving circle empowering women in the developing world, featured the blog post: Can a good dinner change the world?

The City of Gresham picked up a post on customer service for their intranet site, which gave me the opportunity to create the post: City shares good ideas (mine).

The Customer Collective, an “editorially independent, moderated blogging community for elite sales and marketing executives,” featured four posts:

1. Interupted Internet Access Causes Depression
2. Confessions of a Social Media Strategist [A LinkedIn Nightmare?]
3. The Genius of Google +1 vs Retweeting: Casting Your Online Vote
4. Google Analytics Confirm Declines in Website Visits

Porter Anderson, a former CNN journalist, shared his laptop power with me at a Writers Conference, tweeted and emailed a link to 800 other attendees of Words Motivate.

BlogHer.com, which boasts a following of 23 million women, featured a post I wrote on a visit to the Clark County Fair, Families Disrupted by Technology.

Canadian Sales Trainer Tibor Shanto, a favorite Twitter friend @Renbor, featured one of my posts on his blog: When the customer can't be consoled...

TOP 25. The lovely Paula G, career editor for BlogHer, promoted 360 Convos as one of the 25 Career and Business Women Bloggers Worth Reading.

Today, marks the 38th consecutive post. Don't ask me if I'll keep going. I'm still deciding.

In the meantime, I'd like to quote another Twitter friend, Jeremiah Owyang. He summed up a mutual experience on his blog when he wrote, “Even the smallest thing will lead to something bigger.”

Blogging creates its own form of energy and sends you places you hadn't imagined.

Where has your blog taken you??

38 CONSECUTIVE POST

If you'd like to read the other posts in the blogging series, try these:

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang
that allowed me to take down Google*
*Almost

Tips for blogging everyday

Great is the enemy of good and other
things I learned from blogging

How blogging is like throwing stones

How blogging for 30 days in a row
leads to international acclaim

How blogging is like throwing stones

2011-08-24T23:28:00.000-07:00

Blogging is like throwing stones into a calm lake

The beginning of any journey holds the promise of surprises at each opportunity. I plunged into the lake of my journey to prove a point, that blogging everyday is like throwing a pebble in the big pond. The dropping stone creates not only a momentary splash, but like the ripple of sound waves, it rolls and swells and broadcasts its influence over what has previously been a calm surface.

The first stones I dropped were boulders. These were stories too big, too large, the pile of words rocking the boat of what I could easily manage. Then, after the big rocks, I tossed smaller ones, easy cute as a kitten fishing for goldfish sized posts that were short. Succinct. Something interesting or fun I found online that I would normally simply tweet, but instead of turning to Twitter, I married it with a couple of paragraphs of thought and published it. Nothing wrong with that. I was learning craft.

I was learning the ebb and flow of words and the time I had available.

During my consecutive blogging stint, I found the lake of concepts overstocked with ideas. They were swimming everywhere. You couldn't miss them. I cast my line of opinion into the lake, hooked a few ideas, and reeled them in. If you can fish online, you can blog. If you can stay awake for an hour before bed, you can blog.

The sweet spot for a blog post is about 500 words.The 500 word vessel is easily managed within the time allotted, it's easy to edit and easy to correct after you post it and discover, for some unknown reason, you have written a smattering of sentences that make absolutely no sense.

Sometimes to make sense of it, you need to tear it apart.

Taking one blog post and breaking it up is a great option to get the most mileage out of an idea.The post I'm writing now, was originally planned as one post. I couldn't balance all the boulders and pebbles and row across the lake, the ocean of concepts too wide, the pool of thought too deep. So I drained ideas from the first post. I bailed ideas out of the second post. I siphoned words from the third and managed a series of four. No five. Who's counting? Probably only me.

I felt ridiculously proud of my accomplishment.

I wanted to find other people paddling in the blog lake and revel in our accomplishments. I searched nearby. Dale Chumbley, a Realtor® from Washington State, made a name for himself by posting EVERYDAY for a year. His topic was 365 Things to do in Vancouver, Washington

To uncover others, I posted a question on Quora and got this response. “You can follow the blog entries done by this man - who visited 1000 bars in 1 year (go to year 2005 and read all about it). http://thousandbars.blogs. He blogged continuously!” said Faisal Khan.

Really? Blogged about bars? Since 2005? What would you say after the first five years? “I need elbow grease and a beer. Woot. I discovered bag balm and can now raise a glass to any occasion. Bring on the new year.”

I discovered dooce.com. Since February 2001, Heather B. Armstrong has published more than 6,000 entries. Her claim to fame is...weird. Her blog tags include: Boobs, depression, and therapy. She also wrote the book, It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita

Hmm, I thought, maybe I should blog for 365 days. Maybe I should dooce it and go for the thousands.

I checked my temperature thinking I might be ill.

No, I realized I was insane.

Finish the thirty, revel in it, I encouraged myself. The beauty of the journey will be the journey.

I threw a few more stones in the lake and threw up a few more blog posts and experienced the ripple affect. It's incredible.

If you'd like to read the other posts in the blogging series, try these:

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang
that allowed me to take down Google*
*Almost

Tips for blogging everyday

Great is the enemy of good and other
things I learned from blogging

How blogging is like throwing stones

How blogging for 30 days in a row
leads to international acclaim

'Dale Chumbley' it. What I learned
blogging everyday

Great is the enemy of good and other things I learned from blogging

2011-08-23T22:55:00.000-07:00

I fidgeted in the chair and reached for the cup of coffee. I took a quick sip and listened to the question. I let it hang in the space between us. I took another sip and I mulled it over. A smile snuck across my face, I settled the cup down, looked directly at the gentleman who could potentially promote me and said:

"If there are two roads
leading to my destination,

Both roads will get me to my
destination at the same time,

One is stalled in traffic,
and the other moving slowly,

I will always choose the road that is moving."

If you're moving there's hope.

I went into my 30 days in a row blogging project with the same thought. Get moving. Do it now. Maybe it won't be perfect, but the practice of contributing each day will get you closer to where you want to be.

If you're moving you may get inventive, prove you own American ingenuity and figure out a better, faster, more efficient way to get to your destination.

Luck might happen.

In my previous posts, I shared snippets of what I learned. It's not about making money, it's about moving along the path of contributing, building your brand, finding your voice. Readers will come if you add something new on a consistent basis.

I discovered I seldom sat down knowing what to write about, but the fact that I managed an editorial calendar--a semblance of a plan--gave me a place to start, a way to move into traffic, even if I was moving slowly. A certain amount of glee arose when I mangled my own calendar by moving things off and giving some a swift kick to infinity when they didn't come together as I'd hoped.

But.

I didn't get any complaints.

I got viewers.

If you try and make a post perfect it will never happen. It's not like print, you're not sending out 50,000 copies with a blatant mistake that you'll regret and beat yourself up for. It's online. It's one page that you can edit over and over and over again. People will help you edit, they'll correct your grammar, they'll leave funny comments, you'll engage, you'll laugh and you'll be part of a virtual community.

Here's what the participating in the virtual community taught me...

Lessons Learned from Blogging:
1. Having a goal means you can measure your success
2. Having a plan, in this case a calendar, gives you direction
3. Mistakes are not forever, community will help you correct them
4. Everyday there is a new deadline
5. You have 24 hours to make the deadline

And there's plenty of do-overs. Not every post was a home run. But as a friend of mine said recently, “Great is the enemy of good.”

Sometimes when we're trying so hard to be great, to seek quality, we forget all that anyone wants from us is to be there, to be present, to be good in the moment, to be good enough. To create something today, so that we have a shot at tomorrow. And maybe, just maybe, while we're striving to be good something great will happen.

Did great things happen for me? Well, when the interview was over, I was not promoted. But the disciplined effort to blog everyday led to local, national, and even international attention.

More on that tomorrow.

