So...What's Next?!?

The Fun Theory

What Business Communicators Can Learn From Rock & Roll

Last week I received History of Rock & Roll in the mail via Netflix. As I watched the progression from Chuck Berry to 80's Hair bands, I noticed a few common themes about the rise and fall of artists. I realized that these themes are lessons that business communicators can learn from.

1. The Message Has to Resonate

Musicians and song writers might write songs about their lives, stories, and experiences, but the songs that become hits are the ones that their FANS can relate to. The songs that seem to be written about their lives, stories, and experiences. The songs that are about the common human conditions are often timeless. 

The same is true for business communications. Your message needs to resonate deeply with your audience. They need to hear what you are about and say..."wow! you know me so well."

2. Relationships Matter

The paparazzi exists because people want to know about the lives of the people behind the music. Although we are attracted to the music that speaks to our heart we also want to know the heart of the artists behind the music. 

The same is true for business communications. We have so many reasons not to trust businesses lately, that they only way to gain our trust is by letting us know who you are.

3. You Can't Fake It

 

Shall I say more?

It seems, that yes...more needs to be said. Once Rock & Roll became popular, an industry was born. From that industry many fakes have been born. They rise and fall fast. The same is true when you try to outsource your communications as opposed to create a process to be real to your fans, the attention you attract will rise and fall fast. You cannot fake it and make it. 

What I learned by watching The History of Rock & Roll is that the best way to be a Rock Star Business is to sincerely have the right stuff to be a Rock Star and the be real and accessible enough to let your fans rock with you.

Week In Review

It was a wet one...but everyone knows that already....

My Family

I am not sure how my oldest son pulled it off, but the new Halo game came out on Tuesday. This would have been a challenge for him, because although he pre-ordered the game and paid for it with his own money, per house rules he would not have been allowed to play the game on a school day. Of course, thanks to the rain and the floods, there was no school on Tuesday, and ...yeah...you can guess how he spent the day.

My youngest started Chess camp this week and he already learned all the moves that I could not figure out when it was just the two of use trying to learn the game. He definitely is enjoying it already.

My husband continues to work, and work, and work...but I cannot complain when there are so many people without work .

Concept Hub

I finished a project I was working on and have been taking some time just thinking about what direction to go next. As I was telling a good friend last night, the social media space is noisy, but beyond that it is noisy with people who simplify it, which makes selling a holistic and comprehensive strategy more of a challenge. I have been posting some Enterprise 2.0 over at the TAG community and getting some good traffic on that blog. I'll reveal a little secret here....most of those posts are over 2 years old. I have been trying to get people to understand Enterprise 2.0 for a LONG time. But all in good time I suppose.

Also, I launched a new idea for fund raising. I met with Monica over at Milk Money Consulting and she endorsed this idea which gave me the motivation I need to introduce the idea to the online world. Here are the slides;

The Idea

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Community

Yesterday I was feeling kind of down, but I had an awards dinner that I had to attend. The Atlanta Children's Shelter was honoring 8 women/moms who have hit rock bottom but in a very short amount of time, not only picked themselves up, but have excelled! Who was I to feel bad about ANYTHING. Here are some pics from the event.

Well, gotta pack. I am heading to Helen, GA this weekend...a much needed break.

Suck Up to the Boss

Last week Bill Clinton was on The Daily Show. I am a huge fan of Bill Clinton and of The Daily Show, so this was, to me, the best episode.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Bill Clinton Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Healthcare Protests

Something that Clinton said has stuck with me:

"You know we only have one president at a time so I put on whatever expression he thinks I should."

"You should always suck up to the boss"

This is not something that is in my DNA. I know it is a DNA thing, because I do not see it in my parent's or my kid's.

However, over the years I have been a subordinate and a leader/boss and I have begun to understand the authentic value of taking the stance of "sucking up to the boss." I do have my guidelines and legitimate reasons why though.

1. You need to be able to respect the boss. I do not respect titles. I have seen too many people in a leadership role because they have stepped on others to get there, stolen ideas, and sucked up for the wrong reasons. I respect people. People who earn their way to the top. Those people know something that I need to know. They have earned the right to be sucked up to. For example, I really doubt Clinton would have had the same sentiment towards Bush.
2. The Boss knows more than you do. Many times I have seen "the boss" lack knowledge that I have and therefore make decisions I would not have agreed to. What I have learned through the years is the boss has different kinds of knowledge than I have and I need to trust they are doing the best based on what they know, which often times is a much broader scope of knowledge than what I have. Therefore, be prepared to share necessary information, but do not stand in the way of the boss' decisions.
3. If you help the right people succeed, they will take you with them, and when the time is right, might even support you as you lead the way. The key here is it has to be the right people. You can waste a lot of time and even smear your own good name by trying to help people who are simply "all talk" "full of BS" or "overly self-absorbed."  

So, in thinking about this I began to question the limitations of Pride. Pride is a very odd thing, in that it is very positive in that is boost a person's self esteem and is the foundation of confidence, but when reached in danger zone levels it is one of the 7 deadly sins where you can only see your own achievements and lack the humility to believe in others. Clinton has had some great accomplishments in his life, but he still has the ability to find the humility to "suck up to the boss."

