Category: Opinion

Fewer Choices Make Happier Phone Customers?

Posted on Posted in .. All Posts .., Mobile, Opinion

Droid or iPhone…Driod or iPhone.  I’ve been thinking a lot about the replacement for my aging Blackberry.  Here’s the dilema…my choice has little if anything to do with the ability to make a call.  I use a Mac at home and I may never go back to a PC for personal use.  Let me correct that last statement…I love using a Mac at home.  It’s a work of art, and it appeals to my appreciation of design and aspiration to create something magnificent (whether I do or have is an entirely different question).  My wife has an iPhone and we have plenty of apps on it.  I’m not entirely sure what apps I would download immediately.  But I am certain that the iPhone will work as intended and not require a lot of fiddling to enjoy it.

The Droid will work with my current wireless provider.  I am in awe of its power and utility.  It’s a Google phone with endless possibility for development and customization.  I would really like to think that I’m as smart as the average Google employee  and that I have enough time to explore my choices and implement them quickly.  But the truth is that I’m not a rocket scientist and I’m always short on time.  I don’t really enjoy customizing my phone…or my PC at work….or my Mac at home.  There are tons of features and customizations I could make to my Mac.  But time is short and I’m satisfied with the experience.

So at the end of the day I’m really choosing between two brand identities, the more wonkish “I can create anything / Google genius” Droid or an iPhone that broadcasts my support for design but recognizes my surrender to whatever Apple thinks I should be doing on my phone..

Two great choices.  Maybe I should think less and simply choose the one that makes a better call?

Why I Hate Blogging

Posted on Posted in .. All Posts .., Opinion, Web

I hate blogging because it forces me to turn off the TV before 11pm, sit down at the kitchen table and figure out how to add value to someone’s life.  I hate blogging because it demands that I read and think about something new every day.  I hate blogging because it is a promise that I have to fulfill to an entire audience of anonymity.  And I hate blogging because of its open and accessible style  staring  you in the face, calling you an idiot for your inability to write something about anything that you know well.

Over the past seven months I worked with remarkable people and companies, helping them think about the Web as a conversation with interesting (or interested) strangers.  And what is most amazing about these amazing people is an almost universal discomfort with blogging…even when it’s critical to business success.  So I took a hard look at my own pathetic efforts to-date, looking for the reasons why I neglected an activity that is probably the most important thing I can do for my professional growth.

And I realized that, like anything we do for the first time or for the first time in a long while, blogging takes a while to settle into.  I remembered that, with very few exceptions, there really isn’t much I want to watch on TV in the evening and that some of my best ideas arrive during the day anyway.  And that there are a lot of people out there still looking for something other than YAG (Yet Another Gig) professionally, or trying to build a new life in or outside of a cubical.  And that when I think about it I can probably scavenge a nugget or two that someone will find useful.

So I’m blogging again…

Stay tuned…

Of Tribal Leaders

Posted on Posted in .. All Posts .., Opinion

“I’ve been busy…”
I almost started this post with those three words that are the death knell of the blog. And I think part of it is that I’m still hooked on expressions like “death knell.”

I have been busy reading lately. I’m using the Feedly plug-in for Firefox that has miraculously organized my Google Reader into something a human wants to consume.

And with Feedly I’ve been reading Seth Godin and Chris Brogan side-by-side. What I find interesting are the differences in styles of these Tribal Leaders. Seth writes in a sharp prose that, across a few sentences, distills a lifetime of experience. You immediately get the sense that Seth is someone who has walked the road and is taking the time to look back and lend a hand.

Reading Brogan, the reader feels like a passenger in the car while in motion. And if you view his video, he really is in a car that happens to be parked somewhere during the recording. He’s walking next to you and talking and risking, and you’re there alongside.

When I think about this new generation of Tribal Leaders, and even if I go back a decade to someone like Philip Greenspun, I think it’s their ability to take the reader on a journey that makes them so engaging. In Philip, we have a guy with a few degrees from MIT headfirst in the Dot-com world or flying around it in his spare time. In Seth, we have an accessible sage willing to help us with a new marketing yoga that begs us to achieve happiness by being interesting. And we can watch and learn from Chris, pick up some tips along the way, and trust that he’ll still be out there even if we’re stuck in here.

One thing they all share in common…they create content like the wind. Not volumes of content. Just a good, steady trickle.

I don’t think that blogs or Social Media have created these Tribal Leaders. I think that these are interesting people who have a much larger audience for the notes-in-a-bottle they send while wandering.

Got Drum, Going Tribal

Posted on Posted in .. All Posts .., Opinion

I’ve been reading more Seth Godin lately and I just closed the cover of Tribes.  And I’ve been thinking more about my earlier post, Uncubed.  I originally coined the term to capture that sense of liberation from an institutional way-of-life or way-of-thinking.  “Out of the box” thinking is now trapped in the box of institutional vernacular.  Uncubed is a state of mind and purpose achieved after having lived in The Matrix for a while.  It’s an affirmation of or commitment to positive, professional change.  And I think my next role will focus on helping companies, organizations and individuals become uncubed.  More on this later…

One of my favorite lines from Tribes is that “the art of leadership is understanding what you can’t compromise on.”  Re-read that one line and think about it for a second.  Rather than focus on a world of unlimited possibilities, understand first where you’re not going to give ground under ANY circumstances.

Tribes…great book…on to the next!

Just Follow The Yellow Brick Road…

Posted on Posted in .. All Posts .., Opinion, Web1 Comment

I just finished reading an article by Seth Godin, The Paralysis of Unlimited Opportunity, and I think it has an important lesson for entrepreneurs.  Since starting the Inbound Marketing practice at Walden back in early March, I notice most of my dialog with clients and partners is not about what’s possible.  Sure, we talk about timelines and budgets, and whether it’s realistic to double site traffic in less than a month.  But more often than not we’re sifting through all of the different ways we can accomplish what we want.

Want to enable eCommerce on a site or for your business?  There are a zillion different shopping carts and dozens of credible payment gateways.  Need to manage content more effectively?  Hundreds of CMS systems are a click away.  And tools for monitoring Social Media or SEO?  The ocean of options gets larger every day.  Have you tried to pick a cell phone lately?

In the 90’s we were preoccupied with what might be possible with Internet technology.  In 2010 we are overwhelmed with possibilities.  The Yellow Brick Road is gone and now we can get to Oz by bus, subway, train or plane.  And Seth’s guidance… artificially limit choices… is vital for entrepreneurial success.  There are too many choices.  The most successful business owners I know are expert at blocking out noise and just getting the work done.  It doesn’t matter whether you use a GPS, Google Maps, or that compass app for the iPhone.  All that matters is that you keep walking down your Yellow Brick Road.