If you'd like to read the other posts in the blogging series, try these:

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang
that allowed me to take down Google*
*Almost

Tips for blogging everyday

Great is the enemy of good and other
things I learned from blogging

How blogging is like throwing stones

How blogging for 30 days in a row
leads to international acclaim

Tips for blogging everyday

2011-08-22T06:14:00.000-07:00

Keep it in motion.

Yesterday, I disclosed my genius idea to take down Google by offering free ads on my blog. The disclosure was made mid-stream on a post about choosing to be a consistent blogger.

Before I began my 'daily blogging' journey I was actually on a different path. I had planned to write a post to help other people blog. A few ideas had been percolating. The first one was to create a great check-off list from ideas I'd gleaned around the web.

Tips for Bloggers:
1. Start with clear objectives
2. Develop a strategy
3. Keep content focused on a topic
4. Have an editorial calendar
5. Measure based on objectives
6. Integrate social tools, allow logins from social networks
7. Encourage for word of mouth (WOM), integrate into all you do
8. Most effective blogs are conversational or controversial
9. Treat your site (and you) as it's own company or brand
10% for fun, stuff you ♥

I never posted my list.

I decided to live it.

My objective would be to test the theory that posting with consistency changes the world. I wasn't sure how it would change my world, but I knew that it would.

My strategy was to post for thirty days in a row. It was June 18 and that month I'd only posted sporadically. Exactly nine times. I began with earnest on July 19.

360 Convos had its incubation when I wanted to write about business topics, as opposed to blogging on fiction writing and life themes, the center point of my other website. When I was building the strategy for this daily blogging adventure for 360 Convos, I considered a wide array of topics. In staying with item three on the above list, I decided to keep the content focused on business.

I did not keep the content focused on business. (I'm practicing, not shooting for perfection). I did, however, learn a few lessons while blogging everyday:

Jot down blog ideas whenever they occur. Do not use paper for this.

The best place a blogger can jot down ideas is somewhere online. I chose a Google calendar. No, I haven't taken Google down, yet. I still find most of their products useful. In keeping with item four on the list noted above, I dubbed my Google amenity Editorial Calendar and made it public.

I wrote down measurements to evaluate my success (item 5). I integrated social media and made sure the icons were large and easy to find (item 6):

Icons courtesy of PRLloyd

I talked about my blog (WOM). I left a screen up on my computer at work and reeled in a co-worker. I played around with style – conversational and tested controversial by using the word 'hell' in a headline. I sought a parental tone, I toyed with a touch of PR. I made a confession and made a personal disclosure that had left me dry-mouthed with guilt. I paraded a cute kitten. I preached to myself. I preached to no one else. I outed myself as a distracted parent (more than once).

I aggregated.

I fell asleep, not just once but twice.

I treated my blogging journey as a job. I treated my blog as its own company. I integrated my online presence and it became part of my personal branding strategy.

I love to write. I had fun.

I learned that when I was clueless about what to write about, I could refer to my editorial calendar and pick up exactly where my brain had left off. I learned I was in charge of the calendar and could change it when another topic felt more important. I learned I could take on a writing assignment – I could write not just for me, but for someone else as well.

Library Director abruptly retires
after correcting 360 Convos post.

After I pulled the trigger on my starting post, Literacy is the key to the internet, I received an email. A community member chose to send me a kind note, instead of lambasting me in the comments section on my disarray of facts. (I didn't know the difference between a bond and a levy). He coached me through several re-postings, so I could be accurate, mostly.

(Thank you Bruce Ziegman).

The effort to exchange those eleven emails and set me straight, apparently taxed Ziegman beyond his literary capabilities. Two and a half weeks later, he announced his retirement. Today, August 22, is my 35th consecutive post. I have no idea who will give up and retire today because of it.

Today, is my 35th consecutive post. I have no idea who will give up and retire because of it.

What I do know is that the disciplined effort to blog everyday taught me life lessons.

More on that tomorrow.

If you'd like to read the other posts in the blogging series, try these:

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang
that allowed me to take down Google*
*Almost

Tips for blogging everyday

Great is the enemy of good and other
things I learned from blogging

How blogging is like throwing stones

How blogging for 30 days in a row
leads to international acclaim

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang that allowed me to take down Google*

2011-08-21T18:24:00.000-07:00

A poignant moment spurred me to not blog about good blogging methods, but to actually practice them.

Jeremiah Owyang, web strategist.
Photo by Thomas Hawk.

In 2007, Web Strategist Jeremiah Owyang posted, “Pay yourself first” and “One thing leads to another,” an encouragement for online enthusiasts to blog before they did anything else.

“When did blogging ever generate revenue?” I wondered.

I'd been blogging since January 2009, and at any one time I had two to three separate blogs bouncing along on separate topics. After almost three years of blogging, my Google Ad Sense account still only boasts a whopping $16.23 credit. That would almost buy me lunch and a coffee.

At one point, I got so mad at Google's practice of serving up my pageviews without sharing the wealth, I started a protest. I single-handily came up with the concept to take Google down.

If you're going to blog for free, I said to myself, GIVE THE ADS AWAY FREE.

On one of my blogs I added advertising for local businesses free of charge.

Google was so scared they started Google+, an ad free environment.

That money thing was intriguing though, and I kept thinking about what it meant to 'pay yourself first.' It took me awhile to figure it out. It wasn't about money, it was about mindshare and market influence.

If I were re-writing Owyang's post I would paraphrase it to read, “invest in yourself first.” I would encourage writers to do something that benefits the id, the ego and the super-ego before they attacked a single piece of email.

Jeremiah Owyang is interviewed by
Nate DiNiro on visit to Portland, OR.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Bunch, vimeo.

Let the inbox overflow, folks.

Build a blog. Add content. Add free ads. Readers will come.

As long as they find something new on a consistent basis.

Tomorrow I share tips for blogging everyday. And don't worry...Google survives.

*Almost.

35 CONSECUTIVE DAILY POSTS

Would you like to clean up your desk, or would you like me to?

2011-08-20T05:39:00.000-07:00

Actual desk used by someone Carol Doane knows.
People who know Carol may have seen this desk.

What's the worst desk you've seen lately, yours or someone else's?

Fav quotes of the week and maybe too much coffee

2011-08-19T07:21:00.000-07:00

From the blog, 10 Rules to Reverse the Email Spiral:

"Number 8. Use words like EOM and NNTR
If your email message can be expressed in half a dozen words, just put it in the subject line, followed by EOM (= End of Message). This saves the recipient having to actually open the message. Ending a note with "No need to respond" or NNTR, is a wonderful act of generosity. Many acronyms confuse as much as help, but these two are golden and deserve wide adoption." [Read more ...]

By the way, I hate code words like EOM and NNTR.

BUT here's my favorite quotes of the week!

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, Aug 12	Twitter	“It's funny that people come to Starbucks to sit and talk, not ordering anything.” Chris Martin
Sat, Aug 13	Mashable	“I believe that people get what they deserve, good or bad,” Jonathan Stark, creator of Jonathan's Card in responce to hackers.
Sun, Aug 14	PC World	“Starbucks Pulls Plug on 'Jonathan's Card' Social Experiment.” Paul Suarez
Mon, Aug 15	Twitter	"Is it the recession that is challenging newspapers, or new media?" John Hill
Tue, Aug 16	Twitter	"I wonder if the President is the "Mayor" of the White House #Foursquare http://t.co/AuUVyKb " Noland Hoshino
Wed, Aug 17	Twitter	"Just what I always wanted: masonry paint. (@ Fred Meyer w/ 3 others) [pic]: http://t.co/9cFRBmZ" Steve Woodward, checking in with Foursquare.
Thur, Aug 18	Twitter	"Just sold our last book on Nyplatkaame. What? You don't make bobbin lace or read Finnish? ONLY HERE @C2CBooks!" Mel Sanders, owner of Cover to Cover Books

Leave your best stuff it in the comments section. Let's share!

Animals in the backyard, which one would you choose?

2011-08-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Photo by Kailynn Doane

Cotton candy, the hot-buttery smell of popcorn, dusty dry walkways and the screams of death seekers from the carnival rides are the dying embers of memory from summer's county fair.

