The Flurry Blog

This morning my friend Kevin sent out a response he received from one of his Free Agent Academy members.  He had asked his community how they were doing in their business.  Here is some of that response:

“Kevin, in my response to your recent email I told you things have stalled due to various stuff happening in my life and a lack of time. I now realize that is not why things have stalled. Instead, it is because of fear, lack of knowledge & experience, and lost focus which has caused me to stall in my business pursuit. And most of all, it is a lack of being held accountable that has prevented me from overcoming those challenges.”

I love the essence of this response.  We succeed with good counsel.  I think that counsel is most powerful when it is given full permission to speak truth, guidance and conviction into our lives.  The trouble is (and I speak this from a ministry and business perspective) we have made the term “accountability partner” equivalent to parole officer.  I guess

George Metcalf Archival Collection CWM 19920044-058

you could say, when it comes to our calling, we have all kept ourselves in prison for way to long under the burdens of fear, inadequacy, lack of knowledge and wisdom.  Once we taste freedom we need someone to help us attain it.  But why has that word (accountability) gained such disdain?  Is it because we are too stubborn, individualistic and bull headed to accept it?  I don’t think so.  Those things all play a part, but most of all I think it is rooted in the fact that rather than encourage and walk along side each other, we are too quick to hold people to what they used to be.  This goes for ourselves too.  We are the first ones, at the first sign of resistance, to fall back to what we used to be.  We need reminding that we have embarked on a journey of adventure, thrill and greatness.  We don’t have any other option but success.

If you have left the mediocre life behind, I encourage you to seek out someone to encourage you, correct you, guide you.  I am not talking about a mentor or coach in this case, but someone who is in the same situation you are in.  Kevin calls them accountability partners.  I like the term trench mate.  Call it what you may, you need them to make it through.  And if you think any of us are immune to the trails and pitfalls, you are greatly mistaken.  I signed up today to make Kevin a trench mate in my own journey.

You can join Kevin here.

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People still ask me what is the worth of Twitter. This morning I was reminded of the main value I find in the tool, inspiration. Susan Lewis posted a link a while back to a really good blog on finding Inspiration by Jonathan Mead.

If you simply look at the massive amount of tweets being posted on the home page of Twitter, you’ll be missing the true value. But if, through time, you build a community around your interests and expertise, then you will eventually have a refined group of people and sources from which to draw inspiration. In an earlier post I explained a few of the lists in which I have grouped those that I follow. Two of these lists never fail me when I am seeking inspiration for a new idea.  I  probably spend an hour and a half each day browsing and engaging with those in the lists as well as ones I have created for the brand communities I coordinate. I’d like to say that Facebook does the same, but at this point (unless someone is posting the same content I am finding via the lists on Twitter) it does not inspire as much.

The other places I find inspiration for professional creativity are: books, listening to my closest friends stories, and personal reflection.

Where are you finding inspiration today and what tools are you finding it with?

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When I first heard about www.helpareporterout.com or HARO for short, I thought it might be a good service to check out for the brand communities I work with.  What surprised me is what resulted after using it for a week.  I found myself sending multiple story leads to friends in my network. I had signed up to find ways to promote my brands, but more than anything, it has turned out to be a valuable tool for my network.

HARO is a free service that allows reporters to post story requests that then go out to the nearly 135,000 subscribers.  Each day the subscriber receives an email listing all the reporter requests sorted by category. Who would not benefit from direct access to reporters that are asking for either expertise or leads?  I first heard of HARO from its founder and CEO Peter Shankman during his keynote at the Portland Social Fresh Conference.  It was not only after hearing him speak at The Portland Communicators Conference that I decided to sign up myself.

At that keynote, I remember an attendee asking Peter where he finds cool things to share.  This group was mostly made up of late adopters, peppered with some innovative new media users.  I am not sure why Peter didn’t just say, use Haro?  Would it have been self promotion? Probably, but so what, if it is true.  There has not been one day yet that I have not found a perfect fit lead to send on to a friend.  It is too early to tell if any of the leads will result in them being in a news story, but one thing I know for sure is that each person has been very glad I thought of them.

Last year I read Andy Andrews book The Noticer.  In it the name sake of the book goes in and out of peoples lives noticing things, and thus really seeing people.  People react when you notice something about them.  It shows them that you really see them.  Chris Brogan begins his talks with the Zulu greeting, “Sawubona” which means I see you.

Drop HARO in your tools box as a way of helping not only a reporter out, but someone in your network of friends.  It is a great way of saying I see you, I’m in this with you.

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Photo idea courtesy of Seth Godin; program mascot, former Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano

(This is a re-post of my article I published on the Huffington Post. If you like it and have something to say, please post it there since way more people read the Huff than this blog. It is sad but true) 

What would change if those who were the experts in their field took a week out of their time to teach and inspire a handful of people?

Seth Godin this next week will be taking 12 individuals through a week of leverage also known as a Nano MBA. Inspired by his Six Month Alternative MBA program he conducted a year ago, he wanted to see what could transpire in a one week long program. Over 1000 people applied, and through two eliminations, 12 individuals from different businesses and non-profits were chosen to go through the week with him and his Head of Hoopla Ishita Gupta.

Since the program was announced there have been a few people that have suggested other similar programs around the country. One that I am aware of was suggested by author and professor Leonard Sweet. His suggestion was a Nano DivMin.

We all have busy lives. Schedules are full and deadlines loom. Those that are changing the world often don’t have time or resources to go back to school to further their education or sharpen their acumen. What we do have in the US is an incredibly deep bench of skilled professionals. No matter what field you pick, there are those that are gifted with wisdom and experience.

