So...What's Next?!?

Long, but Good Day

Thanks to my friend Jenny Munn who now works for what seems like a very cool company, Dynami Group, I was invited to be a guest at their table at this morning's Central Atlanta Progress (CAPS) breakfast.

 The Dynami Group handles all of the production for the event, and did a fabulous job!

The tables were front and center which gave me a great perspective as I watched Mayor Shirley Franklin introduce a man who I have had the great pleasure to know the past few months, Doug Shipman.

Doug highlighted how successful their Home Depot gift card program had been in raising over $400,000 for the Center for Civil and Human Rights Partnership (CCHR). He also announce the winning architecture firm who will be design the Center, which is HOK.

One of the unique touches from the event was that instead of flowers as table center pieces, our tables were adorned with sheets and towels, which will be donated to the homeless after the event.

What a great idea  - to have center pieces that were items that can be donated for good after the event, but the also raised awareness to the audience of the need that exists beyond the doors of the Georgia World Congress Center.

I had to leave the event a little early to get to the Atlanta Regional Commission to present to the Public Involvement Advisory Group. Many people in the room were already beginning to tip their toes into social media by setting us sites. What our discussion today focused on was how to be effective and efficient within social media.

I had a  few hours to play email catch up before meeting with my contact from PBA at the GA Center for Nonprofit to discuss the upcoming LENS social networking site that we have been working on for the past several months. We are finally really starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is very exciting.

So, now I am home, dinner has been made and consumed, homework has been completed - the kitchen needs to be cleaned, showers are being taken, and I want desperately to just fall down in bed.

I did not know my son could run that fast

My son, his friend, me and Mallory participated in the Atlanta Children's Shelters 5K today - which T.I. agreed to participate in.

We got there early and waited to see T.I. - then the line up for the race began. We started in the back - walking (Mallory ran). I got a good pace going, the boys were 10 ft or so behind me.  Next thing I know I hear my son yell out a few words and then he ran passed me - that is when I realized that T.I. was running along side of the crowd. I did not see my son or his friend again until the end of the 5K.

I walked the whole thing - which made me realize how bad of shape I am in, so I am going to sign up for more 5Ks this year to stay motivated to get in shape.

Anyway - my son got to run alongside of T.I. for a couple of minutes - then watched his run off into the distance. T.I. left immediately - so no pictures of them together.

But here are a few shots of the event.

Outlining the Next Few Months

So much to juggle, however they are things that keep me motivated.

First the house...the house is a perfect example of "be careful what you ask for." We wanted a house that was pretty much a blank slate that we could work on to make our own. Boy was it...complete with white walls. I hate white walls. That was the first thing we accomplished when we moved in was putting color on the walls. But the carpet does not match. We have picked out the new carpet and bamboo floors. Yesterday my husband ordered a new front door. I have been tearing wallpaper down in my bathroom - I do not understand why people want wallpaper in their house, but...

All of this should be done in the next couple of months. Personally I am excited to get our dining room area set up. We are not going to use it as a dining room, but more of a library. It is attached to the kitchen which we have set up like a coffee shop and the dining room will be like our little Barnes & Noble.

Next my personal goal of getting and staying in shape. I delayed meeting with my trainer, but he has not given up on me. I have my first meeting with him tomorrow night. The goal is to get my endurance up, work on getting my strength back and then I will join their HIT class. I am looking forward to the end result. Start with the end in mind, right....

As far as the Bennigan's sitcom, I figured out how to make it come to life. It is perfect for sketch comedy! My husband and I are fans of Sketchworks here in Atlanta and they have sketch comedy writing classes and acting classes. My husband has agreed to taking the acting classes with me, so stay tuned.

Also related to creative writing - I am working on another performance piece that was inspired by the STIR event. This one is on the sensitive side, but I think is important. When it is complete and ready to be read I will let you know. I have also decided to start attending more spoken word events.

Vacation...boy do I need one, or two. We have planned our beach trip finally. In a couple of weeks I will be spending 4 days at St George Island with friends and family. I also started planning the trip to NYC with my son for his 14th b-day. It is a bit more expensive than I anticipated...but I will keep researching.

Personal finances. I am excited to announce that we are in the best shape we have ever been with our personal finances! wahoo! That includes the business cash flow as well. That is only more motivation to keep building. Believe me, this has been a long learning curve for me.

Associations - I just resigned from my post as programs chair for AECF. I love that group enough to know it is time for me to step down because I could no longer give them what they deserve.

Currently my focus is on the Enterprise 2.0 society. We have a huge event coming up in September where we hope to partner with other associations. We are reserving space for over 200 people at GA Tech. From there we  have a number of initiatives for the first part of next year which are very exciting.

