Quick update on life in my world… Welcome all new subscribers (via email and RSS).  I like to try and update everyone at least once-a-month so you know where I will be and where we can meet!

I am on my way to London in a few hours and will be facilitating a free talk tomorrow night. If you are around, please stop by!

I am then teaching in London for a few days (a few seats still open – contact me) and then will play tourist on Saturday, leaving on Sunday.  After arriving home Sunday night, I’ll be heading to Raleigh, NC (actually, Cary) on Monday night to teach a class there on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I’ll be home with my boys for a few days (then they go on a cool vacation) and I am headed to Boise, Idaho and Phoenix, Arizona.  I’ll be on the road around the world a lot (as usual) for the remainder of the year.  Please contact me if you’d like to meet in person.

I have just received the next comic strip, which I should be posting while I am in London.  If you enjoy gummy bears this one is for you!

I am starting to vet jobs for distribution at www.implementingscrum.com/scrum-jobs.  Take a look there and let me know if it interests you.  It is free.  Also… it is international (anyone interested in Vietnam?). If you have some REAL jobs within your organization, this is the place to let some very high qualified people know about them!

There are some great things coming — as usual.  I always want to hear your comments so please keep those coming to me too.

Have a great day/evening.

Change your world today.

- mike vizdos

Last week I spent a lot of time on improving my own skills… so we’ll see how that plays out in the future!

I have been talking about connecting people looking for Scrum Jobs with REAL people who have Scrum Job Openings in their Organization.

Over the past few weeks I have been silently getting names of people who are looking for Scrum Jobs.  I expect now that anyone who visits www.implementingscrum.com/scrum-jobs and is looking for a job WILL go out and do this.  NOW.

Also… and here is the challenge… if you are in an organization who is looking for a person with Scrum Jobs skills, please go to www.implementingscrum.com/scrum-jobs and see if I can help you make a connection.

What is the fee for this?

FREE.  Zero.  Zilch.   Nada.

Why am I doing this?

Mainly good Karma.

Pass it on!  Twitter this link.  Retwitter it if you see it.  Put it up on FaceBook.  E-mail it to your friends.  Start to create some buzzzzzz for this.  Please.

So… can you help me meet the challenge of actually making the ultimate hook-up of at least one person looking for a Scrum Job with a person in an organization who needs a qualified person here.

Transparency.

Trust.

Walking what I teach…

Let’s see how it works!

Good luck.

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

The chat test today during the two hour-long sessions was a success.

I learned many things, and, as all things we do with Scrum the next iteration will be even better.

I can go into the retrospective we had — but suffice it to say that there were enough in the “cons” section (versus “pro”) for trying another tool.

So.

From 13:00 – 14:00 EST (GMT-4), Friday, June 12, 2009, we will test a new page (it is located at www.implementingscrum.com/chat).  And a new chat system.  Feel free to go in and take a look at it ahead of time; however, I will plan on being there for an hour in the afternoon to discuss a Product Backlog for the ImplementingScrum site.

As a stakeholder, I’d really appreciate like your input.

Tony is back from a short vacation and we will have yet another comic strip out early next week.

And.

I’ll make an announcement on Friday night that will put another service “live” on this site.  And yes, as usual, it is still all free.  I do love what I do for a living, and thank all my clients (and future clients) for the work I get so that I can give back to the community through initiatives like this site, www.implementingscrum.com.

And hey… if you are not following me on Twitter yet… do so on the right side of the screen in the sidebar.  It is 2009 and there is so much GREAT stuff on that system about agile and scrum.  Stuff you should not miss!  Including real-time announcements that I do not make via the blog entry or e-mail (it is usually THAT time sensitive!).

I hope to see you online to discuss the Product Backlog for the site at 13:00 EST (GMT-4) at the following address:  www.implementingscrum.com/chat.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

I want to try a new service so if you have time Thursday, June 11, 2009, to try this with me — I will be online from 10:00AM – 11:00AM and then 2:00PM – 3:00PM (Both are in Eastern Time (GMT-4) – I am currently in Richmond, Virginia, USA).

It is an interactive chat session that may have some potential for all of us.

See you Thursday! Let’s see where this leads…

- mike vizdos

And — THANK YOU for waiting — a BRAND NEW comic strip. I am excited to get this new one out to you. I hope you enjoy…

A Sprint is typically 30 days (can be less — more for another posting) and a lot of places I go to and consult with look at the word “Sprint” as a bad word.

The general idea of a Sprint is for all stakeholders to get into a regular heartbeat of delivery (you know, so the team can deliver potentially shippable products on a regular basis).

For some teams, this looks like a continuous non-stop treadmill or running in a mouse cage (do you get a good visual on that now?).

And it goes on and on and on…. with teams never getting to “Done.”

This is sad.

How can you keep this from happening?

Well, I see a few ways that I’d like to examine today.

I want to examine how this is not a bad word or term and how it can be used effectively for sustainable development.

The whole idea of Scrum is to produce working software on a regular basis.

Working Software.

Say it with me now… “Working Software.”

Nothing else. Everything else is, well, not “working software.”

This does not mean the team has to forget about the differences between the Product Backlog and the Sprint Backlog (hmmm… foreshadowing my next two topics and comic strips) — because this is one of the ways a team usually gets to this point.

Think about it.

Who is committing to the work you are doing as a team during the Sprint?

If you are on the floor laughing, or have a blank stare on your face right now… let me re-frame the question to…

Who is SUPPOSED to commit the the work you are doing as a team during the Sprint?

If all else fails, what is the last thing we do before starting a new Sprint over again?

Stop and think about this.

It begins with the letter, “R”.

A Retrospective is probably needed.

Maybe this means reading a book about it.

And I mean READING it until the end and then actually PRACTICING what you read about.

There is a night and day difference between a crappy Retrospective and a good one.  Retrospectives work.

Use them.

Find out why your team thinks the word “Sprint” is a bad word.

It should not be a never-ending cycle.

Really.

And.

