A beautiful experience

A special thanks to my heroes (a rare personal note...)

Sometimes life gets busy.  Sometimes client demands and keeping up with the latest online keep me up until ungodly hours of the morning.  In those times, I often forget to reflect on how truly blessed I am to have so many special people in my life.  And if you are as lucky as I am, you end up with a mentor or two who (to steal a line from Stephen Covey) see the potential in you so clearly that you come to see it yourself. 

My father has been my "life-mentor" since, well, I came into this world.  The sacrifices he made for me as a child were overwhelming, and I wouldn't be where I am today without him.  He's a truly remarkable man.  He's also the only man in his 60's I know that is pissed off that he wasn't born in this generation because of the amazing things that are happening.  Right this second he's probably watching a video on YouTube.

My business mentor has been in my life for a much shorter period of time, but has made an enormous impact.  He has helped me through a complete transformation of my company when many other people around me said it wasn't possible.  It was.  Basile is a technophobe, but has created probably one of the most innovative services I have seen in a long time (it's called Upopolis, and you can learn more here).  It puts laptops in the hands of sick children in hospital, and connects them to the outside world and to information about their conditions in language they can understand. 

To my heros in business and in life - thank you for teaching me that if you never stop learning and believe in yourself, great things are possible.  You have made more of a difference than you could ever imagine.  I owe you a lifetime of gratitude. 

If you have any heros in your life, now would be as good a time as any to let them know that they've made a difference.

Nobody cares about you: 3 ways web 2.0 has changed your job.

There's a great post over at OnlineMarketer that describes 3 ways web 2.0 has changed the way we market and sell products.  Here they are:

1.  You need to attract people to your message, not push it out at them.

2. You need to watch what they do.  And not just online, either.  Seek your customers out in the real world and watch there as well.  A little anthropology never hurt anyone.

3. You need to listen when they talk back (talk back you say?  what's that?).  Oh yes, they will talk back.

WHY is this important NOW?  Well, nobody cares about you.  In fact, they never did.  But not only can they ignore your message more than ever, they have the power to determine the fate of your brand overnight.  Life for marketers ain't so easy anymore.

And it couldn't be more exciting.

The iPhone will fail. So will convergence.

Or at least that's what Al Ries said last year.  Specifically, he said this:

But when the iPhone flops and his hopes are dashed once again like has happened with the cellphone/music player, the universal remote and tv/pc before it, I think Jason along with many others will finally be unsold on convergence.

Well, somebody forgot to tell the millions of passionate Apple fans.  It appears as though somebody forgot to tell MIT as well, as they are hosting a conference on (of all things) convergence.  I wish I could go.

The idea of "one thing" controlling our entire lives has been around for quite some time now.  However, it would appear that with the iPhone, and now Blackberry following suit with the Storm, we are actually getting closer to that reality.

This will have a major impact on business models around the world.  Not only will that one device DO everything for us, it will connect us to everybody and everything around us. True 1-to-1 communication models are not far behind.

Are you fundraising during the recession? Focus on major gifts.

The markets are taking a nose-dive. Confidence is at an all-time low. Even a $700 billion bailout doesn't seem to be enough. That's bad news for people who need to ask for money from the affluent, right?

Think again.

According to a report from Phoenix Marketing International, a full 65% of Mass Affluent investors say they have not changed their long-term investment strategy. Some, in fact (like Warren Buffet), are using the current crisis as a buying situation. We have also just seen people give in record numbers to Barrack Obama's presidential campaign.

The logical thing to do in a recession would be to leave your donors alone while they sort out the mess. After all, people are losing their jobs and struggling to make ends meet. While this logic may work for your smaller donors who are only worried about putting sandwiches on the table, your major donors see this as a short-term problem.

TAKEAWAY: major donors will still give during the recession, or shortly after. GET CLOSE TO THEM RIGHT NOW!

Thanks to MarketingCharts for the tip.

9 things you need to know about the future of social media interactions

Jan Chipchase is the principal researcher for Nokia. As one of my favourite writers, Grant McCraken says, Jan is the hardest working man in anthropology.