It is also time to start gearing up for SoCon09. Also, if you read this blog regularly you know that I am part of the Social Media Club's Interim Board and we are hoping to re-launch a new chapter here in Atlanta.

That is enough to keep me busy as far as associations go - but expect to see me networking a bit more.

In regards to the business I am focused on enhancing the online training. I also am putting a plan together to "drink my own koolaide" and start marketing the company through more social media channels.

If you have read this far you will get to know that I am also looking at a very exciting strategic alliance. In the next couple of weeks I will be aligning my business with a company that completes my offerings. I will be working from their office space at Studio Plex in Inman Park. We have a video production and podcasting studio, which is cool, but more importantly is the technology for market intelligence gathering and for distribution that has been developed. It's very exciting. I hope to start scheduling meetings to demo their offerings and my services as soon as this week. I am also working on ideas for us to go to market together.

All of this is gearing me up to go national. I am currently working with 3 clients on long term projects and have 2-3 in the pipeline. Now that I have an office space to work from I am looking to bring on a junior account manager - which I have already identified a couple of good candidates.

So yeah - I am busy - but having lots of fun.

Stired

Cocktails, one of the ATL Insider bloggers, has been inviting me to come check out his event STIR for awhile now. Last night Sarah Cheshire, another ATL Insider blogger, and I went to the event.

Wow! I highly recommend it. When you walk in you are greeted by some of the most spectacular artwork throughout the gallery. There were a few jewelery vendors, a cosmetics vendor,  and such throughout the gallery. I broke down a bought a necklace with matching earrings.

Cocktails, being such a wonderful host, reserved 2 seats for Sarah and I at the front of the room to watch the show. The house band, Grits and Jelly Butter was very good and able to keep up with whatever was going on on stage. There were spoken word artist, musicians, comedians and live painting. The energy in the room was incredible. I usually am asleep by 11, at 2 am I was still wide awake and not ready to leave yet, but I knew the moment I walked out the door the sleepiness would catch up to me, so I did leave by 2.

I had to stick around a little after the main show for what they call hip hop-eoke....which was just the mike being passed around as the crowd sang hip hop from my childhood.

I will be back for the next one, which I believe will be on August 15.

I have an idea - make conferences free or incredibly cheap

I have received more "invitations" with "discounted" rates to attend conferences this week than I would care to count.

No - I am not going to attend any of them.

Why? Because most of the presenters are not telling me anything new or anything I can not read online. The networking is good, but I network enough through the different associations I am involved with and I do not feel like spending hundreds of dollars to be sold to by various sponsors and speakers.

However, if the goal is to truly educate and encourage networking, as opposed to making money, then make the conferences free or incredibly cheap. We were able to offer SoCon07 for free. Granted each organizer put in a lot of time and work, which is why we had to charge $20 for SoCon08 so that we could outsource some of that effort. That's right $20! per person is all it cost to put on a conference.

Also, it wasn't about hearing people speak or give their sales pitch, it was truly about learning and networking.

This is a model that started long before SoCon07/08 and has been successful throughout many cities. This is the model that more and more event organizers need to really start taking a closer look at, because I am guessing, based on all the discount offers I am receiving, high priced conferences aren't selling the way they used to.

I assure you, there are still revenue models that can be created from un-conferences, and in fact may one day be the only conference revenue models.

For a free pass to your conference,  I'll tell you more :)

What I Have Been Up To

As I had posted on Twitter, my house looks like I am back in college. I have so much going on that I have bought 12 spiral notebooks to track everything.

Notebook 1 -  Is for my personal coaching sessions - which are starting to find a groove. Tonight I listed opportunities for self improvement. The list is still growing. It is both humbling and hopeful. Nothing that I am listing is a surprise and in fact I could offer all kinds of hows and whys I have certain behavior habits. However the hopeful part is that with acknowledgment and willingness to work on improvement - life can only get better.

Notebook 2 - Business Finance - we are not thinking small with this company - never have. But now it is so important that I really wrap my hands around how to make this company financially healthy so that it can grow big and strong.

Notebooks 3 and 4 and 5 are our product offerings - we have listed out 11 unique offerings that can be offered ala carte or as part of a larger scope of work, not including consulting. I have defined each offering and written out the needs analysis and qualification stages for each offering, but now I am working on very specific project management steps for each project as well as roles and responsibilities for the team that would be involved.

Notebook 6 - Future offerings that we have identified

Notebook 7 - Community work such as Enterprise 2.0, AECF, and TAG's social network

Notebook 8 - Overall roles and responsibilities, policies and procedure, and overall guidelines for the company.

Notebook 9 - The 4 P's for Concept Hub and how we can improve in each area.

Notebooks 10 and 11 Notes for self improvement in areas such as sales, communications, and management/leadership.