If it is…

Maybe it is time to perform an “Abnormal Termination” of the Sprint, call it a day, and go back to the Scrum Basics.

Hope this helps stop the insanity of never-ending-Sprints.

What else can you recommend to help stop this?

Send your comments and share some of your experiences.

Thank you!

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

Welcome back to a new week at www.implementingscrum.com.

This week (tomorrow night, actually) I will introduce the first of a comic strip in a three part series (of course punctuated by other blog postings) over the next three weeks.

As usual, this blog posting can be consumed and enjoyed alone.

However.

As with all the comic strips Tony and I have published here over the years, please remember that you should take these in moderation.

And context.

And.

Use each one of them to start having some tough conversations about Software Development in your environment today.

Hope you have a great week, and enjoy the NEW comic strip coming to you tomorrow (I am excited…. FINALLY… I know… I know….).

Thank you!

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

I started using “Solo Scrum” again. This means that I am playing the three roles all by myself.

What are the three roles?

1) Product Owner
2) Team Member
3) ScrumMaster.

After only one day (Thursday) of using this again, some big things jumped out at me as lessons learned.

Take a look at the video and please provide comments to what you see so far.

Is this kind of thing useful to you? Do you see similar mistakes?

I’ll see if I can make some improvements on Friday and share them with you.

Have an awesome weekend (or welcome to Monday!).

Thank you!

- mike vizdos
www.implementingscrum.com
www.michaelvizdos.com

Thanks for reading this latest blog entry at www.implementingscrum.com.

Today I want to introduce you to the latest translated cartoon on the site in Tagalog.

Quick… What country is this the official language for? C’mon… no peeking at Google (smile).

I’ll let you know (since I really did not know either!)… it is the official language of the Philippines.

This brings the total count of translated versions for the Pig and Chicken Story to over a dozen now!

Thanks to all who have contributed so far, including Randy Dichoso for this one!

Interested in translating this into your language?

Contact me and I’ll let you know how to do it.

This continues to show the truly International flavor of Scrum and where it is being adopted everywhere in the world.

I hope you are having a great day (or morning or night!)…

I’ve got three more brand new cartoons in the pipeline over the next three weeks… on brand new topics and exploring even further into this world of Implementing Scrum we are all so involved in.

[warning -- a little bit long -- over 802.13453223 words -- sorry]

This week has been instrumental in helping me get some great clarity of where I am taking the site in the future.  Some people I know missed my original posting earlier this week — so if you did not read them go back a few posting to see what has lead to this posting tonight!

I am headed out this weekend (a camping trip with my two boys) and will return on Monday afternoon.

And.

I have no travel plans for next week.

So here is the Product Backlog for the site (prioritized, not estimated yet) — we’ll see what makes it to the Sprint Backlog for next week.

1) Cartoons – Publish one translated (of the original chicken and pig) along with a new one (this is actually on Sprints!).  We have three more comic strips in the pipeline for release on the blog in the future.

2) Job Board – The infrastructure is setup.  Now we need about 3-5 people to help bring it to fruition.  I need to schedule a call or start an email thread with those who are interested in helping me on this project.  If you are, please contact me and you’ll hear from me early next week.

3) Training Material – The infrastructure is setup.  I need to publish the rollout plan for making this happen and start implementing it next week by people signing up for a new list.  The goal will be to get people enough information on an on-going basis that they can then take it back to their locations and deliver it with ease. Options will include FREE, a subscription to talk to the trainers who are developing this (and recorded web-casts), and of course on-site paid consultation with me and other trainers to help you jump-start the tailoring process and we will work with you hand-in-hand to develop and even co-teach the class with you.  The free information will be just as good as the other available options… I promise that!  I’ll need you to keep me honest on that!

4) Remember that “Scrum on a Page” that I asked for comments on a few months ago.  Wow.  I had so much information to synthesize that I am now ready to meet with Tony and have him do a “Implementing Scrum” overhaul on it to match the site.  This will become the cornerstone of the site and will be used in multiple ways.  I am super-excited about this!  And.  It will not be perfect; however, just like the theme of our site, we need to have something to start those tough conversations.  I think this will hit that mark!

5) Build a small affiliate program.  As many of you know, I travel a LOT around the world.  One of the ways this is possible is by making sure I can sell seats into the workshops (or create billable consulting hours).  If you are interested in becoming an affiliate for selling seats into my classes — or even consulting engagements — this is the time for you to contact me and let me know your interest.  The model rocks, and will be rolled out soon too.

6) I am in need of a developer to help me take an XML file and run it through some sort of converter so that I do not have to manually create the page www.michaelvizdos.com/enroll.  I have access to the XML file and I’d like the output to look similar to what is out there today.  This is something that just irks me because the data is available and without automation we have dual work to do (bad thing!).

7) I need to port the site www.michaelvizdos.com to a wordpress site.  The infrastructure is setup.  Just time is needed to actually do it.  Fun stuff.  But… I need to keep driving revenue from that site and keeping the implementingscrum.com site as free from advertisers as possible (I hope you enjoy that it REALLY does not have any advertising except for some things about me.

I need a few people who can commit to checking the forum a few days per week and making sure that spam does not get interjected.  I have been really bad at checking this on a regular basis and know the forum is an important place for REAL people using Scrum to exchange information.  Interested?  Please let me know.  I’d appreciate it.

So, this is the PRODUCT backlog of what I have going on just for the site.  This is in addition to all the traveling I am currently doing and plan on doing in the future.

Have a great weekend!

If you have any input on the priority of things listed above, please comment about it here and I will listen to all my stakeholders (you) [smile].

Thank you, again, for everything you do. 

- mike vizdos

Is this selfish of us doing this?

We will promise that you will not be able to “certify” new Scrum Masters (from the point of view of the Scrum Alliance, a non-profit organization).  

Does this matter?

If you *would* like “Certified” trainers to come in and help with your training roll-outs — we are available to do that.  In the end, we have realized that there is more of a need to get people exposed to the Certified Scrum Training materials that a few of us have been selling (the training services of) for many years.

