The Bad Client Vendor Relationship

I hope no one takes offense to this video but I had to laugh at the similarities to many real world situations in business. I have to admit I've been on both sides of this scenario myself and it helps me keep perspective and treat my vendors as I expect to be treated by my clients. A picture truly can be worth a thousand words!

Possibly The Most Powerful App on the iPhone

I admit I'm a total iPhone Geek. In fact I've been an "Anything-Remotely-Related-to-Apple-in-any-Way-Fanatic-Geek", ever since falling in love with my Mac Plus 23 years ago.

So it should come as no surprise that I have about 60 apps on "my precious" iPhone, some of them fun, several of them totally useless, and a few downright revolutionary.

I'd be happy to tell you about some of my favorite third-party apps in upcoming posts, apps like Things, Evernote, Facebook, Pandora, Amazon, Solebon, Remote, etc., but the most powerful app I'm talking about here is native to the iPhone so no extra cost is involved and I bet it will increase your productivity like no other app available for any cost. So without further ado, I present to you the iPhone Timer! Yes the lowly Timer. I've discovered the power of my little iPhone timer app in getting more things done in less time.

For me it all started with my wife Nancy, who is a big FlyLady fan. Through FlyLady, she learned how seemingly big time consuming tasks could be accomplished in little 15 minute increments. She came to really appreciate her little $5 dollar kitchen timer and really became efficient with household chores and little accomplishments. Actually Nancy discovered her timer while raising our 3 children. The timer brought order to chaos, using it to settle disputes over sharing, establishing quiet times, countdown to bedtime, etc. For us, it was miraculous how our kids would argue with us about bedtime, but not with the timer. It in essence became a third party authority figure that was not to be challenged.

It took me a while to catch on to how that power could be transferred to my business life, but now I have seen the light and it's truly empowering and liberating! Need to post a blog? Set the timer. It's incredible what you can post in 15 minutes. In fact I'm now considering a 15 minute blog. Instead of 140 characters counting down like Twitter, the post entry box would count down 15 minutes. Great for keeping your flow of great thoughts going without getting bogged down or discouraged over the time commitment. (See if I follow through on that idea...) Need to follow up on a call you've been putting off? Set the timer and tell the person you are calling you only have 15 minutes. (Hint) Set your timer buzzer to your phone ring for a few more than 15 minutes, when it goes off, you can say you have to jump and they will understand. I also recommend the timer for tasks you really enjoy like checking in on Twitter. It can save you from blowing 2 hours before realizing it!

Well, you get the idea. Why don't you take up my challenge and see what you can do in 15 minute increments. BTW, I'm sure Blackberry's and all other phones and PDA's have a timer function built in, although the iPhone timer just looks amazing as it ticks off the seconds!

Feel free to comment back and let me know what you are doing in 15 minutes! (Keep it clean:)

Seth Godin's Dolphin Leather Story

Seth Godin is one of my favorite writers on all things marketing and business. I just had to reblog his post about Dolphin Leather because it hit me between the eyes. He nailed it. So many business owners are struggling with a doom and gloom attitude because their business isn't working the way it always did before, and yet I am seeing and hearing about so many that are going out and reinventing themselves, getting serious about their marketing, improving their systems, rethinking their processes, and staying (or getting) excited about their businesses. Read Seth's post and enjoy.

There's a story in the bible with very specific instructions for building an ark. Included in the instructions is a call for using tanned dolphin leather. Regardless of your feelings about the historical accuracy of the story, it's an interesting question: why create an impossible mission like that? Why encourage people who might travel 100 miles over their entire lifetime to undertake a quest to find, capture, kill, skin and eventually tan a dolphin?

My friend Adam had an interesting take on this. He told me that the acquisition of the leather is irrelevant. It was the quest that mattered. Having a community-based quest means that there's less room for whining, for infighting and for dissolution. Having a mission not only points everyone in the same direction, it also creates motion. And motion in any direction is often better than no motion at all.

All around you, people are telling you two things:
1. whatever you want, forget it, it's impossible, and
2. sit still, preserve resources, lay low.

And yet, the people who are succeeding, creating change and (not coincidentally) are happier aren't listening to either of these pieces of advice. Instead, they're on the search for dolphin leather.

Frank Sinatra had it wrong. Your dream shouldn't be impossible, but it sure helps if it's improbable. Don't choose your dreams based on what is certain to happen, choose them based on what's likely to cause the change you want to occur around you.

Maybe the Best Productivity Tool Ever!

OK, I'm a sucker for anything remotely related to improving productivity in any way.  Especially if it involves technology.  Well, I came across an app that may very well become the most useful tool in my productivity arsenal.  It's called Evernote and  you owe it to yourself to check it out and get to know how it can organize all your information chaos, especially if you a knowledge/information junkie like me.

As described on their website, Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at any time, from anywhere.

It even allows you to take photos of whiteboards, web pages, notes, business cards, airline tickets, napkin sketches, you name it, and it will actually recognize your text or handwritten scribbles, convert them to searchable text and find them across all the computers and devices you use.

I attached a screen shot of their Mac app, you know what a Mac fanatic I am, but it also has a version for Windows.

This product rocks!  Really!  check it out.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

JJ Abrams' Mystery Box

I absolutely love this talk by JJ Abrams at TED. Now I know why I am so drawn to all of Abrams' work, Lost, Alias, Cloverfield, Mission Impossible. It has to do with Abrams' mastery of mystery.

He talks about buying a Mystery Box at a little magic shop in NYC. It was decades ago that he went there with his Grandfather and bought the box for $15, completely sealed with a big question mark on the front. I can't imagine the discipline it took to leave the box unopened on a shelf in his office! But a few things he said really rang true for me. Here are a few highlights if you don't have the 18 minutes to watch his talk...

