Resolutions are not my thing. Since 2010 I’ve used three words to set the tone for my year. That year it was “Be more helpful.” Last year the theme was “Focus, Intention, Deliver.”

This year the words are “Simplify, Serve, and Create.”

SIMPLIFY

I’m known for being able to take complex ideas and explain them in a way that is simple and easy to understand. In the way I live my life, however, that’s not quite the case. This year I’m looking to simplify my life: how I do things, what I have. This involves trimming down what I own, unsubscribing from a lot of email, and removing a lot more of the friction that exists in the processes that govern how I live.

SERVE

There is work we’re all meant to do, people we’re meant to serve. I’ve spent much of the past several years working on identifying what that means for me. For a long time I’ve been drawn to causes and non-profit work. I already volunteer my skills and expertise at a number of non-profits. I love being able to elevate a cause with story using new media.  We’ll see where this takes me in 2012.

CREATE

When I’m not creating something, I’m not fulfilled.  I look forward to writing more, drawing more, painting, recording and developing audio and video, whether for myself or for clients.

So here we are toward the end of the third week of 2012. Let’s get going.

podcincy image via John Blue

I write this almost three weeks after attending the very first PodCamp Cincinnati, held at Northern Kentucky University‘s College of Informatics at Griffin Hall on October 22, 2011. This is the first time I’ve tried to share some of my thoughts on this blog. I’d certainly like to share about the specific sessions and content that was shared, but I feel compelled to first talk about how important it is that we even had a PodCamp Cincinnati.

Four years ago to the Saturday

Four years ago to that very Saturday, on October 20, 2007, a couple handfuls of podcasters, Twitterers, Facebookers, and bloggers met together at the Golden Corral in Middletown, Ohio, for the very first gathering of New Media Cincinnati.  It was, for many of us, the first time we’d ever met in person. Cliff Ravenscraft from GSPN.tv was there. Daniel J. Lewis was also there.

Among many of our conversations was the idea of a PodCamp in Cincinnati. Cliff had attended PodCamp Boston.  I’d been following many of the PodCamp crowd in social media for sometime and had been thinking it would be a great thing to have happen in Cincinnati, too. Cliff later even registered the podcampcincinnati.com domain name.

Growth of the Cincinnati social media community

In the months that have passed, I’ve seen how much the social media community in the Greater Cincinnati area has grown. Not only because of what we’ve done with New Media Cincinnati, but also through what other groups have done and the area’s mainstream adoption of social networking platforms.

I’ve often thought of our New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday event as an experimental playground. We’ve tried out new technology, like online streaming with UStream.tv, and have experimented with the format.  One month we even tried out the unconference concept, similar to what is done at a PodCamp.

Can we do a PodCamp in Cincinnati? YES!

After attending PodCamp Ohio, I struck up a number of chats with Lead Organizer Angelo Mandato about what was involved in planning and running a PodCamp.  Even as recent as last year, Angelo pinged me about whether I’d be interested in organizing one in Cincinnati. At the time, I was extremely busy with work of my own, so I said I wasn’t able to do it.

But there was someone who was: Daniel J. Lewis. At the end of the PodCamp/WordCamp Ohio 2010, Daniel announced that there would be a PodCamp Cincinnati in October 2011.

Benefiting from the hard work of others

Anne Castleberry and Daniel J. Lewis

Throughout much of this year, and especially in the few months’ leading up to the October 22nd event, I’ve been able to see what’s been involved in putting this event on. It’s inspiring. In addition to the work Daniel had done as Lead Organizer, I know Anne Castleberry, who takes personal ownership in making what she’s involved with be as excellent as possible, did a lot. So did Jen Mitchell, who kept everyone up to speed about session updates throughout the day. Cliff Ravenscraft sponsored the great lunch. And many others, like Mary Beth Dunn, Marty and Kathy Rose, Brandon Kilby, and others whose names I’m forgetting, worked behind the scenes to make things run as smoothly as they did.

And all we attendees had to do was pay $20, plus whatever transportation costs it took to get us to Northern Kentucky University? Wow!

Tomorrow, at the last New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday event for 2011, we’re giving away the 2011 NMC Digital Awards. I wish we could give one to everyone involved in PodCamp Cincinnati, because, to me, this was the hallmark moment of 2011 as it relates to what we’ve been working on doing since that small gathering in October 2007.

Truly, emphatically – I have never been more proud to be a part of what we’re doing in the social media community here in Cincinnati.

Notice that I haven’t even shared anything about the sessions, presenters, or venue. That’s for another post.

What did YOU get out of PodCamp Cincinnati?