Week in Review

It has been a heads down week for me. I am finishing a project and been thinking about next steps in my life. There are so many areas in my life that seems to be hanging in limbo it seems all I can do is take things day by day.

So here is a recap of the past several days.

My Family

Parenting continues to be the most interesting role I have in my life. There have been points of frustration this week, only for me to realize that my boys are just exhibiting the same traits that I have, some of which can cause the same long-term problems that I am plagued with, and others that, although frustrating to others, will serve them well. What will serve them well is that they take nothing at face value, question everything and stubbornly stand for what they want. These honorable traits can be very frustrating to a parent!

Concept Hub

As I mentioned I am finishing a project. I have always suspected that pitching to what I would term as "institutional bloggers" which are blogs that look more journalist vs the everyday blogs were not as valuable. This week I saw the evidence of that suspicion. I believe building online communities through interpersonal relationships with real community members, but others have argued for a PR approach to raise awareness of a site & drive traffic to the site and let the community develop. This has been a long term debate that I have only been able argue my side based on a hunch. Through my research for my latest project I can see how the PR approach does drive traffic which spikes only temporarily and does not translate to stickiness or community building.

This week I was also invited to deliver my Mapping Corporate Goals to Social Media presentation for ISPI . This was the second time I have delivered this presentation and both times it has been very well received. In fact my favorite feedback of all time came from a senior manager that was in his late 50s. He said he finally is starting to understand social media, that it needs to be a corporate wide strategy not just a PR or Advertisement initiative. It was a very rainy night that night, but I believe the clouds parted and the stars shined down when he said that.

Here is the presentation.

Mapping Corporate Goals

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Community

I am the social media director for Digitainment and my role is to create a Georgia community around entertainment initiatives. The community continues to be very active.

I am also the chair of the Enterprise 2.0 society and I have renewed my commitment to raise awareness of the difference between social media for PR/Marketing and Enterprise 2.0. That is one of the things I have been heads down on this week.

Finally, Concept Hub is a very proud sponsor of the Atlanta Children's Shelter Awards Banquet that will be happening this Thursday. 

The Weekend

Last night I hung out with some friends at Shout in Midtown. It was fun and I got to see a side of Atlanta I rarely get to experience. I left the restaurant around 1am. I was not able to last any longer. My friends stayed a little longer. I noticed that around 1am is when things start getting interesting. The dance floor was packed. After I made my way through all of the hormone hyped bodies I had to walk several blocks to where I parked my car. On my way I passed a very beautiful woman dressed to have a great time, being led away from a club as she gracefully and continuously spit up the contents of her stomach. Another man was led away by a friend on each arm, it seemed his legs no longer functioned. Yeah...good times.

The rain does not seem to want to go away, and something in the air has 3 out of 4 of us battling allergies, so most likely we will be playing games in the house this weekend. It might also be a good weekend to catch a movie, there are a few new releases.

Who knows what we will do...as with everything else in my life right now...it's all up in the air.

Beatles Review

Friday afternoon I felt very fatigue, in fact I could not get motivated to do ANYTHING! I checked my temperature and it was climbing slightly. I rarely get sick, but I thought perhaps I might have caught something. By the next day I was fine. However just to make sure we decided to lay low this weekend.

We have been playing the new Beatles Rock Band game, the one that came out on Wednesday. Yeah...we started playing it last night, finished playing it this morning. It was fun, but way too short. Unless you are a die hard Beatles fan and will play it for fun when friends and family come over, I recommend renting this game as opposed to buying it. 

Besides being too short it also contains too many little known songs and does not include some of their more popular songs. I am assuming the rest of their songs will be available to purchase as a recurring revenue stream.

However, the game is worth renting (and buying if you are a huge fan). It starts with their young innocent years of Twist and Shout and I Want to Hold Your Hand. As I was singing and twisting I was baffled about why my mom does not like the Beatles. The next challenge is at the Ed Sullivan Show and then the British Invasion. As you play the game you get to see how quickly their sound and style changed, and I understood quickly why my mom is not a fan. Not her kind of music.

I truly enjoyed seeing the dates of each song release and truly began to put together how the Beatles did stay ahead of the music curve. At the same time I could hear all of the influences of the time in each of their songs. 

My 8 year old son played the drums on almost all of the songs and it was very cool to hear him play some of those more challenging beats. I switched from guitar to vocals whenever one of my favorite songs came up. When we play again I might set up the mic stand and see if I can play guitar while singing.

The overall sound of the game is awesome. They even include sound bites of the band talking before and after the songs. One favorite was when Ringo yells out "I have blisters on my hands!" after the song Helter Skelter.

Overall it is a fun game, but seems to have been released too soon. There is so much more that could have been added to the game and I suspect that as opposed to adding the various elements that could have been included they simply expected the game to sell because of the soundtrack...and I am sure it will.

Week in Review

It is finally Saturday. On Monday I realized that this was going to be a long week, and it was. It was a good week, but a long one.

Here is a recap.

My Family

It is time to select after school activities. Over the summer my youngest son and I attempted to teach ourselves chess. We could only get so far. This Fall he is going to start Chess camp and then teach me how to play.