After the fair closes, other concepts push to the surface: a hutch with rabbits that might fit in the corner of the backyard, a city-size chicken coop on the side of the house, a woolly lamb that might wander over the grass with soft fiber that could be spun into yarn.

County fairs inspire the community to get up close and personal with animals and with youth who devote a 4-H year to animals. Not far from the kids are the parents who drove them to every meeting, Occasionally, parental politics surface during the fair experience -- the parents who want their kids to win over than the lessons learned from participation. The whispers churned up in the aftermath of overbearing parents waft in the corners of every county fair. Back in town, the politics of raising animals within city limits spring up as quickly as the ideas to bring home chickens.

Scratch the llama idea.

If rules and regulations were not an issue, what animal would you bring home from the fair...if you could?

More stories about the county fair experience here:
Interrupted internet access causes depression

Email hell, struggling with the inbox

2011-08-17T05:12:00.000-07:00

I had a moment of clarity the other day, I decided that the first task I tackled was not going to be touching my email.

I left the email garden to fend for itself, to grow weeds or bloom brightly without my constant tending to it. I chose not to worry about the steady rain of falling messages. I ignored the raging river of email rapids, and focused instead on other tasks.

The purpose was to chose my priority list and not have it chosen for me based on everyone else's needs as expressed with a missive directed at my inbox. It felt that my grappling with the email item, as soon as they sent it, made the items on their list take precedence over my own.

Reading my email, I concluded, was taking care of everyone else. I needed to take care of me for one day.

On an ongoing basis, I struggle to keep up with the steady email stream. On the surface, it's not overwhelming, it's continuous. It never lets up. It doesn't rest and it doesn't take a holiday.

At my previous job, as advertising sales manager, I oversaw a multi-million dollar budget. From my experience, one could conclude the larger the budget the larger the inbox. At one point I had almost 2,000 emails staring at me. I would console myself by looking over at the monitor of another manager and notice he never filed or deleted any email. Another manager had a whopping 15,000 emails, with 8,000 unread. Admittedly, 15,000 emails probably spells bigger problems than just email. It's like the person who hoards felines but doesn't take care of them.

My personal email would wax and wane depending on which inbox I focused on. I have more than one personal email account.

I'm not the only one.

A recent review of Quora revealed more than one personal email addresses is not unusual. Having only one probably is. Cody Riddar, Founder of Rebel Bits, admits to twelve. Currently 712 people are following the 'number of email address' topic. I would wager that those 712 followers are doing so to avoid their in basket.

Other Quora seekers discuss how many emails coming flying at them a day. That ranges from a low estimate of 130 for Lynette Young, a social technology specialist. She scans three accounts and actively handles or replies to about 40 emails. The remainder she usually skims, trashes or archives.

For others, the average email count is between 200 and 300. Trevor Dyster, reports 250 a day, with 50 directly work related and the remainder related to social media. He manages the influx by keeping his Blackberry switched off at night, which doesn't stop the email, just the email bleep. "Most get deleted as I follow them up through the various platforms."

Food blogger, Julie Niesen Gosdin, says two accounts is enough and she receives "probably 300" emails a day. Most of which "go into the trash."

The result of my 'one-day without email' experiment is inconclusive. I didn't end the day with a sense of satisfaction. It felt more like leaving a ticking bomb and I wondered how communicating became such an explosive device.

How do manage your email accounts?

How often does your inbox read '0?'

30 CONSECUTIVE POSTS

Take charge and take five

2011-08-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

Like a matador before a bull about to charge, we whip out our laptops, straighten our backs in a hard chair and hover our fingers over the keyboard poised to charge out a fabulous blog post.

Then we fall asleep.

What happened the last time you had good intentions?

30 CONSECUTIVE DAILY POSTS

New psychology of negotiating: never argue

2011-08-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

When I bought my first house I remember standing on the sidewalk gnarled by roots of large shade trees, and explaining to the seller's agent why my offer was lower than the asking price. I had a long list of reasons defending my position and ended with, "Look at the sidewalk. It has issues. It's the owner's responsibility to fix them. This is going to cost me a lot."

I was young, I was defending my position in the lamest, most obscure way possible. We settled closer to their price than mine.

Later on in the closing process, I honed my real estate technique when I asked the escrow officer to make the paperwork I was about to sign available to me 24-hours before she expected me to sign it. I'd read all the little pamphlets and learned that state law gave me that right. I'm so glad it did. I discovered the escrow company had received a verbal from the sellers agent to charge me for the oil left in the tank. I called the oil company and learned I could buy oil from them cheaper than what the seller was charging me.

I pulled out the earnest money document and scoured it to see if I had agreed to the oil purchase. It stated that any oil left in the tank belonged to the buyer: me. I figured the seller could pump it out and re-sell it the oil company.

I alerted the escrow company. We worked it out. They left the oil.

What would have given me a better price at the beginning, I wonder now. A glimpse at a recent psychology study demonstrates that the negotiation process evolves into a struggle when the discussion reduces into arguing or positioning.

Art Markman, Ph.D., writes in his post When You Negotiate, Don’t Argue, that the initial offer in a negotiation is called an anchor. The anchor gives the negotiation process a framework and whoever defends the framework is likely to be the loser.

Yes, you may be right. Yes, you may have all the right reasons. But you may be wrong to share them. Think if that has ever happened to you at work.

A former co-worker used to say, "The first one to speak loses." He would craft a proposal, walk his prospect through it, and end by asking a question. He waited any length of time until the prospect to spoke. He was a top salesperson.

When we defend our position counter-arguments are created in the head of the person we're trying to convince.

Instead of trying to negotiate where we agree, our brains try to come up with all the reasons why we disagree. This puts the focus on the wrong anchor. That's when it becomes really hard to move a process forward, to get things done, to cheer on the same team, to 'get on the same page.' That's why we say, 'They threw the anchor in.'

Markman says, "Each side wants to get the best deal, and so they treat every piece of information given by the other party with skepticism." He says that our arguments are seen as "flawed" and that they are not successful at persuading the outcome of a negotiation. His recommendation is to anchor the process by making the first offer, "However, after you make that initial offer, resist the temptation to give reasons to justify that initial bid."

When has keeping silent saved you money, or saved your job?

The times that define us and the media we use to survive them

2011-08-14T07:59:00.000-07:00

The times that define us are points where we can mark 'before' and 'after.'

The recent catastrophe at the Indiana State Fair reminds us of tragedies that occur due to human error, human neglect, and human arrogance -- race for profit and shortcut on safety. Then there's the apex of Nature and man-made, with Nature taking the stunning lead in almost every instance and leaving the human landscape devastated.

How does a community manage the chaos? How does a company manage the fall-out, whether they are liable or simply caught in unpredictable circumstances?

The entertainers before the stage collapse and the entertainers slated to go on next, but were pitched out due to the collapse, flew to Twitter and sent out messages that they were okay. It surfaces questions about what response the associated businesses and sponsors made.

The PR spin will fly and fingers will point, but what would you do if you were the company that sponsored the main stage at this fair? Would you use social media to communicate, make yourself readily available to the news and broadcast media, donate large sums of money, or keep your head low until the dust settled?

Interrupted internet access causes depression

2011-08-13T10:41:00.000-07:00

People deprived of internet access feel upset and lonely according to a recent report on the Daily Mail.

What about people deprived of mothers, fathers and other family members who spend too much time online or on their phones?

For the past four years I served as a Director on the Clark County Fair Board. The second Tuesday of each month my daughter waved goodbye as I toodled off to board meetings. She didn't mind the time I invested, she loved the fair and experienced it herself through 4-H. She even took her Bolognese dog to the Washington State Fair where they won a blue ribbon.

Looking for next step, she became a founding member of the junior fair board. They're like a little start-up, raising funds before the fair and trying to figure out what they can add to the venue that no else is working on. My daughter's role was to create and post signs outside the barns of the day's events. For nine of those days she performed her duties without a co-hort who would make it fun.

