Idea wall

Posted on | June 24, 2009 | 3 Comments

Just one of the ways I collect ideas (I also am a whiteboard guy to sketch and outline plans). As much as I love technology there is something about the tactile feel of a post it note as the idea rushes from your head, gains wings and lands on the paper. Like a modern day alchemist it grows from a thought to an idea as soon as it lands on the note. For me, ideas become possible once they are written down.
 
What about you, what do you use?

Gavin
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A fork stuck in the road.

Posted on | June 1, 2009 | 8 Comments

Last week I made a new life transition.  I’ve started a new job with Ruby Tuesday as the Social Media Manager.  To be completely candid – a large(r) public company was one of the last places I thought I’d end up after my time at Abunga came to a close.  However after learning about the company culture and the values they hold near and dear to success, the opportunity began to look like a promising possibility.  A couple of meetings later and I accepted.  And it’s incredibly exciting to lead the development of the social strategy and program for such a well known brand and one of the first (if not the first) in the restaurant industry to adopt and invest in social for the enterprise. Not to mention I’m joining a grouping of some incredibly talented people across the globe.  (Jeremiah Oywang has a list of those in this role or roles similar).

AND

more importantly I’ve joined an incredible group of creative and passionate people who are primed to make some change.

So needless to say, I’m excited.  We’ll be rolling out some awesome interactive changes, updates, and fun as the team I’ve joined has already planned some great stuff so keep your eyes peeled.  And as always, feel free to hit me up with questions, suggestions or thoughts.  Plans are still being formed but look for significant changes on the blog, facebook and twitter front.

In spirit of #followfriday – here is the team

Angie Heig @aheig
Andrew Becks @andrewbecks
Ryan Bridges @rsbridges
Tim Furmaniak @furmaniak
Regina Kirkpatrick @rkilpatrickr
Diana Lennox @dianalennox
Catherine OBrion @cobrion

What if record labels acted more like VCs?

Posted on | May 25, 2009 | 4 Comments

Twins, two people that have similarity.  Crazy enough, I’ve got a twin brother – and we aren’t identical twins (this is what he looks like). 

Tribes: Group Blogging Project – Leadership is like a fire hydrant

Posted on | May 12, 2009 | 2 Comments

Photo by Chris Inside

This is a part of the Tribes Group Blogging Project based on Seth Godin’s book “Tribes“.

Leadership is like a fire hydrant. Most people notice the brightly colored top because it’s what you can see. What they don’t always realize is the underground portion of the fire hydrant that connects to the water and it is what makes the top work.

One of the hardest things for a leader to do is listen. This is because we often see that leadership is making decisions and we often only see the outcome of the thought process, we never see the events leading up to that decision – we only see the top of the fire hydrant. On page 128 of Tribes, author Seth Godin refers to President Ronald Regan’s secret:

Regan’s secret, is to listen, to value what you hear, and then make a decision even if it contradicts the very people you are listening to.

Listening to those around you is important because it IS the lower half of the fire hydrant. Connecting you to the life of the organization, listening gives others the chance to share with you why they believe something. In most cases the people you lead will respect a decision made if they feel like their opinion was heard. Listening isn’t always easy to do, and the trick here is to really listen to people. You can’t just listen to them because it will make them feel like you care about what they think, because that will backfire in a major way. Chances are you’ll learn about the issue, you’ll learn about your people and you’ll grow as a leader.

You need to listen because you need buy in from the people around you because leaders without followers aren’t leaders.

So plan time in your day to listen – you’ll be better and your organization will be stronger.

Room keys with a voice at Embassy Suites

Posted on | April 28, 2009 | No Comments

Last weekend I was in Nashville, TN and stayed at the Embassy Suites – this wasn’t my first time staying with this chain but it was by far the most memorable.

It started with my room keys which listed features of the hotel in catchy copy.  One said “The guy in the white hat grants breakfast wishes.” – which speaks to their GREAT breakfast which is gratis.  The guy in the white hat refers to the chefs who make omlets and what not.

I’m not sure how many keys they have, but my two were different.  I’m a big fan of using keys for messaging, they get views and they also get replaced fairly often so messages can change without major investment cost.

Another benefit of the hotel was a free happy hour for beer, wine, and mixed drinks, I tweeted about it here

they had a name for this time, like the managers reception or something, but it was great and the lobby was packed.  I’m not sure how much this costs the hotel, but I’d be interested to see the bar and restaurant rings of one that doesn’t have it vs the hotel I was in.

Overall, just another example of a hotel making some waves in some cheap (and not so cheap) ways.

What do you think?

What if we all did this?

Posted on | April 14, 2009 | No Comments

Daily Wisdom for Troubled Times

Get up earlier.
Go to bed later.
Work harder.
Finish what you start.
Learn one new thing.
Renew one contact.
Ask, “How can I help you?” at least once.
Make yourself visible.
Be of good cheer.