• To Abrams, the unopened mystery box represents infinite possibility, infinite hope, infinite potential.

• Mystery is the catalyst to imagination, it's more important than knowledge, and mystery boxes are in everything.

• He is an Apple fanatic (as am I) and when he sits down at his PowerBook laptop, he feels inspired by the technology in front of him. His Mac asks him "what are you going to write worthy of me?"

• The blank page is a mystery box, waiting to be filled with spirit, thought, and emotion.

• Going to the movies, watching the lights go down is a mystery box.

I love what he implies about technology inspiring creative people to be creative, which inspires technology people, an endless look of inspiration.

Check out the video for yourself and be inspired!

Check Out Flock

I've been a Firefox fan for quite a while now but I think I may have found a browser that is perfect for the new social web.  Check out Flock if you're at all into social media.  It combines all the features of Firefox 3 with all your favorite social networking tools integrated into the left side bar.  I'm brand new to it but already impressed!


 

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Technology and Losing Weight

OK, so I am actually losing weight and excited about it. What did it take? My wife's gentle promptings? My frustration with tighter and tighter fitting jeans? My desire to look better and more fit again? Maybe all of the above. But as a tech lover and iPhone fan, it took a little app called Lose It! to get me committed.

It's pretty hard to believe but the process of goal setting it took me through and applying an actual date, coupled with the forced accountability of knowing I am entering everything I eat into the app, along with my exercise for the day, has actually made it fun to lose weight. And I love the little downward line chart showing my weight progress! I'm a fan of this cool little app and it's free!

Facebook is here to stay

Interesting...
A few months ago I connected to an old friend 3,000 miles away on Facebook that I hadn’t seen for over 10 years. He is 50 years old. But what was really amazing is that his mother, a grandmother with 10 grandkids, asked me to be her friend. I’d say Facebook has hit Gladwell’s proverbial tipping point.

According to Michael Arrington of TechCrunch, Facebook is now nearly twice the size of MySpace worldwide!

In November 2008 Facebook drew 200 million unique worldwide visitors; more than 1 in 5 people who accessed the Internet that month visited the site. When sites are that big growth generally stagnates, but in Facebook’s case it’s still skyrocketing. In December, 222 million people visited the site says newly released Comscore stats, a 10.8% month over month growth rate. 22% of the total Internet audience went to Facebook in December.

Facebook now has nearly 100 million more worldwide users than MySpace, which added 4 million new users in December to 125 million total. The page view difference is more dramatic - Facebook had 80 billion monthly page views in December v. 43 billion for MySpace. Just six months ago the sites were about the same size.

With Facebook’s micro-targeting capabilities and massive growing audience, it can’t be ignored in any serious marketer’s media mix.

I've been using tinyurl for some time now and love it. However, I came across this really cool service that not only shrinks your long url, but also allows you to add notes and tags and track detailed analytics. You can track your audience's clicks wherever your url is posted; on social networks, emails, blogs, etc.

Check it out at http://budurl.com/vdj4

Start the New Year Right

I guess I'm a creature of habit, for good or for bad. One good habit I've developed is my New Year goal setting exercise. I love the opportunity to "reset" my life for the new year, throwing out old habits and starting on some new ones.

My favorite book to read this time of year is The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. He's an undisputed authority on leadership and success principles and gives us 7 things that can improve every area of our lives in 2009. I've also come to realize these principles apply brilliantly when it comes to the marketing of your business. Consider reading this timeless book and follow his suggestions:

1. Be proactive.
I don't think you can be proactively reactive. And yet much of our daily lives are spent in a reactive state, reacting to emails, reacting to interruptions, reacting to our circumstances, the weather, the news, other people's opinions. As humans, we have the freedom to choose before we respond to stimulus. Covey suggests a thirty-day test of proactivity and see how it affects your circle of influence. Let's act on it in 2009.

2. Begin with the end in mind.
One of the most effective ways to begin with the end in mind is to develop a personal mission statement. I've used and was very pleased with the Mission Statement Builder at www.franklincovey.com. It's a great tool that I highly recommend using to start your new year right.

3. Put first things first.
This is one of the hardest things for me to do consisently. I think I have a bit of a self-destruct mechanism that pulls me easily off my best intentions. This one chapter alone is worth the cost of the book as it outlines the Four Quadrants: 1) Important, Urgent, 2) Important, Not Urgent, 3) Not Important, Urgent, 4) Not Important, Not Urgent. The goal is to live your life in Quadrant 2 which is close to impossible if you are not in control of your time management.

4. Think Win/Win.
Is it really possible to create win/win situations in every interaction and relationship in your life? Covey believes the answer is yes. The problem is that many of us have Win/Lose scripting deeply embedded in our internal code. How can you seek mutual benefit in each of your relationships in 2009?

5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
First I always laugh now when I hear this statement, ever since watching Mystery Men where one of the "Super Heroes" uses this statement and others like it ad nauseum in his comical admonishment of Ben Stiller who calls him Captain Conundrum. In all seriousness though, I believe life would be much easier if we took the time to learn and practice the art of "empathetic communication.

6. Synergize.
Covey believes that valuing the differences is the essence of synergy–the mental, the emotional, the psychological differences between people. Think about people who typically see things differently than you do. Look for ways to synergize (the highest level of communication) with those people, instead of being defensive (lowest level of communication), or even respectful (compromising level of communication).

7. Sharpen the saw.
The seventh habit is about renewing the four dimensions of your nature–physical, spiritual, mental, and social/emotional. What steps do you take to renew each of these dimensions? Exercise, prayer and meditation, reading good books or taking a course, taking time for friends, family and community...these are just a few things you can consider in your goals for 2009.

Good luck with your 2009 goal setting and Happy New Year!