So what, who cares, and why me?
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| — | Aneace Haddad |
If there’s any message I want you to take away, it’s that true success - financial, personal, and professional - lies above all in loving your family, working hard, and living your passion. In telling your story. In authenticity, hustle, and patience. In caring fiercely about the big and the small stuff. In valuing legacy over currency.
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| — | www.garyvaynerchuk.com the last paragraph in Crush It |
One of the many reasons I enjoy flying Southwest is “Spirit” magazine. February (which apparently just ended), had a fantastic article titled Hand Made in America.
We’ve seen the future and it works … in small shops with sawdust-covered floors free of conveyer belts and robots. There, craftsmen make goods with their hands, carving slabs of mesquite into guitars and stitching decorative patterns onto cowboy boots. Tadd Myers, a Dallas photographer, crisscrossed the United States over the last two years to capture these artisans at work. He saw cowhides become baseball gloves in Texas and liquid metal form into vases and jewelry in Vermont. He shot more than 10,000 photographs, a massive project he plans to turn into a book.
Tiny tiny homes come with big surprises. They may not be ideal for everyday living or a family of 8 like the one I grew up in, but there’s peace in being confined. Back home in NH there’s a fantastic little family home in Canaan, NH that smells like home-made donuts, bacon, and fresh-snow.
Other things that fit well in tiny tiny homes. Writers, tea, love, flannel, books, pianos, art, harmonicas, and humidifiers. Check out some other great tiny homes at www.tinyhomeblog.com.
Big Sky / Yellowstone Club / my first trip to Montana for the weekend in 1 month. So pumped to hit the powder and catch up with Mr. Josh Moore.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
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| — | Steve Jobs (via suzannexie) |
Engagement - Serve Your Customers
I’m enjoying my first in-flight wi-fi experience on a Virgin America NY to SF flight and reflecting on some of the thoughts from the EngageExpo I just attended.
First off Disney gets it. The magic all started with a mouse but today there’s a collection of booming virtual worlds that are based on a highly profitable subscription model. Lane Merrifield the founder of Club Penguin and now head of all Disney virtual worlds gave a keynote highlighting Disney’s approach to monetization and customer service.
Club Penguin receives between 5,000-10,000 emails and letters every day. Club Penguin’s team responds to everyone of those emails everyday. Lane summed it up best by saying “The creative process, in the end, is about serving.” This approach is very similar to how Gary Vaynerchuk has shaken up the wine industry and helped thousands of individuals through social media.
I love this concept of serving your community and users. Serve them by staying on the phone for an extra five minutes or serve them by tackling that five hour bug fix because it may solve a 10 hour per week headache for some Small Business.
This level of service results in higher engagement, a more rewarding experience at work, and yes, a few more dollars coming your direction. Disney has also found that this focus on service has revealed a gold mine of customer suggestions and product requests. Their virtual worlds are now largely shaped by the ideas of the consumer.
In start-ups when there’s a fight to get paying customers, and in large corporations where there’s a fight to resist that looming plateau, it can be easy to lose site of the opportunity to serve. That chance to serve may mean delivering an entertainment experience, solving a mission critical business problem, or just being there to talk to another human being - stay focused on life beyond the business.