Notebook 12 -  Family Activities - now that summer is coming up, there is a lot more to keep up with and the kids are so different now that it is hard to keep up with the goals and needs of them both as well as overall family activities.

Besides ALL of that I am working on a number of proposals, and ongoing client projects.

I am also still speaking quite a bit, though I have not been promoting those engagements as much. I recently spoke for the GA Department of HR and the Mac User Group. This week I am speaking for the National Volunteer Health Association as well as leading a discussion at the Enterprise 2.0 workshop. On April 9 I will be in South FL  running a workshop during the day and am the keynote dinner speaker for the Broward County Human Resource Association. I am speaking at Flourishing Forum on April 17, I believe I am slotted to speak at the North Fulton Chamber of Commerce on April 29 and I am teaching a class for the GA Center for Nonprofits on May 14th.

Alright - I am exhausted - going to bed now....but I leave you with a quote - because I know you have been missing them...and look it's a sports quote too!

If you are bored with life, if you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don't have enough goals.

Lou Holtz - The only coach in NCAA history to ever lead six different colllege teams to postseason bowl games, and a man who also won a national championship and "coach of the year" honors

Momentum

Offline activities translates to online conversations.

So as I mentioned in the post yesterday, there was some twittering going on at the summit.

At SoCon07, Podcamp, Barcamp, SoCon08 and all the other such conferences there is blogging, podcasting, picture taking, videoing, twittering and more happening.

I was having a conversation with a friend today and I mentioned how SoCon08 was promoted completely through the organizers' online network and the extended network. He has recently been to another large conference that was also completely promoted through online networks.

What is interesting with promoting offline events through your online network is the kind of buzz that gets created before, during, and after the event. That kind of publicity could not be bought - and if it was it would be quite expensive.

But what makes that kind of publicity different from the kind that can be bought is that it is authentic and transparent. If an event has some glitches, everyone will know about it.

So far it has only been a brave few who have been willing to put their abilities to pull off a large task, whether it is an event or a collaborative project, out in the open, naked, for all the world to see and judge.

That does seem like a scary thought... but the ongoing rewards can be absolutely amazing.

“Sliding headfirst is the safest way to get to the next base, I think, and the fastest. You don't lose your momentum, and there's one more important reason I slide headfirst, it gets my picture in the paper.”

Pete Rose

Bridging the Marketing and Sales Gap

As someone with a degree and passion for marketing but who has spent 10+ years in sales, this was a topic that got me downtown for a networking meeting at 7:30 AM.

I also need to start networking more...

First, networking was fun. I walked in and saw a few people I knew and spent some time catching up with them. Then I knew that I needed to shake hands with a few people I have not met before. There are times when this is easy for me and there are times it takes everything I have to walk up and say "Hi! who are you and should we care about each other?" Not exactly in those words...

Today was the day I took a deep breath and turned to the person next to me, put my hand out and said "Hi I'm Sherry" - The response was - I know I was at SoCon! and the conversation went from there.

As I left another person came up to me and informed me that I have them hooked on Web 2.0 - I assumed they were at SoCon...nope...they saw me speak at the TAG Consulting society last month. I like being recognized...This is fun...(alright that was a total newbie enthusiasm moment...but I have not gotten used to being 'known' yet - and it is still 'fun')

Now to the meeting.

The presenters were Keith Eades and Robert Kear of SPI.

Some of the notes I took include;

70% of the leads generated by marketing do not get followed up on or tracked.

70-80% of marketing materials are not being used.

Only 20% of the corporations have a plan to close the gap between sales and marketing.

Less than 50% of sales people make quota.

Then there were the complaints - Marketing people "build great messages" and sales people just don't get it.

Keep that in mind as I share these next two notes...

A "solution" is a mutually agreed upon answer to a recognized problem that provides measurable improvement (value).

People are not buying from you because they either do not agree with the value or they are not aware of it.

Now Keith and Robert did a great job expressing how each department is responsible for the mindset of how customers and sales processes are perceived (products v solutions). But there was a vital concept missing from their presentation. One that is personal to me.

Where is the feedback loop FROM the sales team?

There was a lot of talk about creating the message and training the sales team, but the sales team are the people on the front line. Ideally smart and talented people. They know what is working and what is not - perhaps that is why they are ignoring what is coming down the pipeline from Marketing, because they do not feel it works for them when they are out in the field.

I asked the question about the feedback loop - the best answer that came out was the concept of the sales wiki where sales people can provide feedback to marketing. Yea!

Now will that feedback be taken seriously? There is a mindset out there of "just a sales person."

