Get ready for new year with five minute daily writing spree

This past summer, my friend Ginger sent me an email from her T-Mobile myTouch 3G Slide (I know very suspect), but the message came from the heart.

Ginger still uses a 3G Slide.

"Ok you might think i am a wacko but bare with me.

For me will you take 5 min?

2 min write what you are freaked about then cross it out throw it away burn it whatever then 3 to 5 min write a list of 5 thankfuls and then the rest of the time design your dream job. Set a timer and stop when it dings but do it EVERYDAY either first thing in the morning or right before bed.

Please please for me!! I promise you wont regret it."

The things that headline my list are items that cash would take care of: insulating the attic, building a deck, loan payments, planning for next year's national Doane family reunion, paying for college, saving for retirement.

The items that cannot be assuaged with cash swirl around my daughter, the tug and pull of college with all its privileges of independence while keeping full throttle on still being a kid with a parent to fund the adventure and to fall back on.

Other items on my list include accomplishments I want to have, zipping through my knitting stash and creating lovely gifts, propagating my Amazon store and shipping out the piles of books. Cleaning the house. Publishing my own book.

As the new year approaches, I think I may finally take Ginger's advice and start that five minute writing spree.

Goodness knows I have enough paper around me to fully stuff the attic -- now that would be some kind of insulation.

.

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Extraordinary Measures: the movie, the media and me

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.

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

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?

Fav quotes of the week: hope and wonder

Here's some fun from the last week. 

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

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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

Who rescues the graduates from failure?

Only 1 in 4 entering high school will graduate, began the NPR audio show. The example they used to illustrate their story on All Things Considered was former gangbanger, Patrick Lundvick. He's a dropout. He hustled drugs. He ended up in jail.

Today, he isn't willing to completely give up the drug-world friends of his old life, but he is willing to chase a new life that includes a job.

On the drive home from the office, the interview played in the background as I mentally reviewed the day. I caught snippets of it -- it detailed the stats for drop outs, half are black, most end up unemployed, unemployment crises leads to jail time. When the show introduced Alternative Schools Network, a Chicago-based recovery program to get drop-outs back on track, my attention perked up.

Whose creating programs in my own community to help dropouts, I wondered. Can they really alter the course of their life?

I was riveted when Lundvick said, "Everyone can change — everyone."

I believe that. I believe even I can change. I watched it happen. I lived it. Lived through it and came out the other side. When I started managing I told my staff, "You can't make a mistake I haven't already made." For the newbies I would add, "If you make a mistake, no one dies. It's not the end of the world. Learn from it and move forward."

"Everyone can change — everyone." Patrick Lundvick

As I continued the drive home I wondered how many managers make it, 3 out of 4? Half? Or are the stats closer to the 4 million students starting ninth grade this fall from which 1 million will eventually graduate?

I considered the challenges of changing, how difficult it is when given the same scenery day after day. We have to give up something to change, the status quo, the 'bad known,' preconceived beliefs, friends who have undue influence over us and even the job itself. At one job, I went from the backseat complainer and criticizer to the pro-active employee that said if it needs to be done, I'll do it. I stopped picking up the banner for everyone else's cause. It wasn't easy. Even Patrick Lundvick was having trouble separating his drug life from the one he wants.

During the course of the interview Lundvick stated, "I can't say I will not hang out with the people I know, 'cause some of the people that are in that life, have saved my life."

It's hard to disengage when the connections go deep. I considered the strength of character it would take to rub shoulders with friends closing $75K cocaine deals while you dog a job at Kinkos. It's all about choices and where you want to end up.

I wondered who rescues graduates who get jobs, but who drop out mentality or emotionally, for any number of reasons. Who reaches out to managers who let them fall through the cracks? A recent e-newsletter from Tibor Shanto said, "Many get into a routine, one that perhaps delivered some level of success for some time, and they stick with it, no matter what is going on in their world." It seems like we could all use a wake up call. A gentle nudge to look at the world from where we want to end up, not where we've been, or who we've been.