Related articles

• Podcamp Cincinnati And Nothing About Steve Jobs (newmediacincinnati.com)
• The ROI of attending an in-person social media event (danieljohnsonjr.com)
• Daniel Johnson, Jr.’s PodCampCincy2011 circle on Google Plus (plus.google.com)
• #PODCINCY on Google Plus (plus.google.com)

(via The Christian Left's Facebook page - submitted by Larry Fox)

This question came up at the September 2011 New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday event, “Questions From A Hat,” in which attendees wrote questions down and put them in a hat to be selected by the moderator later on.  I was in Columbus that day helping run audio/video for another event, but Vickie Sceiferssent me the audio, and I got a sneak preview of it, which will go up soon as a New Media Cincinnati Podcast episode.

Back to the question…

You’re asking the wrong question. Seriously.

Everyone’s use of social media is going to be different, and that’s okay.  But to be effective, before knowing HOW to use the tools, you need to know WHY you’re using them in the first place. Are you trying to build brand awareness, or communicate news and information? Are you trying to build a fan base? What are you doing?

Like the watercooler.

Twitter is different from other social networking platforms because of its 140-character limit.  Get in, state your peace, get out.  It’s like stopping by the break room at work to get a drink of water or refill your coffee. You chat with a coworker briefly and then you head back to what you were doing before.

WHY are you using Twitter?

If your answer is because someone told me to, or I don’t know, then stop. Your use of social networking tools, just like any tool, has to come from why.  Why do you use the telephone? Why do you use email?  When is one tool right for communication and when is one not? Here’s how I’m using Twitter:

• One of my Twitter accounts, @quotesblog, exists just to share interesting quotations, mostly repurposing what’s already at http://quotesblog.blogspot.com/. I don’t do much interaction there.
• I have the Twitter account for @jazzmania, which is primarily for the business I’m building through Jazzmania Productions.  I’m still working out my overall strategy for this account and haven’t been posting there much yet.
• I have the @newmediacincy, which is for the New Media Cincinnati social media networking group. This primarily communicates from the blog and Facebook page, and occasionally from me or someone on its behalf.  There may or may not be much interaction there because…
• My @danieljohnsonjr is my main Twitter account.  My current goal is to stay connected with as many in the local Cincinnati community as I can as well as those I know from other circles where I’ve been involved.  I use it to share links from this blog, as well as other content I find interesting.  I cannot stay in touch with many from this account as I used to, so I rely on @mentions and DM’s from others.  Over time my use of Twitter has been more to share information and occasionally engage and interact with others.  I tell people if they want interaction from me, follow and @danieljohnsonjr.

Related articles

• Allergies, Computer Woes, and All Your Time on Social Networks (newmediacincinnati.com)
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This is the post you probably wanted to read yesterday morning, 10 years after 9/11/2001. I was away helping run audio and video at an event in Columbus (more on that later) this weekend, and it’s taken me until now to be able to gather my thoughts.

The world stopped turning

September 11, 2001 started like any other day. I drove from our home in Dayton, Ohio down to Blue Ash, where I was doing consulting. I was in a hurry to get to my desk and get started by 9 AM.  When I arrived, I saw my client manager had her small TV on in her cubicle; the first plane had hit. Dumbfounded, I and other coworkers soon crowded around and watched as the other plane hit.

One of the managers in the department near where we worked had a son in one of the towers.

I remember vividly that the company’s home page was set to the live video stream CNN had that week. Not much work got done. Priorities had shifted for awhile.

I remember the evening talk show on 1290 AM in Dayton for weeks had been wondering what was taking the US so long to launch a military response.

One, two, some years later

I’d started blogging in January 2002 via the Blogger platform. Perhaps that day in September was a contributing factor; I really can’t remember. Sometime in 2002, I’d found out about the 100 words project and started contributing.

In 2003, I wrote up a post: 9-11 Remembered | Journey Inside My Mind

In 2005, I mentioned it almost in passing on my podcast.

In 2006, I mentioned seeing the episode of Rocketboom. That was hard to watch – still is.

I’d taken to posting on Facebook and Twitter more on the anniversaries in recent years, with a post like this:

 Good morning from beautiful Cincinnati! Beautiful New York City! Beautiful Washington, D.C.! Beautiful Shanksville, Pennsylvania! #neverforget

Ten years and change later

As I think about all of this, I can’t help but realize how elastic time is and how resilient we as human beings are.  I’m grateful that I’m unable to remember every detail of every day. I think that’s an intentional part of how we are made.  This selective forgetfulness or selective memory is helpful to us so that we can move on. What was horrific for me to see in pictures in the media is nothing like what those in the middle of it have felt.

And yet time marches on. We live to see another day.

Perhaps it was those events 10 years ago that made me see a need to connect more deeply and share more of myself online and in-person.

And that change has been for good.

Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning? – Alan Jackson

It’s April 2009. I’ve been running the New Media Cincinnati social media group for a year and a half. Still connecting with people in the Greater Cincinnati area. Still passionate about taking online connections in the real world.  I decide to take the day off the job that had the commute up to the Dayton area and make time to connect with my online friends in Cincinnati.

I put out the call on Twitter and Facebook, saying that I’d like to meet anyone who’s interested at the Max and Erma’s on Montgomery Road.  Among many who respond is Andy Warner, whom I’ve only known on Twitter and Facebook. We’ve never met in person.

Lunch at the Max and Erma’s goes really well. We’re all encouraged to meet together on a day that’s not the second Saturday of the month.  Andy and I hit it off well, and over the next several months we continue to meet from time to time.  I share my copy of Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick” with him, because it resonates so deeply with me. Andy even makes it out to a New Media Cincinnati event.

Some months later, Andy lets me know via Instant Message (because we’ve become that great of friends) that he’s moved to Portland, Oregon for a new job.

Many months later he invites me to be on his new podcast, “Mind Tilt.”  Andy describes it as “thought leadership at the intersection of sales, marketing and strategy.”  Last week he releases it to the public: 

Daniel has a deep passion for connecting strangers and promoting the richness of personal stories.  This driving force for Daniel is clearly evident in everything he does from his early days of daily phone calls during his commute to weekly lunch meetups to founding New Media Cincinnati.  Daniel and I discussed his learnings with New Media Cincinnati during this week’s conversation.

I’m honored that Andy let me come on his program and talk his head off  and tell the story of building community here in Cincinnati.  Check out our conversation here: Mind Tilt Podcast Episode 8 — Daniel Johnson Jr – A Community Manager Fighting for the Users.

A privilege and an honor, he lets me talk his head off about my approach in building and managing a vibrant community.

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Everyone has a story

Anthony Marco recently gave a talk at the PAB2011 conference in Ottawa, Canada in which he talks about The Unattended Moment in the Communication Jam. He describes it like this:

• When you realize the act of communication distinguishes itself from the message.
• When, during the delivery of the message, you recognized a moment of authenticity, skill, or method as paramount to the content.
• When someone else’s story becomes yours, as you get the sense that you have become part of the performance, too.

This happens a lot during concerts, conferences, and movies, as well as many other situations.

I am so grateful for many Unattended Moments that I’ve experienced recently. For instance:

• At church four women didn’t have the accompaniment track for “Blessed and Highly Favored,” which they were performing in the coming week. I find a YouTube clip and they practice in the A/V room as I produce and upload other content. I have to stop what I’m doing because the harmonies resonate so powerfully that I get shivers. Who am I that I get to enjoy this experience before everyone else?
• My daughter and I attend the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt 2, the last installment of the series. The cinema is decked out with posters and other memorabilia. People have come, dressed up in costume. Everyone is there to celebrate the moment. As my daughter and I sit in the front row for the 3D movie, we can almost reach out and touch the action.
• At nearly every New Media Cincinnati Second Saturday event I’ve organized or facilitated, when I look around at faces old and new and see just how important this is to the community.
• This past month at every church service, when it came time to help project the media to the screen in support of whomever is speaking. I stretched to figure out how to get video and graphics up to the audience, often making it happen at the last minute.  Partly just to see if it could be done, but mostly because I want the story to be told.

I rejoice and long for more of those unattended moments, and I’m especially humbled when I’m able to do something to help make them happen.

Cover of Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

I did it! I finished Seth Godin’s book, Linchpin:  Are You Indispensable? (affiliate link)  I’d heard about it through a number of podcast interviews and at a local book discussion group, and I really had this one down to read this year.

This book scared me. I started reading it and put it down for awhile. Then I got a notice from the library that someone else had reserved it, so I needed to either finish it or turn it in.  The thing that really struck me about this book is what Seth calls “shipping”: getting work done and out the door.  I knew this and couldn’t just return it, so I spent a few hours earlier this week and finished it.

One thing Seth mentioned in the book is “The Cult of Done Manifesto,” which can be found on Bre Pettis’s blog. This is something that resonated so strongly with me that I found a color copy that Martha Hardy made, printed it into a poster, and put it up on the wall in my home where I can see it.

I mention all of this in this short video book review. Click here to see the embedded video.

Related articles

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Cover via Amazon

I don’t know why, but ever since I got a copy of No More Mondays, Dan Miller’s follow-up to 48 Days to the Work You Love, I kept it sitting among the other books in my collection (Thanks, Brent!). It had been calling to me, like any one of those things you know you should do but keep putting off.

Updating my reading list

Seriously. I went to the library awhile back and checked out a couple handfuls of books. I even began reading some other books I’d gotten over the past six months.