My oldest has signed up for the Chattahoochee High School DEBATE team. This is going to be fun. He is already a pretty good debater...not sure where he gets that from ;)

I mentioned in an earlier post that we started watching LOST. We are almost done with Season 1. We just might make it through all of the seasons before the 2010 season starts.

There was one episode, the one where Claire returns, but so does Ethan and Ethan begins to kill the survivors until he gets Claire back, yeah I was having a hard time handling that episode. So I jumped online to see if I could find out more about what I was getting myself into. I discovered Lostpedia! So, now I know what I am getting myself into. My oldest son and husband are not real happy about me cheating though :P

Concept Hub Inc

Lots of meetings this past week, a couple of new proposals went out as well as a few invoices. I put together a new Capabilities Presentation.

Capabilities Presentation

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I am going to add a couple more case studies to it in the next couple of weeks.

I am starting to look at some new directions; not drastic changes but a necessary evolution. The landscape is very different right now, not just because of the recession, but because of the maturing market. I have been checking in with a few peers to test my assumptions and they are feeling some of the same things I am feeling.

As the time is right I will post updates.

Community Outreach

This week I presented a Job Search Presentation to a group of professionals "in transition." I have also been growing the Concept Hub Job Seekers site. I find these activities to be incredibly rewarding. I can see the hope return to people after I share with them a  few ideas or insights. In return I renew my own hope in regard to the challenges I am facing.

As far as plans for this weekend - more taxes!!! I also recently learned that someone I have a lot of respect for is fighting liver cancer. I have been trying to think of what I can send to him that shows that he has my support. The church I used to go to has an amazing bookstore, and I think it is a good time for me to visit again. It's been awhile. So I am planning on early services tomorrow. I have a meeting scheduled with a good friend and business partner tonight, and overall looking forward to laying out my plans for the near future.

Week in Review

Happy Friday! Hope everyone had a great week and is looking forward to the weekend.

Here is a recap of my week.

My Family

My oldest son started High School on Monday. So far so good. Getting home has been his biggest challenge. The first day he forgot where his locker was and ended up carrying 30lbs + of books home. When he finally figured out which bus to take on day 3, he was surprised to find that the buses were overcrowded. For right now I am picking him up. He is taking acting as one of his electives, which I am very happy about. He used to act in different plays when he was young and has been called a natural by many people, but has not pursued it the past couple of years.  

My younger one started 3rd grade this year. Everything is right on track with him. He likes his teacher. He wants me to sign him up for an acting class, so we are on the hunt for a good program.

Concept Hub, Inc

We are in business development mode right now. We have a number of good proposals out and have met with some great organizations the past week. We are also working on developing our case studies from past projects. Here is one I am very proud of, Atlanta Children's Shelter, Tell a Friend Campaign,
They more than doubled the goals that were established!

We are also working with the Public Broadcasting Atlanta still as they are getting closer to the full launch of the Lens on Atlanta social network. Last night we held our first  community Mixer.

The excitement around this project is definitely building!!!

Community Outreach

The social media campaign for Digitainment continues. The focus right now is on building our wiki which is being built as the ultimate resource for talent in Georgia.

I have also agreed to work with the various arts foundations in Atlanta to promote the upcoming Arts & Humanities Month.

I am looking forward to a relaxing weekend of working on taxes (!?!),  catching up on some reading, hanging out with the family, and preparing for another action packed week next week.

You Cannot Teach A Person to Fish Who Does Not Want To Learn How To Fish

I am embarrassed to admit, but we just recently signed up for Netflix. We are LOVING it.

My husband and I never can get our act together to watch whatever the latest, greatest television show is at the time. We watch House, but that is because it seems like there is always an episode on.

Last week we started watching Lost. We stream the episodes on my laptop, plug in speakers for surround sound and project the video onto our bedroom wall.

Last night we watched the episode where everyone was starting to realize that they might be stuck on the island for a real long time and they had run out of food. There is a young, pretty, spoiled brat on the show who wanted to prove to her brother that she could catch a fish. Her way of catching a fish was to convince a poor male hormone to catch one for her.

I started thinking about this more today. So often we see people who we feel need to do something that would be best for them, and we try to get them to do it the way we think it should be done. You need to learn to fish in order to feed yourself. Really? Is that the goal, the end game that the person has to  learn to fish, or is the end game that the person learns to get fish?

Those are really two separate issues.

As leaders and managers we tend to expect our teams to get things done the way we tell them to. This does not take into consideration that there may be hidden talents and ideas amongst our people that enable them to get things done in a more effective and efficient manner.

Beyond that, we often face resistance when we ask a person to do a job they do not want to do. So often I have told people that to reach their goals they need to be a good sales person. I immediately see people shut down, because for many people,  sales is still perceived as a shady business. But what is the end goal?

• Educate our market
• Provide better service
• Assist our clients to meet their goals
• Find new clients that need our help

What if we position what we feel is best for others by focusing on the goal that would benefit them, the end game, and then stand back to watch how they use their knowledge, talents, and drive to reach that end game? Perhaps we may learn new ways to catch a fish...