The Flurry Blog

A few weeks ago I spent time with two thirsty men.  They were passionate about their business, innovative, and already on their way to leading a tribe.  Wake owns an electric bike Shop called The Ebike Store in Portland Oregon and Jason is the Senior Director of Marketing and Communications for the YMCA of Columbia-Willamette. So why do I call them thirsty?  Without pitching my services, they were compelled to ask more about what I do and how I do it.  No matter what service you provide, unless someone needs it, and actually understands they need it, then you really are wasting your time and theirs.

A while back a young ambitious college age painting contractor came by my house and offered his company’s service.  After letting him do his pitch I informed him that I was not interested.  He went on to tell me that my house was in need of a new paint job and it could not wait another year.  What he did not know is that I painted houses and businesses when I was his age and the house at the time in fact had about two years left before it needed painting.  Plus, when I am ready to paint, I will be doing it myself.  His problem was simple, I was neither in need of what he offered nor was he able to convince me otherwise.  I was not thirsty.

Now a better salesman could have convinced me otherwise, but it takes a lot of effort at the risk of an unsatisfied customer and your brand being damaged.  If you spend all your time offering a service they were not really interested in the first place, chances are they will not value it in the long run.

“You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.”  It seemed like an odd statement to my young ears, until I witnessed it my self.  When I was ten years old it was my chore to get our horses to drink water before our long day on the trail.  We usually had 5 or 6 horses on our extended trips into the Wallowa Mountains, and there was always one stubborn one that would not drink.  As much as I tried I could not put my ten year old weight into dragging him to the stream.  It was futile.

Later in the day though he was the first to put all his energy into making a bee-line to the lake at the end of the day.  He was finally thirsty.  This goes with most businesses I encounter.  They are bombarded daily by salespeople who offer ways for them to make their business more profitable.  Some offer real value and others are just wasting their time with snake oil.  The difference for you comes when you can connect with the ones that are seeking what you offer and see the value in it.  They are the ones that will benefit and in the long run they will also be the first ones that will tell anyone they can about how you helped them.

I have learned this after many attempts to convince those that are just not thirsty.  Keep listening and doing what you do best.  If you truly are doing a remarkable job, the businesses that are a great match for you will be easy to find.

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A year ago, during the Iran Election Protests I posted about a small project a friend and I embarked on, to help spread the word in solidarity with the people of Iran being oppressed.  We often think we have little leverage to make change in today’s world.  This morning I was once more compelled to use the tools and connections I have at hand to spread the word for change.  Randy Elrod posted a blog and painting in protest of the planned stoning of an Iranian woman named Sakineh.  He is asking others to stage an online protest.  Here is his full post and art:

As I casually perused CNN.com this morning, an article titled “Global Protests Held Worldwide Against Iran Woman’s Execution by Stoning” jolted me from my Saturday reverie. You can read it HERE. Feeling profoundly moved to join the protest,  I Googled an image search of the words “stoning muslim women.” The pictures brought hot tears of horror to my face.

I began passionately painting a watercolor and below is what came from the shock and realization that murders like this still occur in our “modern” world. I thought, why not start a blog, Twitter,  and Facebook protest against the stoning of this very real person named Sakineh?

Will you please participate? CNN says that Iran has been known to stay an execution, when the protest is loud enough. If you would like to join me, please do so. If not, that is fine, I’m not trying to put you on a guilt trip.

But, I’ve spent my day off painting a watercolor in this effort, so will you take a few brief seconds and do a blog post, Twitter, or Facebook update to save Sakineh’s life??

You can simply copy and paste this post, or write your own. Please use the exact title so that we can be heard as one voice. You also have full permission to use the watercolor as your social network image, in your posts, and I have created Twibbons for your Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Facebook

Twitter

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On Friday a group of friends congregated to spend some time in our small downtown. Our mission was simple. We planned to take and upload as many pictures of and about local businesses as we possibly could. What surprised me was the response we received. Many shop employees didn’t know what to do with us. As if working from a script, many of them just looked more worried than anything, having a handful of people wanting to take pictures of their store for free promotion. One store though gave us an incredible experience. Even though they were closing, Brett of City Barber Shop welcomed us in and even agreed to a free youtube video while he gave a mohawk cut. Brett told us about the history of the shop as the clippers hummed and my friend Loyan got his mohawk. The whole group was thrilled as he went on about the shop he loved. We even learned they have a vintage barber chair that once was used on the Vegas Strip. Brett had no script. He readily lapped up the free publicity. It was like watching a skilled improv artist.

Do we have set ideas of how to get our word out? Do we resist new ways because we are afraid of them?

The businesses and connections in my network throughout the country are thrilled if you share their link, take a picture, leave a review (good or bad). They see it as free and sharable promotion. How would you or your employees react if given the same opportunity?