Here is the plan.

Try to use this information in your organization.

If you need help, contact one of us who have basically open-sourced our full two-day CSM class.

Fair?

Inspect and Adapt.

Let’s see where it leads.

Ready?

Contact us for more information on how to get this information. Now!

Also.

Contact us with your success stories!

Thanks for believing in this.

Let’s see where it goes!

- Mike Vizdos (mvizdos@gmail.com)

I know I have been “out of pocket” for a while — mostly cleaning up some personal life stuff with my father passing away last month (thank you all for the kind words and thoughts!).

Here is what you will see THIS WEEK.

1) Some explosive new information tomorrow night. Wow. This is huge. You will want to get signed up for this information AS SOON as it is released.

2) We are going to release a translated version of the Chicken and Pig original cartoon. This is a good one .

3) I am going to ask for about 5 or 6 people to help me kick off the “Scrum Job Connection” later this week via a conference call — and let’s see where we can take this. I am at the point where I will need some volunteers and I am asking YOU for a bit of help.

4) Want to make some money in this trying economy? Let me know if you’d like to become an affiliate for me — sales for consulting or training. Lots of options, and YOU know the local markets and KNOW what I can do to help them. Let’s see if there is a way we can work together and PROFIT together moving forward. I’ll be looking for a small handful of TRUSTED people to help me get his kicked off.

Thanks to all the new readers to the blog. If you have just joined us… Welcome.

If you have been around for a while… THANK YOU… and PLEASE keep spreading the word!

5) Finally, Tony and I have a handful of cartoons in the pipeline to get out on a regular basis again. I know… I know… it’s the MAIN reason you keep coming back to this site, and I totally get that and appreciate it.

Thank you!

Take some action on this email.

And.

Chat more later this week!

Thank you.

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

As usual, thank you so much for hanging in there with me over the years (or if you have signed up to read this blog recently).  I figured since part of Scrum is about transparency, I need to let you — my readers, friends, clients,business partners, business competitors, prospective-clients, past-clients, and anyone else who reads this very focused blog — know what has occurred in my personal life over the past six months.

I hope this gives some context about where I have been and where I am planning on going in the future (as you have been getting glances at it recently).

If you do not want to hear about it, you can skip this entry and I will return to “my” version of normal soon.

Last September, my father was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma in the lining of his lungs.  It was diagnosed at that point as “stage 4″ (which is bad) and the doctors gave him a prognosis of six months to live.

Throughout the past six months, my father underwent treatments that I hope you or your loved ones will never have to go through in the future.  If you have been through this, you know where I am coming from.  He underwent test treatments at some of the nations finest clinics in both experimental and documented procedures.  He did this all without ever complaining a peep about it.

Three weeks ago I had the opportunity to bring my father and mother up from South Florida to the Gaylord Palms in Orlando during the Scrum Gathering and Trainers/Coaches retreat.  You may have seen him being wheeled around in the wheelchair by either myself or my mother.  He met so many of you there and was incredibly impressed with the quality of people I have decided to surround myself with on both a professional and personal level.  

Most people who saw him did not realize he had just left his last hospital visit when the doctors told him all preventative care was stopping.  The cancer had spread out-of-control to his brain, spine, lungs, blood, bones, liver, and a few other major organs.  Nothing more could be done to fight it.  It was over that weekend with me that he admitted that he finally realized he was dying.  He had an incredible time meeting many of you there, and again, some of the comments I heard from people who met him stated that he did not look like a person ready to die, but a person who knew how to live.

When he returned home from Orlando, Hospice was engaged to start helping around the house with my mother and sister.  Within one week (I arrived), it was so bad that we had to make the toughest decision to place him into a hospice facility. He knew he was ready to go.

Dozens and dozens of people came to visit him while he was in hospice.  Finally after Friday, I had to limit the amount of people coming in to the room so my father could rest.

A week ago Saturday my father spoke his last words to my mother, on their anniversary of their engagement, and asked her, “Will you marry me?” again.  This was after 43 years of marriage to the same man.  These were his last coherent spoken words to my mother.

By Sunday he had slipped into a space where, I have learned, the body and soul (however you want to look at it) starting shutting down in two different — very different — processes.  Up until Monday evening, my father could hear anything we said to him.  I know this because on many occasions we put people on speaker phone up to his ear to say their last goodbyes (this was heart wrenching and very personal) only to get through a few words before the person speaking and my father were in tears.  He could no longer communicate by voice.

A long day later (Tuesday) my father passed away at about 3:08 in the afternoon, with my mother and myself present at his last breath.  This was an incredible experience to be a part of, and I was honored to be there to be with them.

While we were (and still are) in mourning, my parents have a very religious base as Catholics (I am now an atheist, which you can see where some possible contention can come into place).  Since it was considered a “holy week” in the Church, my dad could not be buried until this week.

So, we had a memorial service last night and afternoon (over 200 people showed up) and then had the funeral mass this morning, with the burial to follow.  My great friend John and his wife Laurie hosted a celebration at their house after for almost 100 people (I thank them immensely for doing this for us!).

So.

Why do I bring up this information in a Scrum blog?

Well.

First off… I *know* this is totally off topic.

I also know that you have seen a change in the way things have been coming out of this blog for at least the past six months.  Now that my father has passed away, I thought I’d bring you up on what is happening in my life so you see I was not just putting you on “ignore.”

I had some other priorities.

Like everyone.

I am human.

If you’d like to find out more about my dad, you can visit www.michaelvizdos.com/father (there are a few places we’d like to send donations — anything would be awesome!).

I’ll write a little more tomorrow night about how this experience has changed me, and how it will help me focus on some incredible things that we — as a community — can do in this world to make some changes ranging from minor to totally mind blowing.

Stick with me.

I cannot do this alone.

Are you ready?

The world is about to change.

Well.  

At least our world.

