Connecting the dots of life and business

Today is the first day of 2011 and like most I spent some time reflecting on 2010.  I’m pretty happy with what I accomplished, but a glaring hole was my blog.  Glaring doesn’t really state the size of this gap, I literally didn’t post once the entire year… as in ZERO.  With so many people out there telling you how to create great content, monetize it and how to get incoming links, I instead offer you the top 10 ways to NOT maintain your blog.

1. Forget your goal – Why did you first start writing your blog?  I started mine as an outlet for my thoughts and experiences on creating/running a business.  Beyond that main goal, I think its good practice for gathering your thoughts and looking back on where your views were at a certain time.
2. Stop reading blogs - I stayed quite insulated in my niche after we pivoted towards Groupon in May.  I gave up RSS a couple years ago, but this past year I just didn’t read many blogs on a consistent basis (sans industry Twitter feed links).  I stay up with a few (very few), but mostly specific posts were sent to me asking my thoughts on something.   Reading other blogs makes it easier to write and being away from content makes it harder to create your own.
3. Get discouraged by the numbers – Maybe your site has very few comments or re-tweets (like mine)… so what.  If you know the answer to #1, you’ll realize numbers may only be a part of your success formula.  For me, the numbers aren’t the key, but it’s easy to get discouraged when they drop.  And they will continue to spiral down if you don’t keep up the posts.
4. Fear your writing isn’t good enough -  I know I’m no Jason Falls (the best writer I know) or Rob May (the original super blogger) and I don’t need to be in their league to accomplish what I want from this site.  The truth is I can’t crank out great content like others, but I can give my perspective and use my own style.  We each have our own writing voice… find yours and sing out loud.
5. Spend too much time window shopping -  There are some very popular blogs with ugly designs and with little “added” functionality.  Content makes those (and our) sites interesting… not your fancy retweet/like/share/post/bleep button.  FYI… I looked at literally hundreds of cool themes for my blog.   Good design won’t make your content create itself.
6. Stay on a content free island -  Much like #1, if you aren’t around those who create content it’s not top of mind you also need to create your own.  I spend time with startup folks regularly because it’s what I’m living and relevant to me.  If you want your blog to be a part of your life it’s easier when you’re around those who have it top of mind.  Note: around doesn’t have to be physically… just checking in with email or IM can do the trick.
7. Write about what’s popular -  I’ve found blogging to be a burden and not something I enjoy to do frequently.  Some of my old posts reflect that as I wrote the same thing you can read 40,000 other places… Twitter, Facebook and the rise of the new web.  If you aren’t passionate about your topic and can’t add value to an old one, spare yourself the time and don’t write the post.  Instead make a comment, link it up on Facebook or retweet someone else’s content.  When you do have something to say it will come much easier.
8. Focus on the micro – I shifted most of my social efforts to Facebook last year and my Twitter stats show I’m going away from there too (less than 50 tweets in Q4).  Posting to those mediums is NOT content creation in my opinion.  Even if you’re super creative, you can’t say too much in 140 characters (hence the MICROblogging name).  If you want to really create content, I believe most social sites don’t give you the means to do so.  Here’s to being a little more macro focused.
9. Create analysis paralysis – I did some super cool stuff in 2010 and had some great conversations with people about many topics.  I’m sure you did too.  Just a recap of what you did, what you said/heard is a great way to kick start your content groove.  One of the reasons I personally don’t write often is I try to compose something big.  I write, edit, re-edit, then save as a draft because it’s taking too long.  Don’t forget you can score a few runs by hitting a few singles.
10. Run the sprints – If you haven’t ran in a long time, I wouldn’t suggest a 5k race.  In the past I’ve written a flurry of posts for a few days/weeks in a row only to not post again for 90 days.  Decide what consistency is needed to reach your goal and you won’t hurt yourself getting there.
11. Bonus… Don’t just do it – I get very frustrated with people who say they’re going to start a business or have an idea and make no progress.  For every resolution, we must make the effort.  Last year, I just didn’t do it.  Plain and simple.  We could all stand to stop the excuses and just hit publish every so often.

I’m sure you have your own reasons why you don’t stick with blogging, but I’ve tried to outline what’s been stopping me.  Hopefully you can relate to a few.  Will I suddenly start posting each week here?  Probably not.  Instead, I’ll likely re-think my goal, determine my consistency and THEN I’ll add a new theme!  Don’t talk about it… be about it.

(Note to my Facebook friends… if you’re reading this as a FB note, it’s because I linked this archaic web site called my blog found at ToddEarwood.com a few years ago to FB.  I used to write stuff over there and just might add some more of these this year.  Don’t stress, I’ll continue to primarily post pictures of my nephew and random things I see, make fun of your Farm Mafia and click “like” on your funny statements.)

Tonight, my siblings and I retrieved some old boxes from my parents’ attic.  A few were even labeled with our individual names.  We found old photos, baseball cards, trophies and toys from our childhood.  My brother and I were excited to see his son (my nephew) play with toys we found entertaining years ago.  Sesame Street and the firehouse were pretty cool, but Hulk Hogan and the other wrestling figures were just awesome!

Hopefully you didn’t spend this day working and instead enjoyed time with family, friends or loved ones.  And maybe, you had something that surprised you as much as seeing our old stuff.  The perfect visualization of that surprise factor was shown by my nephew when I snapped this photo.  Here’s wishing you a very, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or whatever December 25th means to you.

FYI... this has to be the best Christmas picture I've ever taken

Sometimes when you hear of a business concept you have to look twice, but this one was for all the wrong reasons.  I mean what woman wouldn’t want to use a coin-operated machine to style her hair in a club, restaurant or mall bathroom?  For those interested in creating a passive income stream, feel free to learn about their “amazing” business opportunity.  Here’s their pitch…

GlideHair vending and business opportunities are genuine low cost, low risk investments providing you with the ability to grow a large network of units with limited capital thereby creating real passive income.