All of us could use better job skills. And maybe a rescue. Who pushed your career the right direction?

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RESOURCES
NPR.org | School's Out: America's Dropout Crisis, quote at 3:35 in audio
The Pipeline | Removing The Barrier From Sales – Sales eXchange – 107

Consequences of Dropping Out of School | Press Release (PDF);
Executive Summary (PDF); Report (PDF).

Last Week's Favorite Quotes

People say the darnedest things online. But apparently, no one said anything of merit on Tuesday.

Help me find something! Thanks :-)

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Date	Source	Quote
July 1, 2011	Twitter	"If you want to achieve things in life, you've just got to do them!" Sally Sharp
July 2, 2011		??
July 3, 2011	Blog	"Fail at creating a culture of excellence and customer focus, and nothing else a leader does will compensate for that failure." Augie Ray
July 4 2011	Blog	"It is a mistake to believe that your offerings always provide an advantage against smaller competitors." Anthony Iannarino
July 5, 2011	Blog	"If business is moving at light speed, and your prospect/client is busier and more distracted than ever, making cameo appearances won’t get you noticed dude!" Paul Castain
July 6, 2011	Blog	"Rejection. It’s as much a part of my writing life as carpal tunnel syndrome, brain cramps, and a butt that looks best in a bathrobe." Carolyn J. Rose
July 7, 2011	Gmail	"Compared to a year ago, websites have seen reduced pages / visit, average time on site, as well as bounce rate." Google Analytics Benchmarking Newsletter
July 8, 2011	Twitter	"I'm going to bring the male curtsy in to vogue. Who's with me?" Matt Kinshella
July 9, 2011	Twitter	What? You can't make money online? :( Melanie Sherman

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Should you throw your own goodbye party?

Yes!

Last night we packed the house at Niche Wine & Art to celebrate a long newspaper advertising career.

Mine.

There was someone from the county, the library, Washington State University, Clark College, HP, the school district, Uptown and Downtown Associations, landlords, community services, the city attorney's wife, oh, and my State Farm agent. Friends from work piled in from advertising, production, layout, the newsroom, and fabulous Columbian friends from the past dropped by.

People traveled from out-of-state! Portland advertising, PR and media people trucked in. (Full disclosure: out-of-state is 15 minutes away, 30 minutes in bad traffic :-)

Greetings came from London, Canada, Hawaii, and Texas.

 

AND a videographer attended and taped the festivities for a future Chris Martin Studios feature.
 
Me?
 
I took the high heels off about 9 pm, plopped on the Niche couch and savored what it feels like to be part of generous community.

Thank you everybody!!

This is your year

One of my friends read this to me at lunch.

"It's a new year. You have 360+ days to make this your best year yet. Don't focus on what you think the world needs. Focus on what makes you come alive. Because what this world needs most is a world filled with people who have passion. Do what you love and do it better than you ever have. This is your year."

From Bryan Thayer, motivational, inspirational speaker who shares from the heart.

Ditto from me to YOU!

Mental Cruise Control

Most of our day is based on habits and patterns, a virtual cruise control of the mind. In some aspects this is good, it creates a known path we can travel, the ability to not be on full alert and tax our energies and awareness until we hit stroke-level. The ability to do more than one thing at a time. But.

But what do we miss when we're cruising? The ability to appreciate small kindnesses, to adapt to change, to engage in the true conversation and not the one we think we're having.

Take the cruise control off. Change one thing today, take a walk for your break, stop typing on the computer when you answer your desk phone, look the person in the eye who is speaking to you.

Pull the car out of cruise control on the way home. Take a different route. Go slower.

Take a breath.

Be fully present in the moment.

Tell me what you see.

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A beginners guide to advertising

Mid stride interviewing candidates for a media sales position, I lamented to my director that there is no book I can hand someone to teach them what we do.