For the better.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

1) If you are currently looking for a Scrum type job.  What role?  What experience level?  Tell me what you can about *you* and *your needs*.

2) If you are working in a company and know you have OPEN REAL positions for people who are in the first position above (LOOKING for work).

3) If you know people in your circle of friends PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE forward this email or call them today and have them contact me directly.

In the past six months or so I have been informally connecting these three groups of people together and have promised myself to take it up a notch and see if we can get our community working together to solve some of these things.

I know all three types of you are out there.

Time to speak up!

I am going to try a *small* experiment.

And see where it goes.

Fair?

Let’s go!

Let me know.

And.

As usual.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos (mvizdos@gmail.com)

First, thanks for hanging in there as a subscriber to the blog — and welcome all new people subscribing to this site!

Here is an update on what’s been happening with me…

I have been offline for a few weeks, testing out a few new things for communication — more real-time with people.

The first one being twitter (www.twitter.com/mvizdos) and the next being Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Vizdos/1015423803). I have written a post about it in the past (wow — it’s been well over a year!) here.

I have been on the road for a while these past months, and have found that micro-blogging with people I meet at conferences and meetings helps bring the communication gap even closer together (if that makes sense). There is a shift happening here…. what will it mean to you and how your work gets done?

At this point, I’d recommend that if you are interested in reading more about what I do on a “daily” basis then join me on those two networks.

I’ll continue posting new things about Scrum on this site — along with new cartoons (I PROMISE).

Tomorrow you’ll get some requests for information from me to help guide the website at www.implementingscrum.com to new and better heights.

As a community we continue to grow. Your input in extremely valuable in this process.

Thank you!

- mike vizdos

Hope this is helpful for those who both attended and are reading this from afar // after…

I sat in on a discussion between Alistair Cockburn and Ken Schwaber at the Scrum Gathering in Orlando today (March 16, 2009).

It was basically a summary of what Alistair learned while co-teaching a CSM course with Ken Schwaber as he became one of “us” (a Certified Scrum Trainer, which I am one of LOL).

The list went something like this…

“You Thought You Knew Scrum?”

=====

1. Treat people as adults.

2. Teach “Ask the Team” by actually asking the team during class.

3. 3 Bells. Deliver. Ask the Team. Inspect and Adapt.

4. Scrum is a mirror.

5. Scrum with beginners produces crap.

6. Scrum is a genetic algorithm.

[oops... running out of time soon... darn time boxing]

…. and Alistair had an “aha” moment… “Continuous “us” improvement”…

7. The team does not fail a Sprint — Inspect and Adapt.

8. Don’t shun the Project Managers – turn them into Servant Leaders and Impediment Removers.

======

The bantering between Ken and Alistair was fun to watch, and as a trainer I learned some new things. There were a lot of discussions of the “list” of eight things.

This list was typed out in front of the audience as we went along through the session.

My thoughts… (an “a ha” moment in Alistair speak)…

One of the things I have been reminded of is that we all teach the Certified ScrumMaster class a little differently.

Which is a good thing. As the market continues to get flooded by new Certified Scrum Trainers, it will be up to the consumer to decide which stay and which go… and this will happen over time. There are a lot of Scrum training courses around the world… PLEASE do your due diligence before stepping into one!

And.

I think I need to create a cartoon character for Alistair (smile).

So last week I spent in Santa Clara, California, learning from some of my mentors and friends and co-workers in the agile industry and beyond.  Wow.  It was an incredible experience and I was fortunate enough to be able to also present a few different sessions there.

Yes, you have noticed as I have that we have not published a new cartoon lately.  Yes.  This is my responsibility.

I am taking time to learn more in this craft of agile and Scrum.

This week, I will be in Orlando, Florida, for a few days with the Scrum Community and then the Scrum Trainers at the end of this week.

For up-to-date information, follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/mvizdos.

And.

If you want to meet more people in the industry — follow the “mark” of #scrumgathering there.  If you are there, tag your posts on twitter with that hashmark — and let’s see where things lead.

I promise we’ll get back on track with the comic strips soon.  In the mean time — let’s learn more and check out your favorite comic strips on this site.

Comment away!

You may also see some surprises coming from me.  Who’d think.  From me? (smile).

Welcome to a new week…..

Yes, I realize and apologize that I have not been posting regular cartoons up here in the past month or so.  A lot of things are happening both inside and outside the lives of Tony (our artist) and me (Mike Vizdos).  Thanks so much for hanging with us and I can promise you this:

We will be introducing a few new things that will rock the world and really have a significant impact on the people participating within the Scrum community.

And.

Learn even more in the process.

Different ways.

Fun ways.

All effective.

Hang with us and I promise the ride will only get better!  In fact, if you could please pass the link to this blog entry on to three of your friends and ask them to send it on to three their friends and so on and so on…. wow…. the Karma we will generate here is going to be impossible to stop.

Ready?

Go!

Forward this email or the blog entry to your friends OR ….

Please resend or use twitter (you must be following me) to copy and paste the following (or retweet):

@mvizdos I am recommending you to all my friends.  Let’s get that Karma spreading like wildfire! #ScrumKarma

Thank you,

- mike vizdos

This is another version of the “UnScripted” blog entry on the site implementingscrum.com.

Today I’d actually like to post a question from one of my readers that I’d like to get feedback from you — the community — via answers in the comments of this blog.  I’ll plan on doing a follow-up to this but as usual, I want to show the community we can all learn from each other…

I have an opinion.   Of course!

—————————–

Hello Mike,

I took your class last year and I am a CSM now. I have not had the chance to be Scrum Master on a project yet, but it is in the near future.

Currently I am on a project that has 2 week sprints and on a team of 8.

The question came up yesterday during our Retrospective that during out last sprint there were a lot of chickens on the scrum calls.

How do we handle this?

I know that if you don’t have any tasks to complete or you have completed your tasks you should be reporting yourself as “chicken”, but with stakeholders on the call everyday hearing 2 people report tasks and the rest of the team reporting “chicken” every day for almost 2 weeks…doesn’t that appear to the stakeholders that only 2 people are working?