For those who can’t “get” sarcasm, please re-think what you might ask in the comments.

Fire hose outside our office

Twitter has been referenced as a waste of time, pithy non-sense and a time suck.  However, it’s best description for my use is drinking from a fire hose.  There are so many people typing so much information and even with just 140 characters it can be hard to manage.  I’ve written before about my struggles with the Twitter stream, but one benefit the fire hose does provide is tapping the collective knowledge of Twitter.  I agree with Micah that this is NOT necessarily crowdsourcing.  It’s just searching for information or asking a few (or many) people a question and getting an almost instant result.

In the past few months, Twitter has helped me find new restaurants, backup software, news sources, software, home improvement contractors, immediate sports updates and new music.  Why would you search Google for an answer to a question others might immediately give you?   Google has to crawl all those web sites and although its fast, Twitter is faster and I usually know who I can trust.  There is a much bigger discussion over the ascension of real-time search and Twitter’s fire hose provides that too at search.twitter.com.   For detailed research the fire hose may only give you a start, but almost every time I need a simple answer I can poll or search Twitter.

Our society seems to only increase its need for convenience and immediacy, so how do you find quick information?  Do you search online?  Look in a phone book?  Read the local newspaper?  Call or text message a friend?  I’m curious to know.

We successfully filled a tech position a month ago and looking back on that process, I now see what top traits we MUST have in any employee.  I know people talk about experience, education and training, but there’s more to sort through with quality candidates than what’s on the resume.

Since we’re now actively seeking sales pros right now (please forward to others), I figured I would post a few things I consider as non-negotiables.  (Hint: If those who are applying are smart, they’re search my name and find this blog, read this post and reference it in the interview.  Just sayin’.)

1. Attitude – In a small any organization, attitude will affect others negatively.  Pessimism can’t be tolerated and let’s be honest, we prefer to spend time with happy people.  Getting excited about working with good people is infectious and I’m thrilled we have that in spades today.
2. Resourceful – I may value this trait over all others.  To be able to “MacGyver” something with limited resources is critical for our business.  We have to solve problems that can’t just be searched on Google and sometimes with no budget for a customer.  It’s a tough thing, but keeping to look Learn to do things on your own and not wait on your co-worker to complete a task.
3. Customer love – I’m not talking about being cordial or pleasant (that’s a given).  My friends, Deryl and Rusty share this sentiment with their company, DormBuys.  Both of our companies are committed to a level of customer service unmatched by others.  We both MUST have people who love serving others.  Not everyone wants to do this and I truly get that, but don’t apply with me.  For us, I’ve seen the challenge of some geeks love the tech toys, yet hate the users.  I’m happy to let those types stay in the ivory towers of corporate tech because small, nimble companies need and WANT the customer to be first.

I found even just this small list helpful as we filtered through too many resumes.  I recognize I haven’t covered things like integrity, morals or honesty, but I’d hope those are a given for any candidate.  So what are your top traits you seek out?  How do you stay true to those even when someone looks great on paper.  Please, please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Lately I’ve been running with my brother and my nephew, but last night I ran by myself.   With an iPod full of tunes, my RoadID and my watch, I navigated the neighborhood on a nice, cool night.  I regularly peeked at the minutes to see if I was speeding up and calculating what pace I was keeping.  The constant concern over my “number” made it easy to distract my mind.

I recognize some would prefer a calculator to work out the numbers, but I’ve always liked math and let’s be honest… we focus a great deal on numbers.  Balance sheets, weight scales, account balances, pant sizes, tv channels and bill amounts each can impact our daily lives.  We struggle to find what these numbers mean or rationalize how we feel about them.

A big number will be celebrated by my family this weekend as my Dad turns 60.  For me, it’s hard to believe he’s that age as I’m old enough to realize as he ages, so do I.  While I never worried about Dad reaching this point, I know that number affected him as my Grandfather didn’t make it that far.

We seek out numbers to compare ourselves to others, gauge our progress and even to choose what’s important.  I’ve been thinking less about the comparison or progress and loads more on the importance.  One number I’m recently pondering is the number of days left on earth.  I know it’s a “heavy” topic, but it’s a fact that figure is finite and the catch is we (typically) don’t get advance notice if our number is nearing zero.  I suspect no matter what its size we’d almost all agree… it’s insufficient.  So rather than debate the afterlife (yes, I believe in heaven), I think the real challenge is how we act/react given we know our number exists.

If you tell me I’m only on this earth another 12,654 days (which is exactly the number I’ve been alive today), I’d tell you it’s not NEAR enough.  There’s so much I want to do.  So much I need to say to the right people and so much I’d change, wouldn’t you?  My guess is you could be like me and you ignore your number not because of awareness of its existence, but you may struggle (like me) with accepting it is a reality.  And just to avoid the debate of extending one’s number through healthy changes, medical advances etc… I’m saying the bigger issue is what we each do given we HAVE a number, not how to change it.

If you’ve read this far and are hoping I’ve had some divine intervention about your number or mine, I’m sorry… I haven’t.  Don’t think I haven’t asked God to give me some hints, but nothing has come through yet.  Instead, he’s given me a healthy does of perspective lately and I’m making changes accordingly.

In case you wondered, my running “number” last night was twenty-two seconds per mile faster than my last three runs.  The challenge is not to let the number distract me from a better run.

P.S. – I’m posting this on 11/11 and unless you’re a numerologist… that number shouldn’t matter either.