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November 2007 Archives
November 2, 2007
How to Make a Difference
Before I begin, I would like to apologize for my lack of...well, everything. Between trade shows, presentations and general work, I've been swamped. I now have so much to write about, I can go for ages. But that also means that I feel almost crushed under the weight of responsibility for writing. After putting in hours meeting deadlines at work, updating a website is the last thing I think about doing. But I think it's time I got back on top. And to kick it off, I have some good advice for everyone wanting to make a name for themselves.
Start at home
In order to make a big splash, the best place to start is with your immediate environment. How you carry yourself is related very strongly to how you are seen by others. And you have control over that. If you can convince those around you that you are accountable, that you get things done, that you are a STAR, then their perception rubs off on you, and can even work out for you in the form of word of mouth recommendations or references.
So how do I BE that good?
The secret to being the big star is remarkably simple. At least, the concept is. Delivering is significantly tougher. But out of all the advice I have read, all of the experiences I have had, and from talking to other people who get things done and carry the team, I have found it all comes down to one simple thing:
CARE.
Read that one again. The way to continuously deliver is to care about what you're doing. It's so easy and so common to just say, "I'm here from 9-5, I do my reports, I pray the client doesn't call, and that's it. Just a paycheque." If you genuinely give a damn about your project, if you take ownership of it, it becomes a lot more natural to go that extra distance, to anticipate your client's needs. If you genuinely want to make sure this project is a flying success and care about making your client succeed, you can build a reputation for being the star performer.
Git'r Done
If you can display the drive, the pride and the responsibility found in entrepreneurs and star performers, you can harness that kind of power and respect for yourself. I don't care if you make widgets, enter data, hand out promotional candy bars or handle contracts from the Fortune 500, if you take pride in your work, you will put in the effort. If you put in the effort, you will get the results. And if you get the results, you will get noticed.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 2, 2007 6:43 PM Permalink
November 4, 2007
LinkedUn
I was recently part of an interesting discussion on LinkedIn. Someone asked if Facebook introduced business functionality, could it kill LinkedIn?
The answer was pretty much what I'm sure you expected.
Not in a million years. First of all, I don't ever see Facebook effectively positioning itself as a business network. I can't fathom the idea of anybody wanting to mix business and pleasure like that. The information found on most Facebook profiles, the sort of interaction going on between friends on that site and the growing sea of crap on that site is sure to drive off any serious business networker. At a time when young professionals and veterans alike are doing everything in their power to PREVENT their bosses, staff and business contacts from finding their Facebook profile, including leaving the site entirely, I can't see anybody wanting to use Facebook as a business network.
But beside this fundamental issue, it's very hard for a social networking site to 'kill' another one. As I've said time and time again, social networks are able to easily coexist. If Facebook can't kill MySpace, why would it be able to do the same to LinkedIn? Particularly since many LinkedIn users wouldn't touch Facebook with a digital pole, keeping an active LinkedIn profile would be considered wise if you don't want to lose out on those contacts.
You wouldn't invite your bar buddies to the office party, so why would you want to use Facebook to replace LinkedIn?
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 4, 2007 11:44 AM Permalink
November 5, 2007
Kicking back in the den
I think I've found a new favourite show. Dragons' Den has been on for some time now, but I'm finally getting into it. I've fallen in love at first sight. As a marketing and strategy geek, this is great. It's great to watch business moguls grill entrepreneurs on some of the key business factors that shamefully so few business owners consider.
Check it out; it's a great way to remind entrepreneurs to take the time to look at their business objectively.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 5, 2007 8:01 PM Permalink
November 7, 2007
Brand new
I have to admit, I'm a little preoccupied with branding at the moment. I'm in the midst of two rather large projects regarding this site. First of all, I'm in the midst of rebranding this site. Also, I'm struggling to brand myself! The process is a long one, and one I'd like to discuss a little.