IS there another way to still follow the Pig/Chicken rule without appearing to the stakeholders that there are a lot of people not working?

Please advise.

This was a discussion that was placed on the action item list due to too many conflicts between team members.

Have you seen this before?

How was it handled in other teams/projects?

Comments Please!

- mike vizdos
www.implementingscrum.com
www.michaelvizdos.com

Thank you!

- mike

Just confirmed that I will be teaching a course in Zurich (Switzerland for the geo-challenged) on April 16-17, 2009.

It will be an affordable European CSM class in a very unique setting with limited access.

Let me know if you are interested…

I may not even publicly say where it is located (it is THAT cool!).  It’s not on my site yet but contact me for more info.

More later…

Just thought I’d share that with you as some late-breaking news for my European friends (or others who want to hit an uuuuuuber-cool place for a CSM class!).

- mike

One of the things I hear a lot about (both inside and outside of our little industry in the world) is the differences between coaches, consultants, and mentors.

Which brought me back to a discussion I had a few years ago with John Snuggs (shout out!) who used to poke me about wearing my “Captain Obvious” hat.

Which then lead to the super-hero-wearing-ScrumMaster in the comic strip above.

And.

Then the elephant.

Huh?

What does that elephant represent?

In America, we talk about this thing called, “An elephant in the room” which is something reallllllllllly uncomfortable that everyone knows is there but is afraid to bring it up.  Make sense?

Sooo… besides being the elephant in the room… what does Captain Obvious need to teach us about Scrum “Coaches” versus “Consultants” versus “Mentors”?

This could be one of those epic postings with me talking about the ins-and-outs of the three words and how they not only sound different — but in the real world ARE different.

So.

Question to you… and I will talk and post more about this… in the comments section write more about the good, the bad, and the ugly about the differences you see in either the people you hire, work with, or ARE.

Elephant recognized.

Let’s hear more about what this means to you.  And your teams.  And your organizations.

And of course… this is leading somewhere.  It always does.

And it usually surprises even me (heh).

Time for Captain Obvious.  Pointing out the elephant in the room.

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

Wow.  I was going to post the comic strip tonight but wanted to wait just one more day because a few interesting things went on today…

I got a TON of feedback from people on both sides of the fence on this one.

Now, as a consultant/coach/mentor myself, I do not want to seem to have a totally skewed view about this.

Got something to say about the good, the bad, and the ugly about your use of coaches/mentors/consultants in the past?

Scrum related would be great since well, this is about Scrum .

Thank you!

- mike vizdos

The cartoon this week (coming out tomorrow) will examine why the heck almost 100% of the teams implementing scrum today should be using some sort of consulting / coaching / mentoring support.

Of course this is written from the point of view of me — who in reality is a consultant, coach, and mentor — who also sees the worst of the worst implementations of Scrum trying to get better.

Tomorrow I will post the actual cartoon. If anyone has to say anything BEFORE the cartoon gets published, please feel free to comment or send me an email.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

Lyssa Adkins and I are co-facilitating a Certified ScrumMaster class in Richmond this coming Monday and Tuesday (January 26-27, 2009).

If you are interested in seeing us in action, and learning a LOT (us included!) please visit www.michaelvizdos.com/enroll to sign up.

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

Today is our first try at a new format (in addition to the cartoons) at www.implementingscrum.com.

It is called, “ImplementingScrum – UnScripted” and will feature audio and/or video in different formats along the way.  By the time this goes out, it should be out on youtube and here is a link to the “.mov” format (uses quicktime and is just under 17MB — for some reason this is MUCH clearer — any recommendations???).

Using FeedBurner, it should also find it’s way out to iTunes as a podcast… let’s see together how it all works and continue to inspect and adapt.

Fair? (smile)

This first version of this is with a guy “Down Under” who had some spectacular patience with me this morning (in addition to the fifteen hour time difference!).

His name is James Brett and he maintains a site at www.scrummaster.com.au and recently (with a LOT of help with the people there!) published a survey, where you can see the results at www.scrummaster.com.au/Article.mvc/Detail/43 or download the PDF file from www.scrummaster.com.au/Content/download/ScrumSurveyResultsJan09.pdf.

The video of this is about eight minutes long and goes into the survey a bit and introduces the topic.  It is not meant to be exhaustive — right now it is a test of the technology convergence(s) and as usual we want to keep these things short and to the point.

A few other references made in the video included a retrospective formats article and retrospective why.

You can also check out a few cartoons about retropectives on this site (there is a three part series here:

www.implementingscrum.com/2007/09/04/scary-team-retrospectives-part-one/

www.implementingscrum.com/2007/09/10/retrospectives-not-just-reading-a-book-part-two/

www.implementingscrum.com/2007/09/17/walk-into-the-light-retrospectives-part-3-of-3/

As usual, any errors anywhere on the video or my site — I accept that responsibility.

Take a look at the video and the links above for the survey and other stuff and PLEASE comment about it below.

Inspect and Adapt.

Let’s see where we go.

As usual!

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

www.implementingscrum.com
www.michaelvizdos.com

I will publicly apologize tonight but I am so sorry for the email
amounts you received this morning.

Here is what happened:

Google decided the transfer my “feed” (how you get the information)
from FeedBurner, a company they bought last year.

During this transition, about 50 emails went out and I am
working with the team at Google to see why.  It may have been an
interaction between FeedBurner/Google and aWeber — two service
providers I use to help keep us connected.

I am sorry for the glut of email this morning and hope
that you stay as an RSS subscriber or come back via email.

I accept responsibility for the mistake, but that is what happened.

- mike vizdos

Thank you for continuing to follow and spread the word about this blog and our cartoons.

Get ready for a blast this coming year.

The last cartoon of 2008 covered the topic of how to handle questions from outside stakeholders during a Scrum (or iteration).

Remember that even familiar chickens can be dangerous to derailing an iteration.

Eek.