But this book kept staring at me. It was one of those books I was initially so excited about reading that I updated the Amazon reading list in my LinkedIn profile to mention it.

So at the beginning of the year I began reading it with the intention of finishing it. I’ve realized that the content is so important to where I am right now in my life.

I’ve done this in the past with books in the Harry Potter series. I read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix book during the first weekend it came out. I finished Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in about two days as well. I read the last book of the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, before going to bed the night it came out.

It’s easy for me to do this with fiction because I can get engrossed in the story. This book quickly began to unravel my thinking about what I do for work. Whenever this happens, I realize I have to slow down and be more deliberate as I read.

Predictors of Success

In chapter 6 of No More Mondays, entitled “Secure” or “Imprisoned”?, Dan Miller talks about  5 Predictors of Success. They are

1. Passion. A person with passion is a person who can set goals. Someone with passion has intense emotional excitement about something that goes beyond mere enthusiasm.
2. Determination. With determination you can set priorities to guide you even amid circumstances that are challenging and unexpected. You don’t see circumstances as obstacles. You stay focused on your goals.
3. Talent. Think about the things you love to do whether or not you get paid. That’s where talent lies. Talent gives the ability to focus. No one can be talented in every area. Where do you rise to the top?
4. Self-discipline. The one with self-discipline is not easily swayed by others. Acting on the other predictors of success requires self-discipline. But make no mistake, this acting is not hardship or suffering. Instead there is joy because you’re focused and intentional in what you do.
5. Faith. Dan describes faith as “that intangible ingredient that moves a person past the initial planning and persistence.” If you believe and can see what you want in your mind, then it can become a physical reality.

What really struck me as I read this, was the fourth predictor: self-discipline.  It was as though Dan had written it specifically to me three years ago for where I am right now. As you might recall, my three words for 2011 are Focus – Intent – Deliver.

Maybe this helps you, too.

Note: some links to content here are affiliate links.

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Image via Wikipedia

If you grew up watching Sesame Street in the 70′s like I did, you might remember the segment called “One of these things is not like the other. One of these things does not belong.” The point of it was to have us pick out which one didn’t fit.

Typing as a College Prep Course

Among the other classes that were availble in the College Prep (C/P) curriculum in high school, Typing seemed at first like it didn’t belong. It might seem like a no-brainer here in the 21st century, but at the time, it didn’t.  Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, American History – those were the ones we’d expect as college prep classes.

But Typing? Seriously? In the generations before mine, most typing was probably done by secretaries and administrative assistants? Back in the late 1980s we still used typewriters with auto-correction tape. Word processing software had yet to really become mainstream. I can still remember in junior high school nights of hunting and pecking on my Dad’s old typewriter in the basement, trying to get my papers done. Liquid paper was in full effect!

And yet now, as I look back on multiple careers of computer programming, blogging, and the like, I can’t help but see that Typing is clearly the one class that I use every single day! I cannot fathom what my life would be like if I had not learned this basic skill!

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I’ve known Debba Haupert for years, and I’ve been a fan of what she’s done in building community through Girlfriendology.com.  I’ve often mentioned what she’s doing as I’ve spoken around Cincinnati about personal branding, social media, and blogging.  Those of you in Cincinnati and beyond who’ve met Debba in person know what I’m talking about.

She understands friendship – not just online but in real life.  She is one of those people who just stands out from the crowd, through her business and volunteer work, her efforts in building community, and her heart for people in general. That’s why I really wanted her to speak at New Media Cincinnati, and she did a phenomenal job last month. Read more about that here and here.

Earlier this week I learned that she just published an eBook, and I’m so proud to be an affiliate: GIRLFRIENDOLOGY 101: Simple Steps to More Fulfilling Friendships

Hang on a minute, you say. You’re a guy, recommending I buy an eBook about female friendship. Isn’t that weird?

I don’t really see it that way.

You, like me, probably have women in your life who would love to be better friends, right? Buy this eBook and give it to them.

Some other reasons to buy this book:

• Learn 5 benefits of female friendship
• Answer the question: Aren’t guy friends the same?
• Find out 7 ways you can be a better friend
• 5 Steps to forgiving a friend and saving the friendship
• 3 Great ways to make your friend feel as special as her friendship is to you
• 5 Girlfriend traditions you can start with your friends
• How girlfriends are like ‘shoes’ – and you need lots of different kinds of them
• Find out the one female friendship ‘thing’ not covered on Girlfriendology.com
• Between now through March 16, 2011 midnight ET, get 50% off with the promo code: GF101

Whether you buy Debba’s eBook for these reasons or to just say thanks for all the work she’s done, I believe it’s well worth the money spent.

Congratulations, Debba!

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