Beginners Guide To Advertising

When I began in media sales our world was far less complex. New products and concepts emerged slowly with much thought and thorough research. We layered them into our sales portfolios as easily as turning pages of a newspaper. We built a direct mail product, we created glossy magazines, coupon books, crafted custom print programs for full color brochures and flyers. We sold travel contests and auction events.

We stumbled early into the online world and chased premiere media consultants and followed their packaging advice. We trained weekly and tracked every nuance of the vocabulary: hits, views, impressions.

There was no standing still, but the pace was manageable.

Today, the media business bolts forward faster than the speed of light.

To enter our sales world now is a head spinning experience. Rewarding, but only with a heavy investment in self and a deep desire to grip the unknown and hang on to the ride while trying to steer the ship.

We learn by listening, watching, devouring information as if it were the air we breathed. As soon as we figure out how to sell static online ads, we're packaging flash ads into our marketing proposals, then video, then mobile.

We think we've got it figured out, take a breath and get knocked off our feet. Company resources wither and the weight of survival moves to every employee but rests solidly on the local territory sales reps.

This is no job to ease you into retirement. This is an ever reinventing itself career. And as the SlideShare above demonstrates, the concept is very simple. But it's what we bring to the table–our ability to grasp media concepts and communicate them in language a layman can understand–that pushes towards success.

So.

How'd I do?

Want to come work for me?

Send your resume to: TheClassicCarol (at) gmail (dot) com

View more webinars from Carol Doane.

Man or the machine? Predicting the winner

I brought up the success of Redbox this morning and asked, "How many have seen a Blockbuster or a Hollywood Video location go out of business in your neighborhood?"

The response was unanimous. Everyone.

"RedBox proves you can rent videos without employees," I continued, and drew a further conclusion that we will see growth in our business in self-serve advertising. One rep noted we already accept ads online and the customers receive a discount.

The Room—filled with media sales reps—exhaled a collective hee-bee-gee-bee shudder. How can we compete with the machine and its discounts, they wondered.

"Should I find a new career?" asked one respected rep. The question hung in the space between panic and next steps.

"You could," I said.

"Or, you could realize that Redbox would not survive and thrive if there wasn't a ton of marketing for every video in their kiosk. That marketing is not created by machines. It is crafted by creative minds. Our world is still hinged on people and what people can create.

"Sales people need to create the correlation between product and value," I stated, and summed up my recommendations:

Be vital. No machine can replace your expertise, drive for your own success, and desire to help customers succeed.

Keep customers bound to YOU. They may get something cheaper somewhere else...but will it work?!

Assess what works, not just in online but in an overall media campaign. Duplicate what works for your customers.

Study, learn and share. Help your customers understand the changing landscape and demonstrate the value of our products. If you are only contacting your customer to update an expiration date on their ad, you are missing an opportunity to demonstrate YOUR value.

What you don't sell today, will disappear tomorrow if you don't pounce on it. If you lag, someone else will grab your opportunities. Be a pro. Be first!

How is online changing your business?

Can social media motivate?

The Pacific Northwest is known for beautiful landscapes, diverse, rough-hewn history and nature-loving populations with large hubs around Seattle, which boasts 3.3 million coffee lovers, and farther north a hub of 2.3 million around Vancouver, British Columbia which can boast about not being original.

Vancouver, B.C. has the dubious distinction of usurping the name 'Vancouver' from the original: Vancouver, Washington.

My city.

A slightly smaller grouping of people, barely over 400,000 in the entire county.

Vancouver, Washington grew organically from the outreach and marketing of the Hudson's Bay Company, the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world.

Vancouver, Washington benefits from the proximity of Portland, Oregon, a mere 2.2 million, and just an interstate bridge crossing away from great modern day advertising agencies such as Wieden + Kennedy.

I swim in that pool. Advertising. Marketing. Media.

Marketing is a staple of our lives. Millions of messages pound at us everyday. Experts try to estimate how many. Who can be sure? It's pervasive in every part of our lives. So, how can any ONE be heard?