She invited me to spend a day with her.

Yesterday, a Friday, I headed to Delfel Road on the outskirts of the county and landed square in the middle of the fair festivities.

Then my iPhone bleated.

Issue at work.

I bent my head over the oblong glass of my thin digital equipment. I tapped out a response. I made a call to clarify. I texted a few more times. I flipped through a few apps and responded to email. Closing in on noon, we stopped for a two-fer at the burger stand and the phone bleated like a new born goat.

By late afternoon, I learned a lesson that had nothing to do with local commerce, animal herdsmanship, fitting and showing, what to buy to have softer skin, or how to prepare quick family meals.

"I thought it would be fun to share the fair with you," complained my teenager. "But you spent the whole time looking at your phone."

As I pulled out of the parking lot, I realized she was right. I even had a kink in my neck.

We began our adventure not on the same page. She had wanted to buy a dream catcher, which we had done, but I thought she had already picked one out and just wanted to show it to me and have me buy it for her. What she really wanted was for the two of us to wander through every booth offering them for sale, discuss the merits of each, and then decide together which one to buy.

She didn't want a credit card, she wanted a day with mommy. And even at almost sixteen she enjoys calling me mommy. I thought taking care of a work issue would allow me to let go of the office and enjoy the day. Simple exchanges and assumptions did not define what her intent was, nor bring clarity to me of what role she wanted me to play.

If interrupted internet access causes depression, what are the results of an interrupted family?

Fav quotes of the week and one big gorilla

2011-08-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

Gorilla and baby in the wild. Photo by Kristen.

From the blog, The Next Chapters, Kristen takes us on a trip to the Bwindi Impenetrable Forestus in search of gorillas. Kristen is an intern with the VOLSET Foundation in Mukono District of Uganda.

"We literally had a life or death decision to make. Do I skip the trip (the non-refundable, un-repeatable, un-re-schedulable trip) and go to the doctor in case I was experiencing the beginning of some crazy African disease? OR: Do I ignore . . . [Read more ...]

Here's the favorite quotes of the week!

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, Aug 5	Twitter	"Did I really just order a stack of man cakes?" Chris Martin
Sat, Aug 6	Twitter	"I'd say it's a gateway drug to the colon." Mary Rarick, in response to overhearing, 'the semicolon is a gateway drug to the period.'
Sun, Aug 7	Twitter	"RIP Mark O. Hatfield, a great governor for Oregon & statesman." Cheryl Bledsoe
Mon, Aug 8	Twitter	"OMG! I'm wearing a sweater (in Aug)." Noland Hoshino
Tue, Aug 9	Twitter	"I am so not turning the heat on tonight!" M. Edward Borasky
Wed, Aug 10	Twitter	"It's how I keep you away from boys. I date their dads. #quote #mom cc/ @TheClassicCarol" @schoolbound, kid sidekick to a super hero mom busy living where Apples Get Wet.
Thur, Aug 11	Twitter	"I did not plan on the general public learning about my Spongebob Squarepant undies." Bill Cameron, a guy who eats bacon and writes.

Leave your best stuff it in the comments section. Let's share!

Chalk the walk and chalk it up to more good Umpqua Bank ideas

2011-08-11T05:36:00.000-07:00

"What do you suppose the world would look like..." Chalk Art, by Kailynn.

Umpqua Bank has hit pay dirt or 'pay-sidewalk.' They recently announced an August 23 event called Chalk the Walks. It's meant to inspire the community to get out and express their artistic side, have a good time and associate the fun with the Umpqua brand. To facilitate the explosions in pastel, Umpqua is offering free chalk in the Vancouver, WASH. branches between now and August 22 to make this happen.

This isn't the first time Umpqua has sprung outside the vault in their thinking.

Under the company's SpotLight program, Umpqua promotes local merchants by displaying and selling their products right inside the bank. To qualify a business owner lives or works in the neighborhood, has a product within a qualifying price range that displays well. The last criteria is that the business needs to to apply.

Once approved the bank sets up and sells the actual product. After approximately three months, they take down the display and send the business a check for the merchandise sold.

Other Umpqua amenities include a bi-weekly Breakfast Club, a coalition of small business people who learn from each other's area of expertise, and events called Small Business Therapy.

From there the bank morphs the concept of employee benefits to the next level and offers employee 'perks,' for YOUR employees.

But the best part is their support of the arts. Local arts. Art of people who may not even have talent.

Stefani DasGupta, Universal Associate IV at Umpqua Bank Esther Short Park branch, is encouraging customers and neighbors to drop in and pick up free chalk to create inspiring, sidewalk graffiti.

"We loan umbrellas when it rains, so chalk while the sun is shining seems like a perfect match for the August weather."

For focus on small business and community, Umpqua Bank has been chosen as 360 Biz of the Month.

Umpqua Bank 360 Biz of the Month

Time to celebrate. Head to the bank and chalk up some good ideas!

Chalk the Walks is a project of The Joy Team, a nonprofit corporation based in Vancouver, WASH. with the slogan, spreading joy to millions.

	Chalk the Walks
	Chalk the Walks Facebook Page

Educate a girl, change the world

2011-08-10T05:07:00.000-07:00

At last night’s Dining for Women event the table topic printed on narrow slips of green paper read:

“How would your life be different if you hadn’t been allowed to attend school?”

Education is such an ingrained part of our lives it was difficult to have any meaningful exchange on the ‘what if’ premise. What proved more tangible was the $7,000 the eclectic group of Vancouver, WASH. women have donated to various organizations across the globe during the past seven months

Most Dining for Women chapters meet in women’s homes, but this group is a powder keg of female enthusiasm, filling a large meeting hall and taking on the world’s ailments one fundraising dinner at a time.

They’re fun women, working women, retired women, kayaking women, artists, photographers, gardeners, golfers. They play ice hockey, weave baskets and create software for Fortune 500 companies. They're running women and women running for political office.

They love to:

Bake
Bike
Cook
Dance
Eat
Read
Swim
Travel
Walk
Write

They believe in giving.

They believe in education.

They believe in accountability and scrutinize finances and management of the organizations asking for support. You’d be surprised how far a Dining for Women dollar goes. There’s no fat, fluff, or golden fleece awards. The $7000 the Vancouver women have donated in the past seven months is part of a $1.15 million kitty that is changing the future of women around the globe.

They believe in standing up. And each month, one woman stands up and shares. She tells us what it would be like if we didn’t have an education, if we didn't have a safe place to live, if we didn't have enough to eat or basic choices that make us human beings.

The Vancouver women cry and laugh and celebrate how lucky they are to have the opportunity to write a check, donate online, or throw cash in the basket that makes it from their corner of the world to another.

Then in that corner, on the other side of the world, women "laugh and dance and sing" because of a handkerchief size fragment of hope that life will be better because someone shares.

Will educating women somewhere else change us?

Prior post on Dining for Women: Can a good dinner change the world?

The August dinner raised money for Nurturing Minds in Africa, as shown in the video above. Nurturing Minds offers access to quality education in Tanzania with a particular emphasis on girls who are poor, marginalized, and at-risk of becoming involved in exploitative forms of child labor.

Dining For Women website.
Dining For Women Facebook

Words motivate and keep us engaged, lessons from #wwcon11

2011-08-08T05:34:00.000-07:00

Writers pitch agents at the Willamette Writers Conference, Portland OR

When a reader cares about what unfolds in front of them the author wins. They win because they entertain, educate and influence their audience. Writers perform this feat while being invisible.

Invisible until the story ends.

Once the last page of the novel is turned, or the last click of the Kindle is pushed, the enthusiastic reader sets the book aside and turns to other sources to learn more about the person who sent them on the intricate journey of words.

This past weekend, 800 writers journeyed from all corners of the U.S., but mostly the Portland/Vancouver area, and appeared at the Portland Airport Sheraton for the Willamette Writers Conference to become that sought after writer. Invisible no longer, they pursued personal brand awareness, writing platforms, and tackled even the very basics of story structure.