Does that sound too dogmatic?

Hmmm.

Let’s think.

Who calls an iteration “Done?”

That would be the Product Owner (look back at this old comic strip from the early days for a refresher on that).

And, the “old way” of doing this — in a waterfall environment — was to bow to the pressure.  That leads to very funny cult-movies; however, in reality it sucks for everyone involved.

Especially if you bow to it while using Scrum.

So.

If you are a Team Member on a Scrum team and you get asked to do something that is outside the Sprint Backlog, you’ve GOTTA turn it over to the Product Owner to deal with.

So, this comic strip shows that.

Our intrepid character Pig did the right thing.

And.

What is the Product Owner now supposed to do with this information?

This is not a blame game.

But.

Someone needs to be responsible for the decisions.

How does this sit with you?

And where does the ScrumMaster play in this situation?

Comments, as usual, are requested and will help guide where we take this in the future (smile).

Thank you,

- mike vizdos
www.michaelvizdos.com
www.implementingscrum.com

Welcome back to the “work” of 2009.  My son and I finished almost 6k miles on a 13 day road trip that took us across America and into some wild places.  It was awesome.  And now…

Back to focusing on some of the work of Scrum.

There is a lot for us to do this year.

I am hoping that learning through comic strips and other methods will help all of us.

Happy learning.  I look forward to learning lots from all of you this year, and questioning whatever we all accept as “acceptable” and pushing the limits.

Ready?

Thank you.

- mike vizdos
www.implementingscrum.com
www.michaelvizdos.com

Well, I am a few days behind and THANK YOU everyone who has been prodding me to make this announcement.

It is a big deal, I think.

So.

Without further ado…

I will be giving away all my CSM course materials over the year.

FREE.

Yes, there will be some limitations (like actually selling it to others without attributions and such).

But.

Or.

And.

Look at this as part one of “open sourcing” my Certified ScrumMaster materials to the Scrum Community.

And, I promise to let you know more too (smile).

Karma.

It works in all directions.  And I can only be one person at one place in the world.

Time to share.  Let’s all do this nicely and see where it leads.  It is a huge leap of trust on my part.

Your turn!

Please let me know your thoughts on this….

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

www.implementingscrum.com

www.michaelvizdos.com

Well, for those of you have been off for the past few weeks… welcome back.

My son and I have been on a road trip for over a week now and plan to end it this Saturday — for a total of almost 3000 miles in the USA.  We will continue posting travel updates to the blog this week and if you follow me on twitter you can join in the fun.

Now.

Earlier last month, I promised something SO BIG that it could literally change the face of how people learn about Scrum and teach it to others.

I will unviel it tomorrow night, where ever I land in America on my way back to Virginia.

Too anxious to wait for the announcement you CAN sign up for one on my currently scheduled classes in North America and Europe — from next week in Detriot (woot!) to…. wait for it…. wait for it…

A VERY limited class the last week in January guess where — Richmond, Virginia.  I am co-teaching this one with my great friend and past-co-worker Lyssa Adkins (she ROCKS).  I promise this class will not be my “normal” class!

You can see them all at www.michaelvizdos.com/enroll.

Looks like after that I will be doing some gigs with clients in Norway and Denmark and then public classses in London and other locations.

Got an idea of a COOL place to bring me this year?  Let me know and we can work it out.

2009 will bring some major changes for all of us (yes, including me!).  I will start letting you know a little more about “me” (public versus the private facing guy) as well… we are all people and we can learn a lot from others.

Happy New Year and I hope you are STUNNED by the announcement in the next blog entry!

Thank you.

- mike vizdos

Dad slept in and we got breakfast and headed out.

Our first break was pretty painful on my feet — lots of wind too.

We saw our first snow — no snowball fight yet.

We went to my Dad’s counsins resturant called El Pintos (with an awesome waterfall inside).  We did not meet them though .

On the way to the hotel we saw all these awesome rock formations and drove through two valleys.

Also.

We saw some weird flying objects near “Sky City”…. were there 1) UFO’s 2) Air Force Jets or 3) Meteors?  Comment here on what you think!

We’ll write more tomorrow…. although it does not look like we will make it the final 750 miles in one day.

Thanks for for reading!

- mike and dominic

We missed yesterday blogging because I was dog sick and had to pick up some Nyquil to sleep.  It was a rough day driving all Sunday with blech coming out of everywhere.

And.

We learned that the Mino “delete” button can be hit by accident so all videos can be deleted.  I found a lock that will prevent that in the future, but right now we lost 2 days of videos.

Now… For Dominic’s take:

Yesterday we started out with a lot of cool videos that my dad toasted on me, so we cannot watch them.  I think he learned his lesson .

Aneeeeways… We had a lot of fun on the road as usual.  Not much happened.  We did 500 miles yesterday and we stayed at Days Inn.  We are sorry about the videos.  Thanks for logging on to the blog.

Now.

Today, so we can catch up….

We had a late start (around 9 instead of but we did get pretty far.  We drove 500 miles (just under) and are almost 1/2 way there.  We had a scare and almost ran out of gas, but it turned out OK.

We had a 4:00 dinner with a friend of my dads (he is 80 and his name is Jim) and I ate lots of veggies.  Then I had a huge dessert of chocolate cake, gummie bears, and jello.

Around 6:30 we had chocolate ice cream from Braums (a hint from Dad’s friend Dave Minor).  YummmEEE.

We are now at Super 8 motel and I LOVVVVVVVVVVE my pink sheets (I DO NOT DADDY — TAKE THAT OUT!).

I am going to stay up late tonight and watch whatever I want.  My job is to get dad out of bed early tomorrow morning.

Keep following our adventure on twitter (http://www.twitter.com/mvizdos).

Call or DM us anytime during the day to chat.

We are headed west on i-40 tomorrow so if we can meet — PLEASE contact us!

- mike and dominic

Dominic and I have over 5,000 miles to travel in the next few weeks, and we will be using Scrum to do the trip together.  Each night I will summarize what Dominic has to say and maybe point to so pictures or other artwork.