Brian Solis, principal of Future Works, suggests in his blog post The 10 Stages of Social Media Business Integration that we find a voice and a sense of purpose. Someone in Seattle found their voice and spoke to me. Sean Debutts of the Puget Sound Blood Center asked me to spearhead a local event. Our connection came through social media. I decided to dive deeper into social media, use it, test it for this event, and discover if social media can motivate someone else to take action.

I chirped, twittered and cajoled the Portland/Vancouver hub to celebrate my birthday by donating blood. A month later, I'm wondering how many more would have come forward had we used traditional media. Actually, that's a lie. I'm not wondering, I know. A series of ads in the local paper, a jingle on a targeted group of radio stations and public service mentions on any of the local television stations would have pumped up the numbers. But this event had no dollar budget. Only time and complimentary venues.

Irregardless of the results that traditional media provides, businesses are flocking to social media as if it's traditional media's dynamic replacement. But it's not. It's not targeted (yet), it's not controllable (yet), and message frequency is not viewed as a good campaign, it's viewed more akin to spam. It's like standing inside the ramparts of Fort Vancouver (pictured above) with a single shot rifle and trying to connect with one 'prospect' at a time. It takes a lot of effort and determination as you fine tune your aim.

My blood drive event was a mash-up of crazy shots as I tried every gun in every arsenal within reach. The results? I had a blast.

My efforts placed me as top finalist for a SoMe Award – Pacfic Northwest Social Media Award. Included on my resume are many awards from PNNA, Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association, and I'm proud of them, but all happened when I was in sales and madly dashing from 'post to post' trying to create something spectacular to motivate businesses to market together. There's strength in numbers. If everybody fires a lot of shots we will hit something. I guarantee it.

The number of participants in the blood drive was very small. But, I think we can say there's strength in those small numbers, too. The potential affect on the overall community for each person who participated as a blood donor is priceless. Each donor's gift could save up to three lives.

Saving one life makes a stronger community.

Social media is our new community. It's still an untamed venue whose impact has not fully been explored, exploited or fully exported into traditional marketing campaigns. It's also very personal. It's a conversation. It's putting the advertising gun down, coming out of the tower and having a conversation with the person you want to connect with. It builds a stronger relationship.

Okay, wish me luck. SoMe winners are announced tonight. We get two drinks and dessert. I hope one is coffee, and when it's all said, awarded and done, I know what I will come home with—more connections, more friends and more victims to hit up for my next blood drive.

What motivates you to use social media?

Pulled in different directions, only one measurement counts: results

At the moment there is about six of me having six different convos. There’s The Manager writing end of the year summaries of accomplishments and big misses and delivering both tough and encouraging messages during performance appraisals. There’s The Mom trying to understand her teen’s motivation to suddenly change schools. There’s The Friend who is supporting new ventures and cheering each stop toward success.

There is the Northwest Native who is mesmerized daily by how the world morphs physically, and especially now as spring stretches and pokes her Pretty Pansies out from under winter blankets and taunts us by pulling her resilient friend Miss Weeds along with her. Next, there is The Writer scribing her second fiction manuscript, a task that is amazingly easier to tackle than the first.

And lastly, there is The Social Carol, aka The Classic Carol, who explores Facebook, Foodspotting, Foursquare, FriendFeed, Flickr, Gist, MySpace, Picasa, Plancast, Posterous, Shelfari, Upcoming, Yelp, Twitter, You Tube—you name it—and entices others to engage in real life at 'headquarters.'

But let’s start with the manager.

This week I shared a story with the sales staff I read in the book 13 Fatal Errors Managers Make: And How You Can Avoid Them. It was about a farmer, Walter Frank, who contracted a debilitating disease and learned at age 27 he would spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair.

Life as he knew it was over. Done.

Farming is a very physical activity. He could no longer craft a successful career in agriculture so he turned to sales, but not inside or phone sales, which would have been easy, he became a Realtor. He learned he could roll up to a house and ask for a listing, but can you imagine the obstacles he faced showing homes? He went as far as he could go and sent his customer ahead and asked them to describe what they saw. He went on to establish his own real estate company in Oshawa, Ontario, Royal LePage Frank Real Estate.