I had a number of people approach me after the meeting to tell me that I made a very valid point. We talked about the old school of thought that a product is so good any monkey in a suite could sell it. Sales is not that way anymore - and thank goodness. We do not want to be approached by monkeys with a script. We want people who know what they are doing and why they are doing it.

2+ years of running What a Concept! and I am still learning what I do from my clients by listening to what they need. All my offerings have come from requests from my clients, now I have experience and knowledge of what other clients need, which gives me more to offer. But the more I listen to my clients, the better I become. That is because I am a sales person.

The knowledge I gain from my clients and when I am on a sales call goes to my marketing personality that then tries to package and price the offering. Apparently my marketing side is in need of help - thankfully I have David Cohen on my side who understands Sales and Marketing. Yes - I still am working on my price and packaging - continuous work in progress.

So what happens when an organization does not listen to their sales people and ultimately their clients? As put so well by a gentleman I met before the meeting -  they become one of many organizations that have a "solution in search of a problem."

“It's not what you've got, it's what you use that makes a difference.”

- Zig Ziglar

 

We should be the cool kids!

Is your city social media friendly? Do businesses in your area have a reputation for embracing blogs, podcasts, and social networks?

This is the question that Dan Greenfield asked of several participants of SoCon08.

The overall answer (re: Atlanta)  was no - not really.

The question I had to ask myself today was;  Is that hurting me more than helping me as a social media consultant?

I have not traveled to the west coast...this past weekend I brought the west coast to Atlanta - that should count for something. But this weekend Chris Heuer and Josh Hallett and Dave Coustan pointed out that I need to get out to more conferences...something Timothy Moenk has been telling me for two years.

But today was the clincher. I was presenting to a new company here in Atlanta, my adopted hometown, where I have been evangelizing social media relentlessly for 2 + years - and the person I was presenting to said she had never heard of me. OK - that just sounds egotistical - but stay with me.

This person was also a social media enthusiast. However she had been going to conferences in NY and in CA and not even looking for good opportunities in Atlanta, because, she said, Atlanta had no market.

Because I have stayed in this city, it was almost as though my credibility was in question. Overall we worked it out and had a great meeting - but Atlanta... I am embarrassed!

I am not technical - so I can not go into details of all the activities that Jeff Haynie and Mike Schinkel and many others have been putting together such as start-up weekend or barcamp, but I do know that we have tried a variety of end user social media efforts that I have been involved with such as Atlanta Media Bloggers Group, Social Media Club, Social Media for PR Professionals, CRMA Summit, SoCon07, SoCon08, the new Enterprise 2.0 Society of TAG - plus PRSA events and there have been many other events.

So what is the disconnect?

Well - today I was sent another idea to start another group.

    Social Networking Experience Council

Initially I explained that I just do not have the bandwidth to start another effort. However, then I started thinking more about it. How can I get others to start "experience councils" regarding their industry? Someone who really is in PR (which I am not) should have a Social Networking PR Council. Many Interactive Marketing Agencies are claiming to be involved in social media. They should get together and start trading notes, because the one thing I have noticed is they are all over the place when it comes to how to create a social media site and what being a "consultant" means. We need more round tables and discussions.

But as much as I have tried to get those together, they do not happen in the business communities here like they should. The way they do things on "the West Coast." Everyone who claims to be an expert here seems to  treat social media as their secret sauce. It seems it is only a secret to people in Atlanta. Everyone else knows the doors are "open."

Come on Atlanta peeps - let's stand up and shine and not remain the outcast, introverted, stuff shirt city in the connected world. Let's start being one of the cool kids again!

Every generation needs a new revolution.

- Thomas Jefferson

Who started this thing anyway...

I just returned from the kick off of SoCon08. I got to see Grayson Daughters there briefly and she pointed out how far we've come. I met Grayson through the Atlanta Media Blogger's Group - a small monthly meetup from about two years ago. We were lucky if 10 people showed up - but they were usually the 10 brightest people I had ever met.

That got me thinking about the first Atlanta Media Bloggers Group - which was started by Kevin Howarth - eventually I kept it going, but that was only because I was inspired by the person who spoke at the first one, which was Josh Hallett.

From there it was Kevin (again) who convinced me and drove with me to ConvergeSouth and then it was James Harris who encouraged me to set a date for this - idea and yet to be named unconference. It was the core Atlanta Media Bloggers Group that rallied the troops which eventually brought Leonard Witt, Jeff Haynie and me together.

I remember walking into SoCon07 and saying to myself..."who did  this?"  - because it ended up being much more than I would ever dare to imagine thanks to Leonard's passion and Jeff's organizational skills.

This year we had 160 people at the dinner - about 70 more people than last year  and we have 300 people registered for tomorrow's event. Wow!

'So tonight I leave you with this quote...

“Influence may be the highest level of human skills”
-Unknown