“Writing is a solitary activity,” said one participant. “Willamette Writers is when everyone crawls out of their caves.”

A focus on the written word and the fantasies spun with film played out in many exciting and just as many disappointing ways.

Everyone had a story. Every story a journey. Many stories needed to tromp back to the beginning and be revised to better hook the reader’s interest and to really make them care. This is the job of the first two sentences.

Hook the reader. Even if it hurts.

Once the reader is hooked, the person tumbling into the pile of words needs to feel something. That is the job of the rest of the story.

Keep the reader engaged.

Writing is fascinating. The right words positioned in the right order can drown readers in make-believe and motivate them to feel something. Words provoke the reader to reflect, to take action, or to release the anxieties of the moment and float down the river of commas, spaces and letters.

How the words flow down that river creates an expedition of the imagination--an actual picture that is seen in the mind It teaches, it launches laughter, or builds spaces of silences as crocodile tears roll down cheeks.

Words move the reader into action.

Words moved 800 people to crawl out of their writing dens, emerge and mix, and cast out hope that they could capture an editor, literary or film agent.

Once you hook one of those, the size of your writing pond gets a lot larger, big enough to come out of that writing cave, sniff the fresh air and realize it is the spring of your career.

Hibernation season has ended.

Other posts on the Willamette Writers Conference:
Curing Love at the Willamette Writers Conference
Willamette Writers Conference and Computer Sex

City shares good ideas (mine)

2011-08-07T04:26:00.000-07:00

Sitting at an old metal desk, you shift uncomfortably in the tired orange chair with frayed threads. You glance sporadically at the clock anxious for the sweep of the hands to signal break time. Finally, the slim points of metal click into place. Ir's time. With joyful glee you push away, land your feet firmly on the floor, and ready to dash to the door to meet friends and fill your lungs with fresh air.

The phone rings.

You squeeze your eyes shut and hang in the limbo between should I or should I not. You sigh, grab the hefty receiver and give your best 'happy to talk to you, but make it snappy' greeting.

It's not someone you know. It's not someone you ever want to know. It's a customer who's been transferred three times too many and they are p.o'ed.

The customer is also stuck in repeat mode. As soon as they dump their load of gripe, they back it up and take another run at it, three or four times.

The coffee break with your buddies is a distant dream. If you can get off the phone in 20 minutes you'll be lucky. If you are able to replace the phone in it's cradle without slamming it will be a sign of extreme self-control.

But you have to be nice.

It's your job.

How do you handle the situation? 360 Convos wrote about how one employee handled a difficult phone call in the post, When the customer can't be consoled, console the employee. The City of Gresham picked up the post and shared it on their intranet site. The paragraph below is what they posted.

If you've been in public service long enough you've probably spoken to a resident or two. If you've spoken to a resident or two you've probably been on the receiving end of a difficult phone call or two. You know, the call where no matter what you say nothing seems to help the situation or satisfy the resident. Check out this great blog post from 360 Convos about how to handle a challenging customer phone call.

It's pretty cool when a business scouts for good ideas. It's even motivating to know a government entity looks for ways to give better service.

Kudos, City of Gresham and Laura Bridges!

Screenshot of city's intranet post that links to 360 Convos.

20 CONSECUTIVE POSTS

The shredder, the closet and the business woman's strategy

2011-08-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

Guest contributor Melanie Sherman blogs at Meanderings of Melanie Sherman. The following is her business scheme to use all tools at her disposal, including the shredder. A great strategy.
Sherman reports, "It has really paid off, Carol. Everyone should have a shredder at their desk."

How important are you to your company? A while ago I would have ranked myself somewhere between the guy who blows the leaves out of our parking lot twice a year and the woman who empties our trash and recycling containers twice a week.

But then I remembered a lesson I learned as a teenager.

My cousin, Karen, and I watched the original version of The Nutty Professor. In that movie, Jerry Lewis drinks a potion and changes from the nerdy professor to a handsome heart-throb. When the movie was over we reasoned that the only difference between the absentminded, dweeby professor and the suave, sophisticated Buddy Love was attitude.

Buddy Love personified self-confidence. Who doesn’t want to be around someone with self-confidence? When the plane is going to crash, I want to be next to the individual I think will be able to get us out alive. I want to be strapped in beside someone calm, confident and not likely to panic in a crisis.

For a week after seeing the movie, Karen and I strutted about, kissing mirrors and saying things like, “I’m not saying I’m perfect; it is just that I’ve never met anyone better." At the end of the week, we were still the same girls, but now we had attitude.

We were awesome.

As I mentioned in the last post, I work in a closet. Besides the filing cabinets, printer and fire extinguisher, there used to be a shredder squeezed between my chair and the wall. Important people from all over the company would swagger in and stand behind me to shred their crucial documents. It became distracting, not only because it is eerie to have someone stand behind me, but because I wasn’t important enough to use the shredder myself. Nothing I did was all that essential. When left alone with the machine it would jeer at me, pointing out my insignificance.

And then I remembered Buddy Love.

I sat up straight. Who is to decide how important a piece of paper is? Me. My dang papers were fabulously influential.

I stooped over and dug out all the papers from my recycling bin, mostly duplicate bills, shrunkled paper (yes, I’m important enough to make up my own words) I’d pulled from the jammed copier and empty envelopes previously housing invoices. These were all very important.

I shredded them.

Then, throughout the day, I’d shred the cover sheets to faxes and any inter-office memo with my name on it. Even sticky notes became exceedingly critical.

“Melanie, what the heck are you shredding in there?” my boss finally shouted one day. “I hear the shredder going all the time.”

“Just some important documents,” I yelled over the din of the devilish device.

One day I fired up the machine and stuck the end of my important document into the shredder. My boss walked in. Over the racket of the motor and the snarling teeth chomping proprietary information into indiscernible fragments of confetti, she yelled, “What are you shredding?”

I jumped and whirled around, my eyes widening. There was nothing for it. I had to tell her the truth.

“My adding machine tape,” I said.

Her mouth dropped open.

“We wouldn’t want our competition to see our numbers, would we?” I explained.

The next day they took the shredder out of the closet and put it in the front of the office area where the rest of the accounting staff sits to “allow easier access for everyone in the company.”

I miss the shredder. I’ve gone back to throwing the empty envelopes into the recycling bin and I rarely shred my fax cover sheets. Maybe what I miss most is the weighty feeling of consequence. But I have to admit, I don’t seem to miss the "important" people hovering behind me.

Karen said...: I do not remember ever kissing a mirror. That was your other cousin.
8:52 PM
Melanie Sherman said...: Karen, We did too. We slathered on lipstick and kissed the mirror, muttering how wonderful we were the whole time. My mother wondered why there were suddenly lip prints all over the glass. I had to clean it after you left.
9:14 PM
jenku said...: I wonder how it feels to kiss a mirror...
12:01 AM
Melanie Sherman said...: Jens, My advice is to approach the mirror while giving yourself a barrage of compliments.
11:31 AM
jenku said...: Well, dear Melanie, being all for trying things I've never done before I can now reveal that it feels nothing but cold.
12:32 PM
Karen said...: BTW I love your title - you have such a sharp mind.
Too bad you're such a fabricateur'.
7:33 PM
PLA Anderson said...: Wonderfully funny! Thanks Mel!
And thanks for the reminder to stay confident, to have 'attitude,' despite how we truly feel about ourselves (most of the time). (=
4:18 PM
Melanie Sherman said...: PLA Anderson, Thanks. I've got all sorts of attitude.
8:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Ha ha ha ha! Adding machine tape! -Nina
4:07 AM
Melanie Sherman said...: Nina, Who knows what important information could be obtained by an adding machine tape? Better safe than sorry, I always say.
9:15 AM
Carolyn J. Rose said...: Made me run for the closet, get out the shredder, and get to work on the journals from my single years. Wouldn't want our mutual friend Carol to get hold of those and tweet them out to the immediate universe.
1:56 PM

Originally Posted by Melanie Sherman as: The Earnestness of Being Important.