I drew the parallel that we do the same thing with our customers. We can’t be them, own their business and understand all the nuances as thoroughly as they do, but we do ask them to tell us what they are experiencing. We in essence see through their eyes, we listen to understand, assess their needs and match with products from our portfolio. There was some head nodding, as the sales staff relaxed into a good story.

Then I ratcheted it up.

No one would have blamed the farmer had he given up on an active life and left others to take care of him, collected disability and rolled into the sunset. But he didn’t use his disability as an excuse. Are we? The biggest obstacle we face right now is the economy, and no one will disagree when we say it’s hard out there, or blame us if we just get pooped out from hearing no after no. But in the end who do we want to be, the one who gave up, or the person who kept trying?

When you try, even just one more time, sometimes luck happens. Sometimes you’re in the right place at the right time. Maybe it’s not what you’re doing, but merely the fact that you are doing something, moving the air around you and taking advantage of the fresh breeze that blows back and gives you a second wind.

Don’t give up. There is something you can do right now to survive in business, even if its investing $3.50 on a used book from Powell's Books in Portland, or my one of my favorite book shops in Vancouver Cover to Cover Books.

What's your disability?

What are doing about it?

It's bigger than me, I'm small as a flea

"So often we think we have got to make a difference and be a big dog. Let us just try to be little fleas biting. Enough fleas biting strategically can make a big dog very uncomfortable." ~ Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children's Defense Fund, (1939 - ).

What project are you working on that is overwhelming, too vast, offering unsurmountable odds?

What's the smallest, tiniest step you can take today?

What has to change for you to take that step?

Kicked to change, but only by me

In an effort to reduce health care costs, and usually in a better economy, businesses experiment with in-house employee health improvement programs. This move is usually spurred by a health club initiating a sales strategy to secure corporate members, i.e., someone wants to make money and sells corporate on the idea that investing in their scheme will save the company money.

These health care pros set up shop in the conference room, weigh, take blood pressure, consult on drinking more water, encourage healthy eating, and generally make a nuisance of themselves during a busy work week.

These health initiatives have a strong uplift, plateau, then diminish.

The kick that pushes us to take better care of our personal and work lives is usually a close encounter with a scare. Ours or someone else's.

What propelled you to change something in your life last year?

Prove value to survive 2010. What's your plan?

Fourth quarter is the live or die point for many retail businesses. They must generate funds to pay old bills, provide for current expenses, invest in spring inventory, and have enough of a nest egg to survive a volatile first quarter that brings inclement weather usually resulting in feeble sales.

Businesses that stumble during this period and cease commerce (go out of business) devastate the wholesalers they would have normally purchased from, and before going down they crumple competitors by dumping low priced inventory into the marketplace. Then, in a final death knell, they disgorge their staff into the ranks of the unemployed.

It clears the landscape in a messy way leaving pockmarks of unfilled dreams and aspirations including those of unpaid creditors.

In the next few weeks those sinking into the whirlpool of out-of-business will make their bitter announcements and others will initiate changes to survive. What is your company doing to prove value and stay viable in 2010? And what about you?

Supported, uncovered, volunteered, stayed... what I should have done

I'm only beginning to get comfortable with mixing online with real life, and my associates laugh at me when I confess I'm trying to keep my professional life separate from my online commentary, because, let's face it, no one wants to be Danah Boyd'ed. Shudder. So, we do what we can to protect our fragile egos, which sometimes means we fail to attach our real names to our e-trail.

But.

A recent post from a co-worker captured my professional name in reference to this blog. So, I'm working on exposing myself and testing it in small venues.

A comment left on Oregon Media Central in reference to my post regarding the We Make The Media event essentially said, huh? "Maybe I needed to be there." Ouch. The event was organized to build a new 'community journalism enterprise' for the Portland metropolitan region. My bad for hitting that send key before corralling clearer and more salient thoughts.