In a presentation made at the LIFT 2008 conference, Jan gave a presentation on the 9 trends shaping the future of social interactions. If you want to understand where the the world is heading before we get there, take the time to watch this. It clocks in at about 23 minutes, but it's well worth the time. For relationship marketers and digital marketers everywhere, it has HUGE implications.

Enjoy.

Innovation happens when we need it most

Innovation needs constraints.  When the constraints are BIG, so is the CHANGE.  As Seth Godin points out in a post about the economy, our world is about to get infinitely more productive in 3 ways:

1.  Productivity in energy.  We are on the verge of finding ways to make the energy we use on a daily basis renewable.  Imagine having FREE incremental units of energy available for free, and what you could do with it.

2.  Productivity in people.  Web 2.0 is on the verge of reshaping the way we work, and organize as groups.  Right now we are only scratching the surface of what can be done with social networks and global supply chains.

3.  Productivity in marketing.  The waste of reaching the masses is slowly trickling away (goodbye untargeting mass media campaigns).

The change that these 3 things alone will bring boggles my mind.  And excites me to no end.  At a time when we sorely need it, we are living on the verge of a truly transformed world.

BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS!

3 ways design can help you through the recession

Bruce Nussbaum has a great post over at the businessweek.com design blog.  In the post, he tells us of 3 things that HP's design chief Sam Lucente has built into HP's culture, turning it into a true design leader.  Read the full post here.

Here are Sam's 3 points:

1- Design Can Simplify.  Simplicity saves money and makes things easier to use.  A classic win-win if I've ever seen one.  So, find ways to simplify EVERYTHING your organization does without losing any effectiveness.

2- Design Can Differentiate. You need to have the "next big thing".  Only a design thinking mindset can get you there.  Remember, unique is greater than admirable.

3- Design Can Innovate. And what a better time to innovate when you have little other choice?  Take the lead of Apple who invested heavily in the ipod during the last economic downturn, and came to market with a true game-changer when consumer confidence returned.  Brilliant.

Will your mother understand your innovation?

Google does a pretty damn good job on the whole innovation thing.  No matter who compiles the list, they always end up on the "world's most innovative companies" list. 

Marissa Mayer is Google's head of search products and user experience.  Here's what she had to say about innovation at a recent conference:

Mayer's litmus test for appropriate innovation: her mum. Will she get it? Keep people at heart of everything (from the Business of Design breakfast on businessweek.com).

Why is it important that your mother understand your innovation?  Because then you are sure to keep people at the middle of all your decisions during the innovation process.  And that, is a great business practice.

Your brand is NOT a logo

Seth Godin is on the mark, as usual, when he says that your brand is not a logo.  Your brand is what people think and feel about you.  When's the last time you bought something for the cool logo?  Never, I'm guessing.  That's because what you think and feel about a company typically isn't influenced by a logo. 

Seth has the prescription for what I would call LOGOITIS:

...take the time and money and effort you'd put into an expensive logo and put them into creating a product and experience and story that people remember instead.

See here for a humerous take on Seth's advice (attacking advertising instead of logos):

For decommodifiers, everything is an opportunity. Even a recession.

Decommodifiers are opportunists.  Where most see challenges and roadblocks, decommodifiers see solutions to these challenges.  For them, the game isn't over, the rules have merely changed.  And man, are the rules about to be changed.

We happen to be living in what is about to be one of the most challenging economic climates the world has ever seen.  Right now the U.S. presidential debate is blaring in the background, and every day Americans are asking the candidates what they are going to do about the economy.

Here we have the CEO of Ryan Air, Michael O'Leary, saying that out of this economic crisis will come the ability to provide trans-Atlantic flights for less than $20 (click here for the article).  How?  The airlines that have set themselves up for failure will not survive this recession, there will be a fire sale on plane fleets around the world, and thus the cost basis for the survivors goes way down. 

Think this sounds like lunacy?  That's exactly how the world got high-speed internet at affordable rates. 

The greatest innovations come from the greatest constraints.  The world is about to change.  Buckle your seatbelt.