Fav quotes of the week and big bugs

2011-08-05T06:05:00.000-07:00

From the blog, The Next Chapters, Kristen gives us a reality check and shares her experience interning with VOLSET Foundation in the Mukono District of Uganda.

"Yes-I recognize the insects are enormous. Yes-I am aware that traveling in this part of the world isn't exactly easy for young women from America. Yes-I have thought about the fact that I have never lived without running water. And Yes-Giving up my toilet, Facebook access, and ice-cream are going to be hard.

HOWEVER: No-I'm not crazy. [Read more ...]

Here's some other quotes discovered last week.

In the last seven days, what's the best thing you heard?

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, July 29	Twitter	"The Senate needs some viagra because they are sounding incredibly impotent." Chris Martin while watching CSPAN.
Sat, July 30	Facebook	"We thrive off of negativity because it's easier to feel and takes far less effort." Tyler Presnell, safe driving advocate.
Sun, July 31	Twitter	"You are very skeery." Author Bill Cameron, tweeting to his literary agent, Janet Reid.
Mon, Aug 1	Twitter	"Sometimes I wonder if other parents think I'm the child they never had... I'm being well behaved." @schoolbound, tweeting while eating dinner with a friend's family.
Tue, Aug 2	Twitter	"Trite quotes won't fix our Econ. Nor will rigid ideology." Carla Axtman, Rabblerouser extraordinaire, and editor for Blue Oregon.
Wed, Aug 3	Twitter	"Dear person reading this, You're here because you're actively procrastinating or avoiding real work, aren't you? It's OK. Me, too." Michael Perozzo, stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-lookin' nerf herder.
Thur, Aug 4	Mission Hot Mama	"Sometimes you need to just take an unexpected turn off the path you are on." Jenni Hogan, KIRO7 Eyewitness News traffic anchor, inspiring other mamas to unleash their inner hotness.

Send the best stuff you found to TheClassicCarol (at) gmail (dot) com, or feel free to leave it in the comments section. Let's share!

No memory of the conversation, meet Tyler Presnell

2011-08-04T05:43:00.000-07:00

I didn't know him before. I didn't know him during. I met Tyler Presnell after.

The moment that marks the 'after' point in Tyler Presnell's life was a vehicle collision that occurred when he was 14-years old. The misjudgment of a teenage driver slammed Presnell's side of the car into a telephone pole. His sister crawled out of the car. His twin brother took off running and collapsed when the resulting hyper-adrenalin surge maxed out his ability to function.

Crumpled inside the car, Presnell could only moan, moments he doesn't remember. Memory he might trade, if the trade-off meant the reversal of his incurable inability to remember the thing he just said.

Tyler Presnell and Tai Telford

Last year, Presnell and I spent Saturday mornings with his girlfriend Tai in a coffee shop.

He'd discovered my phone number on the internet, placed a call to me between speaking gigs, mentioned he couldn't believe he had remembered to call me, and asked for my help.

I knew who he was. I'd read this article in the local paper. It stuck in my head because I'm a mom. There's a teenager in the house. I considered whether my teenager has the fortitude to resist peer pressure, the one thing that could have saved Presnell from waking up from a coma and discovering he was a 14-year old baby who had to relearn everything he took for granted: walking, talking, feeding himself.

I agreed to help get him started developing an online presence. The three of us mapped out a plan to create a blog, some social media accounts and some simple, simple steps that would get him closer to creating a speaking career that would allow him to get his story in-front of the audience who needs to hear it, young drivers.

My career took an unexpected direction when I decided to change jobs. My extra time evaporated into other responsibilites. I realized I would have with less and less moments to work on my heartfelt pro bono project, and I put Presnell in touch with others who we felt might be able to take him through the next steps. Now he has a website, more speaking engagements,more opportunities, more friends,' but some things are the same.

Presnell remains plagued by constant pain, half of his right leg is still paralyzed and he continues to struggle with memory due to the brain injury he sustained in the collision.

He's so real. He has real struggles, he makes real choices--less life or more life, and he also has real influence, but it all comes one-on-one and no amount of social media, internet SEO, or fancy online gyrations will replace the personal conversation with the man who lived to tell the story.

The story isn't about compassion or feeling sorry for his situation, his message is to stop being self-centered. His message is to start to respect each other on the road. It's not about us getting to where we need to go, it's about all of us arriving safely.

Drive friendly, today.

Tyler Presnell's Foundation.
Tyler Presnell speaks to Congress.
Tyler Presnell podcast, on couv.com.
Tyler Presnell raps on respect, seriously, YouTube (and below).

The Flipside of the news

2011-08-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

We flipped the news over to understand the whole story. Here's how we interpreted it.

News Item: 56% of Americans Check Online News Daily.
The Flipside: the remainder, or 44% of Americans, check Groupon and are exposed to name-calling; Groupon users 'stingy' say participating merchants.

News Item: Direct mail program for the post office targets advertising clients of newspapers. (FYI, newspapers are the post office's biggest clients).
The Flipside: Newspapers threaten to use online payment programs for subscriptions instead of mailing bills. Wait. Who has a subscription to the newspaper? Okay, newspapers threaten to switch TMC products from direct mail to porch delivery.

News Item: American Express hires advertising exec from Google to promote luxury online private sales.
The Flipside: the rest of America checks Groupon.

News Item: Twitter pushes ads into the timeline...again
The Flipside Prediction: Number of fans for participating companies plummet as Twitter users unfollow them to get away from the featured ads, but look for discounts on Groupon.

News Item: Newspaper that never made money closes.
The Flipside: Laid off workers are told they can apply for jobs at newspaper that almost makes money, should they ever open up (info from same link).

News Item: Los Angeles Times decides to lay off more workers, but before they could call them in, some begged to go.
The Flipside: "They were in talks with senior executives to decide whom to cut, some staffers offered to leave." (Info from same link).

News Item: Yahoo Exchange Adds Publisher Real Time Basis Tools
The Flipside Prediction: In order to control advertising quality, publishers spend too much time deciding what inventory to sell to which buyer at what price, and overall site content slips.

When the customer can't be consoled, console the employee

2011-08-03T20:48:00.000-07:00

UPDATE II: Renbor Sales Solutions Inc. featured this post on their website The Pipeline. Thanks, Tibor Shanto, for sharing!

UPDATE I: City of Gresham shared this post on their intranet site, as reported here. Thanks, Laura, for sharing!

"I can hear the frustration in your voice," said Sarah, to an upset customer. "And I'm not sure what else to say."

Sarah, a sales representative who worked for me, plopped down in my office to relate a frustrating phone call she had just concluded with one of our customers, Darren.

The experience had left her drained, and she needed to update me, in case Darren decided to take the conversation up a notch and call me. Sarah also needed to process the experience and troubleshoot if she could have done something different, done something better, uncovered the trigger that drove the customer to phone in the first place.

It was an exasperating experience.

As I listened to the retelling, I wondered how the customer kept up his griping gyrations in the face of such calm and respectful treatment. Sarah was a pro. She didn't give up and she didn't go for platitudes that often annoy.

But she couldn't get Darren past generic grievances.

There are times when we would like to move a conversation out of complaint mode and straight into resolution. We're presented with a problem. We believe we have an answer. We want to offer our input and reach resolution, but the other party isn't quite there, yet.

This exchange wasn't even at the 'here is the problem' stage.

On each issue the customer raised, Sarah acknowledged how he felt and offered feedback to illustrate she understood his concerns. Momentarily, he would calm, but the most consistent piece of the conversation was the customer rejecting any piece of information that Sarah offered that might reassure him.

"Every time I responded he escalated," Sarah sighed.

Sarah found herself stumped. Our company was doing what we said we would do, but the customer wasn't happy. Unsure what the customer really wanted she felt almost out of options.