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This post is in response to Seth Godin’s post on calls to action.

Yes “all calls” are annoying, when we can’t filter them out. We live near a car parts lot, and every day they used to make loud announcements from the classic horn. This became intrusive, if you were anywhere outside your house. I have not noticed it for a long time. It may be that I have just filtered it out.

That brings me to why there are still good reasons for some all calls. I have made some great discoveries using the all call on Twitter. It has mainly been when I was trying to wade through a massive google search for either a product or service. I found Drop Box via a friend’s suggestion, a cool BlackBerry tool from @nanpalmero (he is especially helpful), and many other solutions by just asking simple questions of my community. Now mind you, I try my best to search out my answer first by asking a specific expert or I use the search tools at hand. But I don’t hesitate to ask my community if my quest is not fruitful. Is that wrong? I don’t believe so. Have I annoyed anyone? I hope not.

My key point is that the all call is useful, if you have exhausted all other means or time is critical. Example: (tsunami approaching Maui and my nephew and his wife were only able to receive text messages. They received news, after I sent out an all call via Twitter. They were sitting at an evacuation center waiting to hear if their house on the beach had been destroyed or not).

Would I not follow you if you constantly sent out annoying all calls that could have been answered with simple detective work? Yes, but I have seen the occasional all call stimulate discussion and problem solving when used well from Twitter, facebook and other community sites.

There are several types of all calls that feel negative: email spam, mindless cc’s (people have learned to not send them to me), facebook’s insistence on sending email to notify us of every follow up comment in a thread. But besides these, all calls work. If you have social capital with your network they can be a great resource. I enjoy helping others out when they ask something I know. We build community to be a community.

Regarding social capital, here is a great post by Mitch Joel.

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Last year the Shorty Awards began to swell in popularity in the twitter community. I had a few friends that were pretty high up in the running to win including @luckystartups and @savvyauntie. While there was some talk of ulterior motives behind the awards, I thought it just promoted a dynamic and rapidly growing community of connectors.

Suspicions came back, as this year’s awards rolled around. First of all, these are not people in my social circle. I don’t follow celebrities. People I do follow that approach that status are usually offering great value. It had the feeling of the Oscars. Every year I feel as if the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is out of touch with the rest of the world, voting for what their tight circle believes should be given the title of best. The Shorty’s gave me the same feeling. Most of the nominated top list I have never even seen let alone gained value or interaction from. Something stank. I began to dig into the Shortys page. On the main Shorty foundation page, sorry.. the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences (sound similar to anything?), I found the source of all my discomfort in a simple but spooky tag-line “defining media for the new decade”. Yeah. What? I thought the community, the customer, the individual was now defining media. So to say the least I am done with Shortys. In checking my own temperature I shot my friend Ash Shepherd a quick note asking his take. His response confirmed my reaction.

“I thought the Shorty awards were a democratic process whereby Twitter users vote.  How does “the Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences play a vital role in choosing the winners of the Shorty Awards”?  And defining media for the new decade?!?  If anything we have seen the media now being defined by the users and not media moguls and celebrities any longer.  Wait, who did the academy say will comprise their membership? Media Moguls and Celebrities??  Who got to pick this elite group of Media definers?  Themselves. Sounds like the old guard is trying hard to find their way back into the spotlight and control of media.  Weak attempt to promote themselves again if you ask me.”

I asked Ash to elaborate his thoughts here:

Two thoughts really bubbled to the surface for me. The first was the hypocrisy of it all. When I first got a vote for a shorty award I was surprised and excited all at the same time. So naturally I did what you do with any tweet you like on Twitter, I gave it a ReTweet. Imagine my surprise when I saw that doing this action automatically added me to the “egocentric” category for the shorty awards. A nice bit of public shamming that could not be undone. Had I only known it would have been better to create an academy, name myself lord of new media and Arts & Sciences. I would have become a hero and finally gotten some mileage out of those two science degrees.

The second was the double edge of user defined media. So not only can anyone create content these days but apparently if you can create a website and Twitter account you have license to create an Academy.

Your thoughts?

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We are all enjoying changing workplaces. Some of you are working from home a few days a week.  You may even bring your dog to work. Thanks for the hair by the way. (just kidding, I love dogs). We all are benefiting from the changes in the workplace. Bob Cratchit would be envious.

The man with the boots at zappos

Why is it then that some leaders are openly embracing these changes behind office doors but try to portray a different culture to the outside world.  They go to length to hide behind a facade of old school professionalism. They want the outside world, including clients and customers, to think that everything is ties and cubicles all around.  This is a result of fear.  What if our customers think we are slacking off?  What if any sign of staff enjoying their work comes across as lackadaisical?  Fear is driving survival. I stumbled upon one of my new favorite quotes today re-reading Seth Godin’s Linchpin.  “Survival and success are not the same thing.”