Trust me.

This will be a learning experience in Scrum for all of us.  Comments are welcome.  So is any hospitality along the way the show my son the big USA .

The title of this posting is from Dominic.  And here is his synopsis of today:

So. Today has been a pretty weird day.  Wait, I am getting ahead of myself.

It really all started this morning when I was so excited to go I was screaming.  Once we got on the road, we had to turn right around to get my dad’s mail so we can do it while we are on the road.

Oh yeah, my name is Dominc .

Skip to exciting parts.

We got on the road, had lunch at subway, and took breaks at rest stops.  There are some videos we may be posting later that are connected to this.  It’ll be up later this week with the stories connected.

More rest stops looking for Pokemon.  I’ll tell you more about that later, because you may think I am crazy.

We drove more and more and saw a beautiful sunset, which we tried to video tape.  It was color of blood stained red. And a little later it turned goldish orange.

We wound up at a hotel in Chucky, Tennessee.  We had pizza for dinner and played our new electronic battleship with a can of Sprite.  We hit the vending machine at picked up some starburst.

It’ll be a while til I fall asleep.  So I hope you enjoyed reading about the first 1/2 day of our road trip!

You can follow-along with us on twitter using the link on the sidebar of this page or feel free to call us at 619-609-1716 if you’d like to try to connect with us along the trip so we can meet!

Thank you.

And.

This relates to Scrum.

How?

Comments welcome!

- mike and dominic

Well.  It looks like my eight year old son and myself are headed on a roadtrip to end all roadtrips (at least for this year).  We need to head out to San Diego from Richmond, Virginia, in order to do some work on a rental house we own.  He is going to help me paint the exterior backyard, and he is totally excited about a major trip like this.

Let me know if you’d like to join us for either eventual party doing this or as we make stops along the way!

So.

This next few weeks will intertwine Scrum and our road trip that may wind up covering just about 5000ish miles.

While many of you may question “What does this have to do with Scrum?”

Hmm.

Remember.

It is all about the people.

And.

I have found that talking about Scrum though stories about my real life is something my audience enjoys.

So.

Sit back after the holiday and learn some thing about Scrum, Mike & Dominic Vizdos, and life in general.

It will be a trip to remember.

I promise to only post one entry per day — if you want to follow-me on twitter or facebook, sign up in the right hand sidebar on this page.

Tony (the artist) and I are getting together some incredible cartoons for next year.

Next stop.

2009.

We’ll continue this trip into 2009 and at the end, have a retrospective of all retrospectives.

And.

We’ll see what happens after that.

Life Changes.

Always.

It hurts sometimes.

We move on.

It’s time for me to do that.

So as we close out 2008, I am getting my plans ready for next year.

Yikes.  Some of the plans are *really* out there.

One of the things I have noticed over the years is the “path” I lead behind me.

People are *really* passionate about this stuff.

Now.

Can we link together Scrum with people in the “real” world (outside of Software Development) that are truly passionate about completing projects?

Should we?

Many opportunities.

Where will it lead…

- mike vizdos

For new subscriber via email, facebook, and twitter — Welcome and thanks for the interest in the site.

Please feel free to pass this site on to your friends and talk about it on twitter and other social networking sites.

The problem depicted in this cartoon is something I see a LOT when working with teams around the world.

Even when Scrum is being implemented on teams within an organization.

Hmmm.

So what do we do about this situation?

When asked for a status from a Chicken within a Sprint, Scrum talks about the team members not saying, “No” and punting it to the Product Owner.

The same goes for a new feature request.

In the past… before Scrum… this type of request was a major cause of never getting to “Done.”

This is the main reason to have a strong demarcation point between the Product Backlog and the Sprint Backlog.  The main reason is to help shield the team from the outside “Noise”.

Care to share some real life stories about this via comments below?

How do you do this without committing career suicide?

Who really is responsible for telling outside Chickens to speak with the Product Owner?

What does the Product Owner need to do with this next?

Is this really an important concept or what do you think about it?

Please share with us…

Thank you,

- mike vizdos

How about this.

I am working with some other Scrum Trainers right now in preparing something that is so mind-blowing in our community that well, the repricussions may be felt around our little universe.

Really.

It is THAT big.

Our Sprint One on the project we are working on will be completed and ready to roll into Production — immediately following our first iteration — will be unveiled on January 5, 2009.

This is an opportunity of a lifetime.

Just as the journey to get us all here today has been fun — you WILL receive new tools and knowledge that has yet to be released into the wild.

Woot.

There will be a sign-up page for this coming soon.

So this list can continue concentrating on announcements and cartoons, while this new list will allow you to gain greater power, have better sex, and start changing the world.

OK.

So maybe not have better sex… but I always wanted to say that in a blog posting (smile).

More soon.

YOU ROCK!

Thank you,

- mike vizdos

www.michaelvizdos.com

www.implementingscrum.com

Thanks for the comments so far on my latest twitter posting announcement (see previous post).  There is a reason.  Really lol.

Well.  It looks like right after Christmas I will be out in San Diego for a little while.  I am not really sure yet what a “little while” looks like, but in San Diego I will be.

In addition to teaching and consulting with my “normal” clients, please get the word out to local firms there so that if teams are intertested in working with me, this may be the time to do it .

And.

You’ll be getting a mind-blowing announcement tomorrow night about this same time.

A key date is coming.

I’ll reveal it tomorrow night!

Thank you,

-mike vizdos

www.michaelvizdos.com

www.implementingscrum.com

Comics are in the queue.  This work life balance takes a lot of work, so I am sorry for not giving you a recent one.

The one I have to show you next ROCKS.

But alas.

Right now, I have posted the following out on Twitter:

mvizdos Hey. Are you a HOT geeky woman in IT? I have an opportunity to discuss. DM me for more information! PLEASE re-tweet to others for me!