"Please help me understand what you need from me," Sarah asked.

Darren didn't really have an answer.

Now, it was time to put the issue back in his lap. Very gently she asked, "What would you like to do at this point?"

There was a brief moment of silence, then the customer replied, "I'm not sure."

We don't always get the outcome we're hoping for.

Desperate to reach some sort of conclusion, Sarah asked, 'Have we covered all the things you want to cover?'"

Then they hit pay dirt.

"I don't mean to come across harshly or abusive to you, I'm very concerned about what I've spent my money on," said Darren.

Sarah scrambled to calculate how she should respond, but before she could take a breath, Darren said, "Have a nice day."

Some problems we can't solve. The customer wanted something he couldn't easily articulate. But he wanted something. He expected something. The something to combat how the competition had changed, combat how his business model had changed, how our business model had changed. He wanted the illusive 'something' that would make things perfect in an imperfect world.

But most of all he wanted someone to listen.

I learned a few things from this discussion. When I'm knee deep in a conversation that's coming fast and furious and I feel like I'm not understanding what is being asked of me, I'll pose a couple of questions. They can be a quick quip when the other person takes a breath, such as, "Is there a question in there?" Or, if I'm completely confused, I may ask, "Are you asking me to do something?"

That's the pivotal moment when I learn what their hopeful outcome is.

If I hear, "I just need to vent."I know exactly where we are in our exchange and what my role is. It's their way of saying, "Please listen to me."

Who is someone you can always count on to listen to you?

'Preductions.' the art of predicting the known

2011-08-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Predicting by deducting

Otherwise known as de-ducking all theories.

The ducks are lined up, so let's get to this week's preductions!

Dorothy Jo, Walgreen's employee of the year will ask, "Do you want a car-charge with that purchase?" Stores that offer fuel will jump on the electric band wagon: Walgreens to Install EV Charging Stations at 800 Stores by Leslie Guevarra.

Cross channel marketing will be like a Lays Potato Chip campaign, you can't eat just one. Shoppers will be encouraged to bundle their purchases, but fresh off the Groupon tide, they will shop for sport, hunting for low ticket items—or value packages—to fulfill pent up anxiety of not spending during bad economy: Holiday Forecast: Marketers Can Expect Cool Profits by Gavin O'Malley.

Advertising campaigns will be like a bad Hollywood remakes as marketers try to re-purpose (plagiarize) good ideas. Muhammad Ali Company Sues Kobo Over ‘Butterfly’ Slogan by Joel Rosenblatt. “Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” slogan apparently was used without permission in a Kobo ad. (Newspaper that ran ad is sending invoice out before end of day!)

Newspapers will give product away to try and regain audience: Murdoch May Offer Discounts to Win readers to Sunday Sun, by Amy Thomson.

360 Convos asks, "Why don't newspapers try to grow a paying audience by FIRST trying Groupon?"

Australian government to invest in taxing explanations that no one will understand. Gillard to Spend A$12 Million on Carbon Tax Ads, by Elisabeth Behrmann.

360 Convos asks the Australian government, "How about blogging the explanation, or better yet, no tax and save the $12 million."

Bloggers in Australia will rise in acceptance as their an online audience and reach grows during the anti-tax blogging campaign. "People looking for high quality copywriting is (sic) going to increase in the near future." Give Your Blog the Ring of Truth, by Chris Hoole.

Love means you never have to say your sorry. Hacking means you do. (But it doesn't have to cost very much dough). Rupert Murdoch says 'sorry' in ad campaign, admits 'serious wrongdoing' over phone-hacking scandal and apologises in newspaper adverts, by John Plunkett.

360 Convos advises, "Make sure you mean it, once it goes to print you can't change it like a blog post."

Consumers stock up on stamps to register billing complaints as credit cards elbow out Groupon. Deals and discounts come pre-loaded on your credit card. Swipe at the register, pay full price, credit is applied to statement at time of billing. Where The Daily Deal Business Is Headed, by George Anderson. Back-end discounts are never pleasant for consumers.

Leave your own preductions in the comments area. Who knows, your brilliant wit may reappear in the next edition of "Preductions, how to dodge the silver bullet!

Sprouter uproots and closes

2011-08-01T00:16:00.000-07:00

10-03-11 UPDATE:
Sprouter back in business, acquired by Postmedia Network Inc.

Founder and CEO of Sprouter, Sarah Prevette, announced in an email that Sprouter is to close August 2.

Launched in 2009, the site was created to help start-ups. In addition to the website, the Sprouter team delivered a weekly newsletter for entrepreneurs highlighting hot start-ups, founders and events. Two years later the company is folding.

Everyday, choices are made between love and money. According to the email announcing the closure, this appears to be one of them.

The unfortunate thing for all closing businesses is the outpouring of love that makes it difficult to believe that closing was inevitable. Sprouter is getting it's share of adoration on Twitter, as well as a few detractors online.

Here's what people are saying around the web:

"I never really gave Sprouter the time of day unfortunately. There are so many distractions in our world and social media simply adds to the chaos of running a business."
Stuart Crawford, Notes on MSP Marketing and Leadership.

"While a potentially attractive proposition to many entrepreneurs, it seems Sprouter simply could (not) make its service financially viable. The rise of Quora as a place to directly ask questions to successful entrepreneurs could also have been a factor."
Martin Bryant, European Editor, The Next Web

"Sprouter.com has helped many entrepreneurs reaching what they want and need. Only its business model seems as cannot keep the journey on-going."
Evan Hugh, Business | Startups | Asia.

"The Twitter community seems to be both sad but also conflicted and wondering just why they never even attempted to monetize. There IS more to this story… we’re just not getting it right now. I imagine over time the real reasons will come out and it will all make more sense… for now though, we’re going to just have to theorize what the real answer could be."
Zach Bussey, My Rules. My Views. My life.

"We've covered Sprouter several times here at ReadWriteStart, recommending the Toronto-based startup as a great resource for entrepreneurs - as both a professional social network and, more recently, as a Q&A site. So it's sad to hear the news today that Sprouter will be closing its doors."
Audrey Watters, ReadWriteWeb.

"While Sprouter demonstrated that there is great demand for their online entrepreneur community, it looks ike (sic) their business model doesn't justify keeping the lights on."
Rob Lewis, TechVibes.

"Looking back almost three years later I can say that joining Sarah on the journey that would become Sprouter (it started as RedWire for anyone who hasn’t been around for the full three years) was the best decision I’ve ever made ... If you’re interested in the reasons, head over to the Sprouter blog and read our final blog post.
Erin Bury, editor of Sprouter weekly newsletter, Erin Bury's Random Musings.

"Do's and Don'ts. Do Not place the FreshLife Sprouter on or near surfaces that can be damaged." Unrelated content.

Goodbye, Sprouter. We hope Sarah Prevette has a reason to toss her highlights and hat into the social media ring again.

Confessions of a social media strategist

2011-07-31T08:15:00.000-07:00

I have taken two different tactics in practicing social media. One is to pursue connections and the other is more organic, allowing connections to find me and after they do, following an established a set of criteria to determine if they truly want a conversation with me or uncover if they are just trying to boost their numbers.

I am more curious about what makes people want to click my 'follow' button, so I enjoy the observation mode more than the pursuit, but you can learn from both.

For my personal research, I have two Twitter accounts. One is focused on writing and publishing connections. I have used that account to see if I can drive the follower count with various tactics that do not require purchasing followers or purchasing advertising. The answer is yes. It works best when you work in conjunction with a second party. I'll probably teach a class on this, so I won't release all my conclusions. The short path is to find someone with an average follower count (not a celebrity), follow the people they most interact with and create conversations.

The second account began as a way to test how the work environment could take advantage of Twitter and watch those interactions develop. That Twitter account grew into a something much bigger. That one is my observation account.

It is time to come clean.

There is one place I apply no science.

It's LinkedIn.