So what? As long as you are the best in your industry and your services are remarkable, none of it matters.  Loosen up. Show some skin (or boots). You might be surprised.  You might even get lucky and blow your competitors away.

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What goes through a marketer’s mind that makes them hire a booth babe? I can just imagine.  “Our product is a bit boring so let’s throw some sex at them.”  In the long run it does not pay off.  It is a leftover from traditional advertising.  It cracks me up to see men talking to scantily clad beauties as if the girl was an expert on the product.  Yeah, the customer will remember you but probably not what you were selling.

Here is an idea. Instead tell me a story, engage me in conversation, build a relationship with me.  Most of all let me use your product.  That is how you will make a lasting impression.  Your goal is to gain and hold the attention of your followers, not for two seconds via human billboards.

*Image in gallery above used under creative commons license : flickr user nDevilTV

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Every time I head to a conference or trade show I have that first impulse to make detailed lists of talks to see or booths to visit. It is easy to quickly build the trip in to an itinerary and rigid schedule. I have learned from past trips that the connections, memories and lasting results rarely come from attending a talk or seeing a new gadget. They come from the people you meet. The conversations over dinner and the surprises you could never predict are what give us a return on the time and energy spent traveling to these shows. I am writing this on my way to the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. With over 100,000 attendees and 20,000 exhibitors there is no way I could even begin to schedule this trip out. All I know for now is that we plan to meet with good friends and make new ones. What comes of that is a mystery.

An update: We toured the Zappos facility and spent several hours over great food with Clay Hebert, Chris Nordyke, and Donovan Roberson.  Our conversations were genuine and enjoyable.  If it is not about the people you meet, you might as well save your business money, your family the time away, and stay home.

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The kindness of strangers by Ed Yourdon used under creative commons license from flickr

I could go in so many directions with this topic.  This last part was the hardest for me to write. We have covered shutting up and focusing, but being a good listener eventually boils down to action.  Action indicates to the other person that you have actually heard them.  However, sometimes the best action is to do nothing.

So you have actually heard what the other person has said.  Now it is your turn.  Most likely they will give you a chance to act.  The action required of you depends on the conversation.  Did they ask your advice? Did someone post a blog and end with a question?  They are prompting you for a response, so turn up the value meter and act.  We all have something to say, but is it of any use?

I asked one of my best friends and mentors, Rick Herbert to chime in on the topic and he nailed it.  Here is what he had to say:

So Action – To Act or not to Act, may be trite but true… does this conversation provoke or require more than words? Is there something I need to do, for this person with whom I have been listening? After hearing their point of view, their concerns, their information, what do I need to do? Purposeful action is determined in the context of the conversation.

Converstaion – convesari is the Latin root.  It means “to live with,” “to keep company with,” “to dwell upon,” “to move to and fro,” and “to turn oneself about.”

Since Conversing is much more than words, we must listen to one’s life and internal movements in order to engage in their lives… we determine our purposeful response based partly on their life and words and partly on what we choose to say, to do or even merely to be in the context of that information.

I have been moved to tears because of conversation.  I have been moved to acts of charity or compassion due to conversation.  I have chosen to become a different person based on what I’ve seen and heard in others.

Purposeful action – always! Regardless of my awareness of reasoning, there is always some compulsion…

Wow, I could not have said it better.  Thanks Rick.  So there you have it. Act.

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That is something my mother always taught us not to say.  It fits here though.  I find that the best listeners are quiet. To some people (I’ll admit I am one) they seem to not be interested in what we are saying.  We are accustomed to others interrupting us as well as diving in to the joint-pontification we all easily participate in.  Really though, they know when to shut up and listen.  If you watch they are often nodding or offering small interjections, showing us they are tracking with us.  Whether you are communicating in a marriage or friendship, the first key is putting a stop to both the flow of your own mouth as well as your mind.  Have you ever been caught not listening after someone has told you a story? I have, and it was usually due to the fact that I was either formulating my response or I was lost in the busyness of my thoughts.  Both of these quickly show we are not listening and usually form an opinion in the other persons mind.  It forms mis-trust and leads to walls in our communication.

In online communication it is important to stop and watch before you engage.  Read through a blog as well as the comments before commenting yourself.  Ask yourself (and this works in any form of communication) if your contribution will offer any value.  If not, then choose to wait or even move on to a more relevant conversation. You are a vital part of the conversation. You have great things to contribute.  Wait and listen first, shut up until you can’t stand it any longer.  Doing this allows us to get a clear picture. Once we shut up we can then move on to the next step. I’ll write about that next: Focus: interpretation and active acknowledgment. Of course this is a huge subject. As I post this series I want to hear your input and stories.

• Part 1: Shut Up: Stop talking and really listen

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