I'm changing the focus of this site a little bit. Not by any overwhelming amount, but I have decided to try to play a little more to my current competencies. It's all well and good for me to sit here and talk about blogging and general business practice, but my real expertise is with e-commerce and small businesses. My offline job is helping small business; so why shouldn't I use this site to help small business? With this in mind, I have decided to make this blog a better home for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
I am also trying to improve my article woes. I've been conspicuous by my absence (or at least I like to pretend I have), and need to work on having more to publish more often. Juggling this task with my paying job and my search for future contracts and positions hasn't been easy, but if I put my head down, I think I can work through it. That having been said, I'm always receptive to guest posts. Nudge, nudge, wink wink.
I'm also in the midst of a personal branding exercise. I had the pleasure of attending a presentation by Martin Buckland, a personal branding and resume writing expert put on by Atrium Talent and hosted by Indoor Playground, and it got the wheels turning in my mind. So I'm trying to improve my personal brand. I'm close to launch, and even learned some interesting things about Search Engine Optimization along the way (but that's another story!). I'll let you know when it's ready, and have a little challenge for you as well!
Anyway, that's my world right now. Keep your eyes open for a brand new site, and a site with a new brand!
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 7, 2007 11:20 PM Permalink
November 11, 2007
Lest we forget
I'd like to do something different today. Today is Remembrance Day (Veteran's Day in the U.S.), and I would like to do something to commemorate it. Some years ago, we were fortunate to find my great-grandfather's war diary from 1917. Corporal Carman Thornton of the 2nd Canadian Battalion, 1st Brigade, fought at Vimy Ridge, and survived to live a full life and apparently stir things up in the Liberal party in Gault, ON. My mum, his grand-daughter, transcribed the journal onto the computer before we turned it over to the War Museum in Ottawa. The brief entries and the way writes about the war is quite striking, particularly for someone his age to live through such an experience (he was only 18 at the beginning of 1917). Below are some entries I would like to share.
Saturday, March 17th, 1917
Worked as usual at plan of attack. Great way to spend a birth-day. In Camblin L’Abbe a little village. At pict-show at night.
Monday, April 9th, 1917
[Battle of Vimy Ridge]
Successful in the attack. Carl wounded & he certainly was lucky to get it where & when he did. Shelled pretty strenuously. Lots of Germ. prisoners who seemed very happy. Chamberlain, Agar, & Monan buried [?] at night.
Friday, April 13th, 1917
Spent the day lying around. Saw a German plane come down in flames. It sure is a terrible death.
Wednesday, April 25th, 1917
Doing nothing all day but out in big party digging & kick-off lunch for attack. Six casualties in plat. as Mackay stepped on a bomb. Chambers, Greenaway, Wilson, Denoyer, Mincis, & Duffy.
Friday, April 27th, 1917
Just got our tent fixed up when we heard “back up the line at 12:00 p.m.” It certainly is rotten news. Got box from mother of candy (no 6). Heard from Earl & he certainly is a lucky cuss. I would certainly like to be with him.
Saturday, May 12th, 1917
War ends by to-day or Ray Newton gets 5S.
I never thought 3 months ago that Ray would be killed but it had to be. Bombing in morning & sports in afternoon. Wrote a couple of letters & walked around a bit.
Posted by JW on November 11, 2007 12:01 PM Permalink
November 13, 2007
I guess I get to make this post after all!
You may remember that a while back I wrote about my adventures in job hunting, and how to ace an interview. Well, it turns out I was on the money after all. 5-6 months after applying, and after going through two levels of interviews and a lot of nervous waiting, I've been offered a position with "the corporation" as I will continue to call them.
What does this mean for the site?
I'll still be blogging. Of course, I will keep reinforcing that I will NOT discuss ANYTHING related to my job. Because I love it and don't want to lose it. I will keep talking about other marketing things I'm interested in and of course tips for small business. I have a post coming up about my personal branding exercise, which I hope to hammer out by the end of the week. So stay tuned!
