Back in school we were required to make book covers for our schoolbooks. While there are a number of ways to accomplish this, the way we did it is with a paper grocery bag, as shown in the video below:

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In January 2002 I started my first blog. I’d read about Blogger for a few years and thought it was time to look deeper and see what I could do with it. I’ve been an introspective person for much of my life, so when it came time to come up with the title, I called it something that would signify the purpose for which it was created. I’d been journaling since I was in high school, and I saw blogging as an opportunity to do that. I named the blog “Journey Inside My Mind”.  It was a scary title. Even now, it still scares me a bit. What will I find there? What will others find there?

Even so it was fun. I remember the enjoyment I got out of figuring out how to get certain things done with the tool. I learned how to change my template, add features, and even had fun spilling my guts and letting the creative juices flow. I recall impromptu posts where I’d create a poem from scratch.

In 2005 I learned about audio blogging and started listening to podcasts. I learned how to collect podcasts in a single location to listen to as an alternative to the radio, customized for my personal listening experience. Ever since I was a kid, I thought I’d love to be a DJ. I also learned how to create audio blog posts and eventually spent many hours learning how to create my first podcast episode.

Five years ago this month, I released the first episode of the Journey Inside My Mind podcast. I recall many nights of sleep those first months, in which I found myself thoroughly enjoying the creative process of putting together an online audio program that others might listen to. It was a natural outgrowth to experiments I’d had with cassette tapes back in high school.

Not long after, I settled into a routine, a weekly schedule, and produced the show. It was fun, experimental, and I felt a lot of freedom.

Over time, I learned more about what other bloggers and podcasters were doing, and I imitated and drew upon that knowledge. I refined my production process, I did some behind the scenes work to improve SEO. I refined the program to work toward a standard format.

But eventually I began to feel more constrained, and producing the podcast became more of a chore. I knew I’d need to allot a certain block of time to get it done, and sometimes I began to wonder why I would do it at all. I didn’t have a large audience, and I wasn’t getting a lot of feedback. Even though I often felt like I was doing it more for other people than for myself.  So I lost interest, and last December, I put the show on an indefinite hiatus so that I could focus on other things that I felt had more importance.

Seven months later, I’ve rekindled that enjoyment for producing that podcast again. Last night I found myself doing more experiments with Audacity, just like I’d done five years ago.  And I later recorded the first episode in the next stage of the Journey Inside My Mind podcast.

The point of all of this? Maybe you’re not into podcasting, but Twitter or Facebook or some other tool has gotten boring to you.  Maybe you’ve stopped using it. Maybe there’s a blog that has been collecting dust in the corner of the internet.  What new life can you breathe into it?

Make the tools fun again. Retool and rethink. Change things up. Make your own game. Make them useful to you. Let your passion show.

I don’t know how long this stage of the Journey Inside My Mind podcast will last. I just know it’s fun again.

Mitch Joel has an intriguing post entitled “The Next Big Thing Online Could Well Be Anonymity“. One of many things that stood out for me is this statement:

With all of this personal information that we’re publishing online, people still have a need/want to speak anonymously.

Margo Rose recently asked me for what thoughts I had on future trends in social media. I’d already sent my reply to her email, but I could have easily pointed her to Mitch’s post if I’d read it beforehand.

More Now that we’re all connected and have the ability to share as much about ourselves and the world around us, should we? Already many, including me, have taken steps to reclaim some of that privacy.

What do you think?

No one ever gets admitted to the hospital because everything is going alright with them.  Similarly, most people don’t call technical support when the computer system is behaving superbly. Behavioral economists Daniel Kahneman and Dan Ariely have some interesting insights into how we can provide better service.

Pain, memory, and great service

In his TED talk entitled “The riddle of experience vs memory,” behavioral economics founder Daniel Kahneman illustrates how our “experiencing selves” and our “remembering selves” perceive happiness differently.

Kahneman describes how in one case a painful medical procedure is perceived as much more painful, even though it lasts only a short time. A similar procedure conducted for a longer duration, might still be painful, but not as much when it is looked back upon afterward.

Click here to watch the embedded video, if you are unable to see it.