Catch a break.
Or not.

Repeat tomorrow.

lifted verbatim from Tom Peters post.  See the original.

Online community or communities?

Posted on | April 1, 2009 | 5 Comments

Online involvement has been on my mind recently, specifically the idea of a “unified online presence” to which you may be thinking “What?!” So let me explain, I’ve had the term in my brain for a bit so I figured I picked it up from this guy, or this guy – but a search reveals that there is not much out there really (side note: a search for “unified online identity” does have a result set that is branding based, but still not the definition I’m seeking).

Since I can’t find it, I’ll define “unified online presence” as the intentional effort to coordinate and connect accounts of an entity in such a way that they communicate a similar message (if not the exact same message) to strengthen involvement and identity in those communities.

I’ve believe that a unified online presence was the way to be involved online.  And from the reading I do, I believe a lot of people feel the same.  When I say a lot, I really mean a lot of the blogs I read, which are mostly about marketing with a tech emphasis – and as you know one of the tenets of marketing is focused messaging so that doesn’t surprise me.

A real world example of this messaging is having twitter tied to facebook so that what I say on Twitter makes it look like I’m saying it to facebook or tying my Flickr into facebook so my friends can see what I’ve posted there instead of on facebook.  It could also be as simple as using the same profile pic (aka avatar) for all the communities you’re part of online.  These actions allow us to seamlessly operate in multiple-communities and efficiently amplify our web persona which is great…right?

I’m starting to believe that a unified online presence is great for marketing, isn’t always great for using the tools to engage with each of the communities.  Fred Wilson posted recently (@fredwilson) on how he has changed his use of facebook and twitter, which sparked this post after I read it.

First he made this move:

So I decided to do something pretty radical. I deleted about 300 “friends” on Facebook yesterday and took my total friend count down to 56. I’ve limited my Facebook friends to family and close friends. My methodology is something akin to who I’d invite to a family wedding or bar/bat mitzvah. I realize that a lot of the 300 people I nuked were using Facebook to follow me and they can no longer do that.

And this is why:

My reasoning was as follows: I feel that between Twitter, this blog, and my tumblog at fredwilson.vc, there are plenty of public places on the web that you can follow me and all of them have RSS feeds for those who want the content pushed to them. I feel that Facebook is by default private and it’s become a good place for me to network with my close friends and family privately.

I see the value in this intentional use of the platforms.  The audiences are by nature a big venn diagram of those involved with twitter and those friends/family on facebook of which there is minimal crossover.  They are quite distance, Twitter is an open and searchable platform where my every word is sucked into Google and made public, while facebook on the other hand is closed and only open to those I’ve selected as friends.

Fred’s decisions actually remind me of a conversation I had in college.  I walked in my friend Tosh’s dorm room and he said something to the effect of “bro if you hadn’t IM’d me today I would have taken you off my buddy list” which was a bit of a shocker. (Now please keep in mind at my college everyone had tons of AIM buddies, because it was how we checked in with what our friends were watching, eating, feeling, and listening to without talking to them and a really easy way to round up people to play campus golf.)  So I asked Tosh, “why would you have removed me” and he said, “because I’m removing anyone that hasn’t IM’d me in the last 2 weeks.” Which blew me away at the time.  But now I see the strength in that path, he was essentially making the intentional choice to pare down his buddy list to those he actually communicated with.

This is not too far off from what Fred has done. He’s made a choice to separate who is in each community and how/what he communicates each one distinctly.  He’s chosen the path that each account is a separate community.  That path blows away the notion of a unified online presence, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t on the fence about what to do. While a unified viewpoint looks at all the various accounts as one big online community.  I think Fred has it right because they are distinct and separate but I think personal branding is important and should be done which leaves me with a conundrum.  I can see strengths and weakness of each path but I’m not to a decision point…. yet.

I know you guys have great ideas, so what about you?  What have you done? Would you change?

Pictures from Adiumx.com and Facebook.com

A Dream to Remember

Posted on | March 25, 2009 | No Comments

TED talks are one of my favorite things in this world.  I love learning and their vast library of interesting speakers helps fill the void that is my curiosity.  They always teach me something new and and the talk of Ben Saunders and his challenge to get to the North Pole is no different.

Just about every video brings a challenge.  This challenge statement I pulled from this video wasn’t about dreaming big goals (although you can find that here) or about the struggle of leadership (certainly captures it) what I pulled was what is the dream that motivates you (starts at 3:15).

Not the conceptual dream to change the world, which I certainly have, but the dream that plays in your head like a video.  That mental file that you reach for when you need inspiration when times get tough.  This is the video that is how you visualize your accomplishment happening (it may be reality or not) – it could belike  Saunders and a video of him holding up a ski pole with a Union Jack flapping in the wind, or for the lacrosse team I coach it’s a video of the clock running down in the state championship with the scoreboard smiling in our favor as our team rushes the field with a bit of “We are the champions” playing in the background.