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 13, 2007 8:17 PM Permalink
November 15, 2007
Neilstones
One of the great things about Neil Young is the fact that his songs often reflect milestones in a person's life. There are plenty of songs that achieve this goal, but the ones I really want to point out are the "coming of age songs" that pinpoint exact ages, and I think really capture the feeling you get when you hit that time in your life.
Sugar Mountain
When you're turning twenty, you know you're reaching a new part of your life. No longer a teenager, you have more responsibilities; you've been out on your own for a bit, and now you're starting to feel it. This is a time to really reflect on the past, and realize that even though you were in a rush to grow up, you start to realize that hey, maybe being young wasn't so bad after all...and you maybe miss it more than you think
Oh, to live on Sugar Mountain, with the barkers and the coloured balloons. You can't be twenty on Sugar Mountain, though you're thinkin' that you're leaving there too soon.
Powderfinger
This isn't just one of my favourite songs of all time, it's also a great coming of age song. It's an allegory for suddenly finding yourself responsible for dealing with some big crisis or just life in general, and realizing that you're on your own; nobody's around to take care of it for you anymore. It's that first big step into the real world. When you're 22, that's when a lot of people are hitting that big career step; you're wrapping up school, or an apprenticeship, or maybe you're finally ready to start your own thing. And you find out in a big way that maybe you weren't as ready as you thought you were, but there's no turning back.
Daddy's gone, my brother's out huntin' in the mountains; Big John's been drinkin' since the river took Emmy Lou. So the powers that be left me here to do the thinkin'. And I just turned twenty-two, I was wonderin' what to do, and the closer they got, the more those feelings grew.
Old Man
The last of the milestones is 24. You've been out in the world and experienced a bit, and you start to identify a little more with your elders. You maybe see parents or other authority figures in a new light, especially as you start to find yourself in those very roles, and the roles you maybe resented when you were younger. It's finding that maybe you finally 'get' adults, if only a little. I waited to do this post until now, because today is the last of my Neil milestones. I turn 24 years old today, and I have to say, every one of these songs has more meaning for me having experienced what they seem to get at. If you haven't heard them, give them a shot; you may agree with what Neil's saying. I know I do.
Old man, look at my life, twenty-four and there's so much more. Live alone in a paradise that makes me think of two. Love lost, such a cost, give me things that don't get lost. Like a coin that won't get tossed, rolling home to you. Old man, take a look at my life, I'm a lot like you. I need someone to love me the whole day through. Ah, one look at my life, you can tell that's true.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 15, 2007 10:29 AM Permalink
Revelation
I figure it's only fair to come clean, finally. I wrote in this post about Chuck's decision to reveal his age. And I wanted to wait until now to reveal mine, simply because today is my birthday. Yes, shameless, I know. I also wanted to use this to point you to the struggling part of my site, because I'm trying to get back onto writing about music. So if you want the answer to "how old is Jason", you can find it here.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 15, 2007 10:55 AM Permalink
November 20, 2007
You get what you give
Ever get mad?
Ever get so flippin' angry you want to scream?
Ever get so blinkin' gosh-durn angry you open up the email, or pick up the phone, or fire up the blogging interface to give someone a piece of your mind?
Let me join the already deafening roar of people who are frantically screaming: DON'T!!!
Okay, this is sound advice for all kinds of situations. Many people have written or spoken about the myriad dangers of letting fly with your anger-fuelled opinions. But I'm not going to talk about email or telling off your coworker. My beef today is with bloggers who just have to blow their top.
It happens. We all get angry. And for anyone with a blog, there is often a tendency to use it as an outlet. This can be dangerous. You hope that your vitriol will emerge in such a way that the masses will cheer you on, because you're right, and because rants are always amusing in a dark humour way, so bravo!
You're dead wrong.
I remember I was once well known for my rants as a teenager. Friends and coworkers would gather to watch and cheer as I railed against some common threat. I saw myself as part social commentator (is that even a word? I really must check that), and part comedian. But I'll bet my new computer that at least part of their amusement can be traced back to "Ha ha, Jason's a spaz." So while you might think your rant is the star, you may just be making an ass of yourself for everybody's amusement.