Watching this video reminded me of Dan Ariely‘s talk, ”Are we in control of our decisions?” In this TED talk Ariely mentions how his experience as a burn victim in a hospital led him to study intensity of pain over time. He concluded that if his nurses removed his bandages slowly, giving him breaks, the overall experience of pain he had would have been better.

Click here to watch the embedded video, if you are unable to see it.

Providing better service

In my job I support our implementation of Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft CRM.  When our clients sign contracts to do business with us, they understand – or at least we try to help to – that this is not a short-term relationship.  The experience of supporting the software is arduous at times, both for the client and for us who support it.

Maybe there is something to be said about letting the process go for a longer time than shorter. Even while enduring the painful process of change and ramping up and all the assorted technical issues that may arise. The end result, the memory of the experience may be one where the client will say, “Sure, we had some issues, but they were able to help us sort them out, and we’re the better for it.”

This goes to overall brand experience as well. What are our clients reminded of when they think of our company, its products and services, and our service as well?

At our recent users conference, one of our clients mentioned that an employee of one of their clients has been bringing them business. Each time he’s gone to work for a different company, he’s recommended our client to do his company’s payroll because of the great service he’s received over the years. I could hear the pride in our client as she mentioned this to me.

Your turn

Does this make sense? I’m writing this relatively quick, and I’m not sure if what I mean to say is coming across that well.  Feel free to build upon this in the comments.

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A common proverb goes something like this:

Catch a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.

The point of this is that I can only go so far if you catch a fish for me every day. If you teach me how to fish so that I can do it for myself, then I’m good to go with or without your being around. I need to learn how to take care of things on my own.

Teach me how to cook: a story

I confess that my wife is the one who does most of the cooking in our home. If you’ve seen me, it’s obvious – my body shape indicates that she’s fed me well (heh). But I don’t want her to do all the cooking all the time, and I recognize that it’s a bit selfish on my part to expect her to cook for me. Especially when I can step up and do more cooking.

The problem is that I don’t work well with clutter. I cannot begin to think about making more dirty dishes when there are some that already in the sink. I have to start with a clean kitchen, or at least clean enough for me to cook. I was taught to clean as I cook, so that the cleanup time and effort are minimized. How can I do that if there is a mess waiting for me before I even begin?

Yesterday afternoon my wife decided to get started on dinner, but she wanted me to make lunch. I obliged but was soon overwhelmed by how busy our small apartment kitchen had become. I vented my frustration.

“Never mind,” my wife said, “I’ll do it. I’ll make lunch.”

“No,” I told her. “I need to learn how to deal with this.”

So I took a step back and expressed what my real concern was, and we talked through it. And, guess what? Our daughter said it was the best spaghetti she’s had in a long time!

Teach me how to do my job – another story

I knew when I started my job as a Business Analyst that it was going to be intense because I’ve had so much to learn and so little time to do it.

At work I’m very involved with getting our clients set up with Microsoft Dynamics CRM and everything about our customization that goes along with it. Different people have specific skills and responsibilities, and I’m still learning every day what my role on the team is, since it’s evolved.

So I’m bent on figuring out how to deploy new and import existing CRM organizations, pursuing my coworkers to let me know how I can help move the implementation process along to please our clients. What pieces can they teach me to do so that the end result can be done?

Sometimes my coworkers will take care of something I’ve had a question about for me. I’d rather have been taught what I needed to do. I recognize the element of timing. But still, I love when one of them makes the time to show me how to do something so that I don’t necessarily need their help if they are not around.

I’m being vague on purpose, because this doesn’t apply to a specific thing about work. It applies to my work overall.

Back to fishing

I haven’t literally been fishing in many years, but I can certainly appreciate what the proverb is saying. I recognize my own need to delegate and train others in what I know how to do, both in my paid work and volunteer work. It’s not so that they can take my job. Rather, it’s so that the job can be done, maybe even better than what I can do by myself!

I look forward to it because I’m focused on making the result the best it can be.

Comments!

I do so love comments.

What I need

Examples and short vignettes of how you’ve seen this in your life. Build on what I’ve shared here. Add to the conversation.

What I don’t need

Put down remarks or unsolicited advice on how I should have or could have handled these situations better. Blatant self-promotion. (Remember the Comment policy.)