But when I think about that video that motivates me it’s pretty simple.  It’s not of cars or houses, not of offices or interviews.  There isn’t any music playing, but it zooms in from a black screen to a shot of me standing in the front of group of people, maybe a classroom, maybe a conference but standing and sharing to a group of people what I’ve learned in my success.  It’s a short clip, maybe 15 seconds, but it is what gets me excited to create and excite to excel.  I want to have the street cred to teach on the lessons I’ve learned in business and to help others gain the success they envision.

What does your video play like?  Please share it in the comments.

Tips from Pixar and Penelope Trunk on careers

Posted on | March 2, 2009 | 3 Comments

Do you ever have those times in life that seem to have themes?  My theme would be watching videos online, I watched two videos that made me think recently.

1.

I watched a video of Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University talking about some points of focus from Pixar.  One of the things they teach is improv and understanding that a key to successful improv is making your partner look good.  Wow! that blew my mind, I can count on one hand the times that I have done it for my coworkers, but with that core value of making your partner look good, everyone wins.  It was a great talk and the best quote from the clip was:

the core skill of innovators is failure recovery not failure avoidance

For me is was key because I want to try new things all the time, I want to promote change, but when I get on the edge of that metaphorical cliff I want to back down, I want to avoid the failure that could happen. That’s not to say I don’t jump anyway, but not often enough.  Instead I should consider some ways I can recover if it does fail and go with that in mind.

2.

I watched Penelope Trunk give a great honest talk about networking to students at Cornell.  And can I be honest? I’ve always had a personal love/hate relationship with her.  I appreciate her honesty, but at times I think she’s way too sarcastic and way too “this is about me”, but here’s the thing about watching her speak, I grew to like her and I declared it to the public with this tweet.  She appeared genuinely interested in helping the students at Cornell become better networkers.  From basic advice like, put your name tag on the right side of your shirt to if you reach out to her and you don’t hear back, just try harder.  As I watched I tweeted during watching it and I came out the other side appreciating her a whole lot more.

What have you watched recently that made you think?

Goodbye Abunga

Posted on | February 26, 2009 | 11 Comments

Today I’m announcing that Abunga.com, LLC is closing. Eight months ago this probably would have been news, but with today’s economy it’s basically the status quo especially for ecommerce technology startups. The reasons we’re closing would fill a couple pages, but primarily it’s because of money and traction. We ran out of the first before we got enough of the second.

I’m fortunate that I’m taking with me the experiences, wisdom and the “next time” lessons. The things that I look back on and say “Next time I’ll…” Over time I’ll start sharing those experiences and lessons with you so that you can learn from my mistakes. Putting them into words will also help me embedded in my mind as well, so stay tuned for those.

As for what I’m up to next, it’s up in the air. I’m looking at a mix of opportunities: I’ve begun to have discussions with a few companies here locally in Knoxville that I admire to see what joining their team looks like, I’ve got a couple exciting side projects I’m working (to be announced soon), and I’m also looking into consulting with companies that could use some help figuring out how to use technology the best in their business (contact me).  And of course exploring new start up ideas – I don’t think I can get the entrepreneurship and startup fever out of my blood so I’m definitely leaning that way.

And with any of those opportunities, I’m excited to bring what I learned while at Abunga and what I’ve learned from some of my earlier ventures and leadership roles.

As to what will happen to Abunga, time will tell. We’re looking to sell or license the technology and most of all want it in the hands of someone that can do some good with it. If you’re interested please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks to the growing tech community in Knoxville and to Knoxville Overground. Special thanks to my crew that provided push back, feedback, and etc. you name it they gave it: Alex Lavidge, Chad Parizman, Scott Adcox, Greg Compton, Casey Peters, Ted Stank, Matt Heisig, Adam Slack, Chad Ridner and Patrick Hunt. You guys listened to ideas and provided more direction, input and connections then I deserve. I’m humbled by how frequently you provided your helping hands along the way.

Thanks to Lee Martin for the vision and for sharing your wisdom and knowledge to steer me back on track when needed. Thanks Steve Slack, Adam Slack and J.R. Slack for entrusting me with your baby and for your continual support, encouragement and ideas along the way.

Thanks most of all to the team that made it happen, this goes without saying but you guys all gave long and hard hours to give Abunga it’s best shot and I appreciate it. We wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without you. Thank you, Mike Walker, Jason Howard, Steve Jackson, Kerri Karel, Colleen Steiner, and our beloved interns.

To our committed customers, you guys were great – and we just couldn’t turn the corner – thanks for your support.

It’s now time to look forward, I’m excited to see where God takes me what is around the next bend.