When Mr. Godin first announced this program I was having lunch with a skilled business coach. I could tell he was inspired by Seth’s undertaking. I asked him if he would consider doing one himself? He honestly replied that he could not take a week away from clients to pull it off.

Can we afford not to though? We need our innovators, our big thinkers and experts in business, medicine, arts and every other sector of our society to take it upon themselves and change things. A nano-program is a great way to start. Can we afford to leave it up to our institutions to do it for us?

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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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Over the last few weeks I have seen a noticeable drop in conversations on Twitter.  At first I thought it was because people were not engaging as much. A few friends began to comment about the same issue. I had to wonder if it was the result of us not engaging others first.  After all, if we go to a party no one will talk back if all we do is listen to dozens of conversations.  We have to find the conversations to engage in.

Many of the twitter accounts I use are steadily growing and so the number of messages in the main river has become a bit overwhelming.   On my personal account I only follow three types of accounts and for a few reasons.  First I follow personal friends, next I follow friends within my sphere of interests (company culture, marketing, tribal leadership, publishing/writing, and non-profits). Last, I follow news sources and brands I like.  With that number growing I have found that I need to divide them into digestible lists (these lists are still being built). I am very social and find it hard not to try to read through all the followers I have. They all have some value or I would not be following them. That number has become unmanageable though. Rather than unfollowing anyone I have divided them into lists.  In a previous post I talked about one list that I follow and why, the authors-engaged-online list.

What I have noticed, now that I am using my lists to read tweets, is that I am once again finding the conversations to engage.  As I reengage, Twitter again becomes the valuable tool that I have always loved it for; a place to find and share discoveries.

To create your own list, I have found it useful to find out first what your focus is, and two (maybe more important) what others look to you for or what questions are they asking you to answer.  If you are adding any type of value, this won’t be hard.

Also, check out some of your friend’s lists.  You may find ones to adopt as your own.

Scott Gould summed it well in a post this morning that caught my attention:

Deepen your existing connections. …. Value trumps volume. Connections trump community.

We lose conversation if we are not engaging in the community we have already built.

How are you finding ways to reengage in the ever increasing noisy spaces that sites like twitter, are becoming?

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Having ordered my iPad to be delivered sometime after April 12th and not at all thrilled to be standing in lines, I had settled into a the comfortable state of monitoring iPad news and seeing friends and others report on the device the first day of release.  I was surprised to receive a call from my friend Chris Nordyke, who was standing in our local town’s Mac Store looking at a stack of stocked iPads.  There were no lines and no hassles.  With a quick cancel of my apple.com order, I was on my way to the store.  My Saturday turned into a fun and interactive day, talking and sharing details with other friends who had purchased the device.

Like many, I have been researching the iPad on it’s  rumor filled journey to debut.  As a web technology and community professional, I have been looking forward to the iPad to supplement my other productivity tools.  I was not prepared for what the iPad would offer.  To break it down, I use a home and office desktop pc for heavy computing. I have a 6 year old laptop that is reliable, but seriously hobbled due to a short battery life. It  will soon be obsolete as Microsoft slowly pushes xp out of commission.  My mobile devices are an HTC Eris and an Apple iTouch.  Out of all the devices I probably use the iTouch the most to monitor and engage with the non-profit and business communities I am involved with.  The apps I use handle everything I need to stay productive and connected.  What it lacked was a good word processor and a media reader/viewer of decent size. Basically I was pleased with the iTouch.  While traveling or away from my desk it was my device of choice. So I knew that the iPad would supply the same excellent experience as my iTouch, but I was not prepared to be as impressed as I am.

Having the same capabilities on a larger scale would have been enough for me.  But it goes way beyond that.  The inclusion of a built in microphone allows voice recognition software  use (see my list of apps mentioned below) and phone services like Skype. On the iTouch you need the proprietary headphone and mic combo from Apple. Some have complained that it is difficult to type on the device, but I am finding it easy.  In fact I am writing this blog on it. The Twitter app that I have come to love on the iTouch is even better in the iPad version.  Beyond that, all the the other apps  that I use are all slowly releasing iPad version that integrate it’s great functions.

Last, the iPad is just a pleasure to use.  It’s rich video and built in stereo speaker make it a great mobile media device.  And while games were fun on the itouch, they are mind blowing on the the iPad.  It is going to take a while for many apps to catch up to releasing HD versions (there are currently 1,000), but I believe the experience will only get better.  (most iPhone/iTouch apps play in a small screen version of their native resolution and can be expanded to the full screen with degraded resolution with a 2x button)

Some have said it is foolish to buy a first generation Apple device, citing the far from great first version of the first iPhone.  But really this device feels like it has had a thorough testing and quality evaluation.  Like I said before, Apple scored by just building off of it’s senior sibling the iTouch.  Yes improvements will come with 2nd and 3rd generations, but it has taken me 6 years for my current mobile computer’s use to run it’s course.

Here is a list of a few of the outstanding apps I have found.   What has been your first impressions? I’d love to hear them as well as any great apps discovered.

And yes there are a few things that are a bit annoying, but the fact that it took 3 days to bump into them I don’t think they will be deal breakers for most (no flash support, copy and past between a few apps does not seem to work, and no video camera built in).

Pages- (incredible word processor)

Twittelator Pad (power user Twitter app)

Netflix

Dropbox (Syncs files with your pc and laptop)

iBook

Amazon Kindle

The Wall Street Journal

Pandora

Skype

WordPress

Dragon Dictation (a surprisingly accurate dictation app)

Marvel (Visually stunning comic app)

WeatherBug

Mashable

TweetDeck

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