Of course, I realize, it's bound to happen: every blog post is not perfect and someone will create entertainment at  my expense—whether they know me or not. (Note to self: Get over it).

That was not the intention of the Twitter Corner—to create entertainment—as they reacted to the key-note speaker and organizers of the November 2009 WMTM event and texted gut reactions (and not all negative). Nor, was it the intention of the organizers to ignore ideas and feedback from the corner, but, well, we are what we are and we don't always hear everyone's voice as they enter the conversation, and it was with dismay that Abraham Hyatt noted on the #wmtm Twitter stream many voices... exiting.

After the event I arrived home drained and not able to shake off the experience. I'd met well-spoken, thought provoking people and in trying to capture what had distressed and overwhelmed me, that not all the voices were heard, I scrambled my thoughts together and blasted out a post. Then I went twitter-hunting for someone of like mind and connected with Alexander Craghead right after he posted his thoughts on Civics 21.

There is a vast gap in our ages, (I'm estimating), but our #wmtm experience felt oddly similar and our experience of the event began to echo throughout the community. This disenfranchised storm grew and gathered in the Twitter #wmtm stream and pointed fingers at 'old white dudes' who cut off the comments of most of the women, and the younger people in attendance of either gender.

Welcome to the newsroom.

Right about now, you could assume those pale-stale-males do NOT want to have a conversation with me. In reality, that's not true. From what we've experienced in the public-arena-aftermath, those white dudes who were criticized have tip-toed into the fray, some (at least one) have dove in and literally broadcast, blogged and tweeted about what went right and self reflected on what went wrong.

What management has taught me, or to be precise my current director: people who can self-reflect and own their errors are people you can build a team with. I would like to be counted among those self-reflectors, so, here's my confession, borne out of my desire to get what's bugging me (about me) out of the way, so we can work on the real task at hand, crafting our future:

• I should have gravitated to the arena I am not familiar with instead of falling back on what I know. I attended the revenue generation break-out session, but what did I learn that I didn't already know? Had I chosen unfamiliar ground it would have situated me as a listener-learner, and not a 'you need my expertise' persona which I fear I may have projected.
  
  
• I should have supported (interrupted) the male facilitator of our group and directed him toward better practices. Number one: introduce everyone. That should have been required before launching any discussion. We were only asked who we were if we commented. Our group included a gentleman from the music industry, an arena which has faced almost identical concerns of 'content' ownership and distribution issues. (Brilliant post on the music industry woes: Dear Musicians, Please Be Brilliant or Get Out of The Way, by Dave Allen). What could we have learned from his reflection had we uncovered his voice sooner?
  
  In addition, I'm left to berate myself on the voices we may have neglected to encourage because they were too timid to speak. Introductions would have given value to everyone's voice.
  
  
• I should have discovered on the front end who thinks differently. Mid-way through our discourse we discovered there were those who believed we should not sell any ads to support the emerging journalism enterprise. One of the guys proposed a subscription based concept, and also noted he had crafted several successful Facebook ad campaigns. Now, I'm forced to wonder, 'why did he think that? What does he know/think that I have not considered?'
  
  Had we introduced ourselves and given a one sentence hope for our outcome we could have flushed out opposing concepts on the front end and been able to explore alternative paradigms immediately, instead of finding half-way through we were not of the same mind. A missed opportunity for all of us to crystallize our thoughts and seek deeper understanding.
  
  
• I should have volunteered to take our discussion points back to the main group. Our facilitator did a 6o second summary of ... I'm still trying to figure that out. I photographed our flip chart and will capture our notes and reproduce them on the blog. But clearly, he was ill prepared to represent our discussion and scurried through his task as if we were running out of time, or as if he wasn't comfortable speaking in front of a crowd.
  
  We would have been better served had we taken five minutes to summarize our discussion, vote on what we felt the most valuable thoughts, and ask who would be willing to represent it to the group. I seldom skirt the limelight, but ran out of the room with the rest of the crew and left it in our facilitator's and scribe's hands to figure out the next step. (Note to self: boo, bad girl!)
  