Make it a great day!

Welcome to the first of a new month!

Here are some tasks I do at the beginning of every month to help get it off to a good start. Feel free to adapt these as your own, as well as share your own in the comments.

3 Tips for a Great Start to the New Month

1. Change your passwords. Email, social networking sites. Really any site that requires you to log in.  Also, don’t use the same password for each website. You can use a Password Manager program or develop your own system (I’ll have to dig around for the link to the guy whose process I use.). Depending on how many accounts you have across multiple platforms, this may be a little time-consuming, so be sure to set aside some time to knock this out.
2. Archive and mark read all email prior to the beginning of last month. If you haven’t read it by now, you probably won’t. In GMail you can just archive the messages in case you need to find them later. I’ll keep messages from last month in my Inbox. Here’s how I do it:
   1. At the GMail search box, type before:yyyy/mm/dd (Substitute the actually Year, Month, and Day accordingly.) For this month it would be 2010/05/01
   2. Select All
   3. Mark As Read
   4. Archive
3. Declare RSS bankruptcy. You probably won’t get to all those blog posts, etc., in your RSS reader. I use many for multiple purposes. Google Reader is one of my favorites. To declare RSS bankruptcy in Google Reader so you can start over:
   1. Click on the All Items link in the left sidebar
   2. Click the Mark All As Read in the main section.

There you go! Hopefully these tips will help you start your month off great. Please let me know your tips (technical or non-technical) in the comments below.

Make it a great day!

Daniel Johnson, Jr.

Taste of Cincinnati is an annual tradition every Memorial Day weekend. The city of Cincinnati closes off several blocks downtown, and food vendors set up and offer a Taste of what they typically serve at their restaurants in the Greater Cincinnati area. It’s a chance for folks like me to “graze”.

I remember the first one I went to in 1993, when I later told my girlfriend Jennie that I loved her. We later married.

I’ve been to Taste of Cincinnati 4 out of the past 5 years since we’ve been back in town.

This year was interesting because I went by myself. It was great to meet up with some friends I know through New Media Cincinnati.

Tonight I had the wonderful privilege to speak at the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Job Search Ministry in Anderson Township, here in Cincinnati.  They had approached me a few months ago and asked if I would come in and talk about effective networking.

When I think of effective networking, and the extent of my skill with it, I think of the book Never Eat Alone (affiliate link) by Keith Ferrazzi. As I mentioned in the talk, I had two different people recommend the book to me when I was in a job search back in 2006. I have since read the book two times over, and I’m in the middle of my third time. The book hasn’t changed; the person reading it has.

I structured my talk around the the before, during, and after – ongoing stages of building relationships, with twelve points taken from the book. I could have shared many more, but 12 was enough.

Below is the Slideshare of my presentation. If you’d like, you can download a PDF version.

Some other things I mentioned:

• Crying while eating alone (video)
• JibberJobber.com for personal relationship management
• How I Got My Job, job search success stories podcast
• Next Tuesday I’ll be sharing my own recent How I Got My Job story with the $timulus Networking group, which meets at 7 PM at the West Chester Barnes & Noble. The audience will ask me the questions I typically ask on the program! It will be recorded for release on the program.
• Connect with me on LinkedIn – (be sure to mention where we know each other to make it more personal)
• New Media Cincinnati social media networking group. Add yourself to the mailing list to be notified of upcoming events.

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[PHOTO CREDIT]: Steve Molloy

Some books are just worth buying.

It takes a lot for me to fork over some money to buy a book that I could just as easily check out from the library.  I do that a lot, with books, movies, CDs. I’ll try them out by checking them out from the library for awhile.

I kinda figured that David Meerman Scott‘s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, would be one I’d wind up buying, when, as the book came due at the library, I’d bookmarked certain sections with slips of paper for easy reference later. I’d heard about it from a number of places and figured it was finally time to read it myself. It’s another one of those books for which I’m glad I’ve only read one chapter at a time.

The book had holds on it, so I wasn’t able to renew it.

So, I’m going to buy it. Really. It’s that good and that important to me.

If you’d like to, you can pick up a copy for yourself using my Amazon affiliate link.

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