But it's dangerous on the internet. Instead of your associates who know you to be doing it for fun or just numb to the idea, you're putting it out there where you're going to find people who disagree with you. A lot of them.
I still do it now and again. I have thrown caution to the wind and blogged in anger. And it's landed me a foot in the mouth and an apology. So far I think I've only erred on personal blogs, though I came close here once. I have a post sitting in "unpublished" mode that really I ought to just delete, just in case.
The problem is, with a debate or opinion piece, you can talk it out. You can reply to any detractors logically, and they may join the conversation that way. And if they can't be civil, you look all the more balanced. But with a rant, you have lost the high ground. If you have any words in ALL CAPS and a small army of exclamation points, you may get a fight on your hands. Remember, on your blog, you have to control the conversation. You set the tone. So if you get into the public eye with an angry rant, anyone who disagrees is going to respond in kind. Because you'll get THEM angry, and so they just rant back. And it can get out of control very quickly.
I've said this before, there is always another side to the story. That's why it's good to at least fairly address objections in a civil manner in your article, rather than going for the jugular.
There are plenty of ways to avoid this. You can take a step back, and think, do I really want to post this? Maybe sleep on it. If it still looks good later, go ahead. Or get a voice of reason. I once narrowly avoided embarrassment by asking a trusted friend to look at something I wrote about, and decided against posting it based on her counsel.
Emotion drives writing, but there is a difference between passionate writing and crying all over your keyboard.
Until next time,
JW
Posted by JW on November 20, 2007 9:03 PM Permalink
November 21, 2007
Do your job
There's a saying that goes something along the lines of, "if you try to be something to everyone, you're nothing to noone," though I may be completely off base. What I mean is, you need to find a core, you need to find what you're really in business to do, and make sure you stick to it. Because if you try to venture too far outside that, you could lose sight of where you started. And I'm going to convey this with the use of an allegory.
When I bought my new computer, I had to reinstall all my favourite programs and set up all my options again. But I decided, on the advice of several tech-savvy associates, to use Opera as my internet browser instead of my old standby, Firefox.
At first, I was very happy. It was fast, it had the functions I was accustomed to, and I really liked the gestures and speed dial. Gestures allow you to perform ordinary functions (back, forward, new tab, close tab, etc) by using quick mouse movements. For example, holding down the right mouse button and flicking the mouse left would take me back a page. And the speed dial allowed me to set up to 9 pages in a special bookmark page (reached whenever a new tab opened or all other tabs were closed) so I could click on them. Pretty nifty.
But then the problems started showing up. Many websites, sites that I use frequently like Google Maps, would not load. I could refresh until the cows came home, but no luck. Also, changing default options such as changing Google.com in the search bar to Google.ca required actually hacking a system file. And I could select dropdown menu options. I'd open the menu, click on what I wanted, and the menu would just close. I'd have to use the arrow keys to move to what I wanted; particularly irritating when updating this site, as I have to use one to select the category and one to tell it to publish.
Now, this doesn't sound like reason enough to leave. So a few pages weren't loading. So changing the search bar default wasn't intuitive. So I couldn't use dropdown menus. Is that so bad? Yes! I would contend that if your internet browser doesn't browse the internet, that is a problem. Opera came in with all these new features, but seems to fall short on actually displaying web pages. And that's what its primary goal is.
For the record, while gestures and speed dial were cool ideas, they weren't enough to save this browser. I didn't use them enough to justify it. If I want to go back, or forward, or use tabs, it's not like it's a complicated process. Point and click is just as simple as click and flick. And speed dial? Why do I need a second bookmark folder? The one I have is good enough.
So in the end, I have returned to Firefox thanks to Opera's feature creep. The cool stuff wasn't enough to make up for poor performance in what I originally needed it to do.
There is a moral to this story. I hope you remember not to be like Opera, or the fat lady may start singing for you.
Until next time,
JW