  
• I should have stayed to the bitter end and headed to the bar with the rest of the 'hell raisers.' Some of the best ideas come over a beer. Therefore, I owe you all one. How about a pitcher after the next event? Heck, this blog should host the after-party.
  

Let's talk. Let's listen to each other and seek mutual benefit, and I promise we will craft a very interesting, if not engaging and profitable future.

We Make The Media Follow-ups: 

• Alexander Craghead: On cities and citizenship in the 21st century
• Abraham Hyatt: We Made The Media: What went right — and wrong
• Becca: We Make the Media conference
• Becca: WMTM Still Going Strong
• Bill Lascher: Making the most of making the media
• Carla Axtman: Walking the tightrope of talking about race
• Carol Doane: 360 Convos: Building a new model may require listening
• Christopher J. Miller: Journalists, unite!
• Colin Mulvany: Will the touch tablet save professional journalism?
• Digital Journalism Portland: It's time for social hour
• Electrotainment|Podcast: Abraham Hyatt on We Make the Media
• Jeff Bunch: No one-size-fits-all for new journalism model(s)
• Jennifer Petty: We Make the Media
• Jennifer Willis: We Make the Media conference
• Jennifer Willis: A News/Media Incubator 
• Jennifer Willis: Freelance writer vs. entrepreneurial journalist
• Joe Wilson: My views on WeMakeTheMedia event – after the hangover
• Marie: What I think happened at #wmtm (We Make the Media)
• Matt Davis: Too Close to the Sun? | Portland Mulls Nonprofit Media Startup
• Michael Andersen: Why this isn’t a media revolution
• Michelle Rafter: WMTM followup: A Portland journalism incubator, and more
• Oregon Media Central: Update: ‘We Make The Media,’ but who’s ‘we?’
• Oregon Media Central: More Post Conference Posts
• Our PDX Network: The WMTM Roundup
• Our PDX Network: WMTM Redux: Founder Ron Buel Responds
• Portland Media Lab: We Make the Media conference looks at nonprofit models
• Steven A. Smith: We Make the Media” in Portland
• Steven A. Smith: Seeking a better term than ‘hobby journalist.’
• Steve Woodward: The futures — plural — of journalism | Nozzl Medi
• T.A. Barnhart: I'm an "old white guy" too
• We Make The Media: Home Page: 
• Z Twitter Transcript: Transcript for #wmtm – What the Hashtag?!

Other
Fast Company: Automated AOL News: Heralding the Future of Online News Writing?
FTC Workshop: How Will Journalism Survive the Internet Age?
Mediactive: Journalism's slow, sad suicide
News Inkubator: What is News Inkubator?
TechCrunch Comment: What Robert Scoble Would Pay for News via Twitter
The Faster Times: A New Type of Newspaper for a New Type of World
The Nation: How to Save Journalism
Vancouver Observer: The Death of Journalism

What I should have learned in management school

My current reading includes how leading organizations use social media to engage employees. That was not the topic when I studied management. We were focused on Kaizen, the Japanese strategy of continuious improvement, on human resources law, on the costs to train new employees versus investing in current staff. After we slogged through the technical stuff, including creating work flow charts, we were told to relax and be real--interject humor into the workplace. Hence my foray into publication, a chapter in Laughing Nine to Five: The Quest for Humor in the Workplace.

What we should have studied? Strategies to ferry companies through the information deluge, tactics to survive reorganization, i.e., Chapter 11, or skills to retain Gen Y's attention so they can get some work done before they leave to go home and call in sick tomorrow to go skiing.

We should have been taught Plan B, what to do when sound marketing practices are shattered by everyone scampering into social media. We should have been raised to scrooge every penny for a rainy day. Today. The day of the new economy.

Or, not.

If we knew the future we wouldn't like it. If I was building a house from scratch I wouldn't enjoy it as much as remodeling. How creative can I get with this space?

That remains to be seen, by you.

Welcome to my blog, 360 Convos.

Let's see who changes who first.