Pre-dive bombing into social media, I had received various emails from people stating, "I'd like to add you to my professional network." That just sounded like the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. Most of the invitations came from people I either did not want further connections with, or they were so far a strewn from my daily business interactions I had no idea what would be gained.

When I finally joined LinkedIN it was more of a surrender to the media. Someone from work helped me understand the statistics portion of LinkedIn and unfortunately (for me), I noticed that they had better stats then I did. My competitive nature kicked in (former salesperson) and I began a pursuit to improve my numbers. As soon as I beat the co-workers stats I found someone else to beat. Once I beat his stats, I was hooked. My circle of trusted professionals leapt past 500,000 and closed in on a million.

Be still my ego.

As I watched the ticker rachet up I wondered how many people in my master database are actually on LinkedIn. In an attempt to find I out, I uploaded a vast list into the system. Instead of being able to review who's in the LinkedIn database, I was directed another direction. I hit the button that sent a behemoth pile of LinkedIN invitations out.

I hopped and jittered all over the keyboard attempting to go back, to log-out, to somehow undo what I had done: intiated a bagillion annoying LinkedIn invitations to people who barely knew me. Bestselling authors, people at my daughter's school, emergency contacts from the neighborhood, people from boards I serve on, and an ex-employee I would have had to of fired if they hadn't quit all received, "I'd like to add you to my professional network."

That created a personal and public relations nightmare. If too many people click, "I've never heard of her," LinkedIn would determine that I was a spammer and would cut me off. I would lose the option to send invitations to anyone. How to stop this? Perhaps a follow-up email. How do you think you would have reacted to my proposed email?

"I'm sooooo sorry, I didn't mean to send you a LinkedIn invitation, please ignore."

After careful consideration, I decided it would confirm I was an idiot or disclose that I didn't really value their association.

What to do?

I decided to ride it out and accept my fate.

The emails began trickling in, picked up steam and my stats grew. Currently, my group of trusted professionals sits at 5.2 million.

What's new in your social community?

Carol Doane on LinkedIN
Carol Doane on Twitter
Carol Doane on Facebook

Tatoo artist accesses YouTube to 'game' job opportunity

2011-07-30T07:30:00.000-07:00

Having been the interviewer for open positions too many times to count, I was always impressed with the candidate who did their research, knew what our company was about, and could offer compelling information that would illustrate whey they were the best candidate for the job.

Erin Michael Vondrak illustrated her desire for a job by really using illustrations.

Her YouTube account and website, www.erinvondrak.com, serve up highlights from her resume:

I was raised in southern California. In 2007, I graduated from the University of Redlands with honors in Photography and a Bachelor’s degree in Design in Various Platforms of Media. I have worked for Apple since 2007. I enjoy drawing, tattooing, doing stupid animations in Flash, and making people laugh. I love animals, computers, meeting new people, and exploring the world around me. I currently reside in Seattle.

The video tells us she is desperate to leave Apple and work for the Bellevue, Washington entertainment software and technology company Valve.

I hadn't heard of Valve before. They sound like they might be worth investing the time Vondrak has shouldered to compose an original song and create hundreds of illustrations to populate a YouTube job plea. According to Valve's website they have an incredible "98% retention rate." I'd like to know what makes it so high, and I'll confess, I'm a little curious about the two percent who don't make it.

If you're interested in a job at Valve, visit their jobs page, which states, "We're always hiring for all positions. Seriously."

Personally, I think Vondrak should be on their marketing team. Her video has been shown 89,401 times. That is an incredible amount of PR in three days

Uploaded by erinvondrak on Jul 27, 2011.

I learned about this first, on Geek Wire, "an independent technology news site and online community based in Seattle, Wash. — covering the people, companies and innovations emerging from and impacting the Pacific Northwest."

It's nice to know there are other people who love Washington State as much as I do.

What's the craziest thing you did to go after a new job?

Fav quotes of the week

2011-07-29T06:39:00.000-07:00

Here's some fun from the last week.

In the last seven days, what's the best thing you heard?

Found	Source	Quote
Fri, July 22	Twitter	"Forty is in my rear-view window, honey. It only gets better." Mary Rarick
Sat, July 23	Blog	"QR codes can deliver e-coupons right in the store." Maryanne Conlin
Sun, July 24	Blog	"If I'm already here, why are you discounting your product?" Carol Doane, in response to in-store QR codes
Mon, July 25	Blog	"Good research does involve imagination" Ted, from bookeywookey
Tue, July 26	NPR	"Everyone can change — everyone." Patrick Lundvick, former drug hustler, ex-inmate, and new job-seeker
Wed, July 27	Twitter	"I'm full of it...heading to Home Depot to buy 2 new toilets. Who's with me?" Noland Hoshino, on remodeling
Thur, July 28	Twitter	"Last night, I dreamed I made a death metal band angry, and I spent the whole night trying to fix the relationship." Bill Cameron

37 CONSECUTIVE POSTS

360 Convos

How to write a resignation letter

Jobs remain elusive for unemployed

Opportunities, do we seize them?

NEW disruptive technology: rest and reflect

Do managers need simple parenting skills?

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What will last longer, me, the shoes, or the store that sold them?

Analytics reveals one pageview makes a difference

Extraordinary Measures: the movie, the media and me

Fav quotes and nosey, old men

Mid-year editorial calendar

Newspapers' collaspse reported by insiders, the cut that keeps bleeding

Social media central drawn in a real life perspective

Embed the above image on your site

Groupon loses best bargain to Google

Analytics puts the week in dead heats

The new black: Blackity-Black-Black

Fav quotes and a kitty on the math quiz

Is Kindle the life raft of newspapers?

Mobile payments: the money is stuck in my phone

Three things to shake office dread

Tall book critic prefers short novels

Upcoming events for the Northwest Author Series

Analytics reveals stranglehold of email: it's hell

Success is a squirrel, a beaver and a goose away

Fav quotes and Melanie Sherman's brain cells

If it's your anniversary and nobody says anything, did it happen?

Jonathan's Card: charity for the middle class or nice gesture?

How many times should you tweet a blog post?

Riding the wave of change

Analytics chalks one up for motivation

Unhook the phone line, but they'll still find your face(book)

Fav quotes beginning with chicken, ending with bacon

Is it time to cut the cord on the television?

What high school sports taught me about the future of newspapers

Are you biased? Who gets to vote on that?

Message 'Not made in China' hit wrong target

Analytics embraces confessions, especially when its public

Eat. Hydrate. Think.

Fav quotes and a newspaper that serves lunch

Vanity comes in classy QR codes

Surprise me, reinvent the brand

The tension between friends, lunch and work

The truth about seniors, teens and the sexes online

Analytics show the number one post won by one pageview

'Dale Chumbley' it. What I learned blogging everyday

Fav quotes from my daughter (who's embarrassing who?)

How blogging for 30 days in a row leads to international acclaim

How blogging is like throwing stones

Great is the enemy of good and other things I learned from blogging

Tips for blogging everyday

What I learned from Jeremiah Owyang that allowed me to take down Google*

Would you like to clean up your desk, or would you like me to?

Fav quotes of the week and maybe too much coffee

Animals in the backyard, which one would you choose?

Email hell, struggling with the inbox

Take charge and take five

New psychology of negotiating: never argue

The times that define us and the media we use to survive them

Interrupted internet access causes depression

Fav quotes of the week and one big gorilla

Chalk the walk and chalk it up to more good Umpqua Bank ideas

Umpqua Bank 360 Biz of the Month

Educate a girl, change the world

Top ten posts depending on where you start the count

Words motivate and keep us engaged, lessons from #wwcon11

City shares good ideas (mine)

The shredder, the closet and the business woman's strategy

Fav quotes of the week and big bugs

No memory of the conversation, meet Tyler Presnell

The Flipside of the news

When the customer can't be consoled, console the employee

'Preductions.' the art of predicting the known

Predicting by deducting

Sprouter uproots and closes

Confessions of a social media strategist

Tatoo artist accesses YouTube to 'game' job opportunity

Fav quotes of the week