TechBabe R/T @mvizdos Hey. Are you a HOT geeky woman in IT? I have an opportunity to discuss. DM me for more information! PLEASE RT.

JeffSays RT (and LMAO) @mvizdos Hey. Are you a HOT geeky woman in IT? I have an opportunity to discuss. DM me for more information! PLEASE

A few weeks ago I spent some time asking about some plans for myself and implementingscrum.com for 2009.  This post is located here and there are some great comments.

Thank you.

This week there was no cartoon — partly because a client cancelled and I thought I’d grab my boys for an impromptu vacation down to South Florida.  Not a bad place to crash for a week.  Remember — work hard and play hard (smile).

Hmmm.

2009 is less than what, six weeks away.

I’ll be asking for your committment to follow me and help me with this coming year.

And.

Tony and I will keep the comics coming to you for free.

Happy weekend.

- mike vizdos
www.implementingscrum.com
www.michaelvizdos.com

Non-fiction?  Fiction?  It really does not matter.

And this book you read… what did you DO after you read the book?

Did you put it back on your book shelf?

Did you even finish it (smile — you see, *I* start a LOT of books!)

And there it gathers dust until one day… for some reason… you got the urge to pick it back up again.

Started at the beginning.

Or maybe a few pages back from where you left your bookmark.

And.

What did you learn after re-reading the same book again?

Anything?

Think.  Really Think. [challenge ON my reader!]

Now.

What if you read a bunch of books on a topics after using Google to search for “Scrum.” [Note: Page 1 baby!]

And.

What if you read a bunch of cool blogs on the topic of Scrum (like www.implementingscrum.com or my personal site at www.michaelvizdos.com).

And.

Did nothing with that information.

Until.

One day, you took a class from someone experienced who tied together the real-life version with the book version of the topic.

Then.

You went back and read the “books” again.

What happened?

Was it the same experience or were you able to read it from a totally new perspective?

Please share via comments…. I am looking forward to continue learning with you!

Thank you,

- mike vizdos

I need your help.

Actually… my plans for 2009 depend on your input.

Wow.

Imagine a blank sheet of paper in front of you.

I am doing that now.  Actually, it has been blank for a little while.

I am in analysis paralysis.

So.

Here is what I need from you….

My goal for 2009 is to show how Scrum works in the real world using a creative manner with real world people.

What would you do?

Zero constraints.

Well.  One.

I am going to use Scrum to implement whatever I do.

I have some ideas brewing.  Which I will share in this comment thread in a bit.

I’d like to hear your ideas.

Blank sheet of paper.

Go .

Please put your ideas in the comment section on this blog entry.

And spread the word about this for me.

My 2009 depends on it (smile).

In advance, let me say a sincere, “Thank you.”

And let’s see where it leads me…. Or us as a community.

- mike vizdos

Today I faciliated a 1/2 day experiential report about Scrum by using Scrum.

It was in Boston with an awesome group of about 36 people in attendance.

Nobody really knew other people in the audience prior to the meeting.  Wow, how things changed using Scrum.

As usual, I put the trust in the team and they were mega successful.

Readers both on RSS and my awesome e-mail subscibers can both view the presentation at www.implementingscrum.com/sd.

E-mail readers — look familiar?

RSS Reader?  You MAY really want to get subscribed via email so you can see some great content behind that presentation.

No.

The presentation was not just that powerpoint slide.

It was used to show what Scrum looks like at a high level.

Then.

We used Scrum to answer questions from the group about Scrum.

Huh?

If I can get a high speed connection tomorrow, I’ll send the updates to the page and notify you so you can see what happended.

Actually.. I have been taping a lot of exercise outputs.

Amazing patterns — and anti-patterns emerge.

Thought this was more important than a comic strip tonight.

Which, by the way I have on me (smile) and is ready to go.

But.

I thouht this information would help a lot of you out there.

Comments as usual are more than welcome.

Hasta Manana.

- mike vizdos

PS –> Think about the last time you read a book and then went through something like the book in real life.  What happened?  We’ll examine that tomorrow night with the comic strip.  Sorry I know I could not keep you hanging all night.  You’re welcome for the awesome foreshadowing (smile).

Thought this was interesting:

http://www.paidcontent.co.uk/entry/419-espn-renames-scrumcom-espnscrumcom-killing-its-best-asset/

Kind of makes http://www.implementingscrum.com/2006/10/02/scrum-get-out-the-vaseline/ into a conspiracy theory.

Not really.

But fun to think about.

Maybe not.

.

- mike vizdos

And the story I tell is that of an older movie called, “Spinal Tap.”

Ever hear of it?

If not, it is a “Rock-U-Mentary” about a fake band who gets followed around by a camera crew.

Ask anyone in your office about the “11″ line and have them do it in their best accent (they will know what you are talking about if they have seen the movie).

The main gist of that line is that during an interview, one of the band members asks why their amplifiers have an “11″ on them, instead of just the normal “10.”

Blank stare.

Then…. the band member says, “Because 11 is louder.”

And then the interviewer basically asks, “Why not just make 10 louder?”

Blank stare.

Band member, “Well, because this one’s got an eleven.”

So I may have screwed it up since it has been almost 25+ years since seeing the movie (I think… yikes!).

I have heard it is best watched in some kind of altered state; however, I would not condone or recommend that to anyone reading this article.

So what does an amplifier with an “11″ have to do with Scrum and introducing it into an organization?

Comments here are welcome again, as it seemed to spark some great discussions last week (scroll down to the bottom to see all the comments people have left… wow!) …. (of which I really need to go back and answer if appropriate)!

Here are my questions, but you can answer them (or your own) any way you’d like (It’s almost like being a moderator for the US Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates this year sigh):

1) What are the top five GREAT things that have been amplified in your organization when introducing Scrum?
2) What are the top five INSANE things (read: Dysfunctions) that have been amplified when introducing Scrum?

3) Was Scrum the cause of them?

4) Did Scrum force a change one way or the other?

Let’s see where it leads.

If anything, go watch the movie if you’ve got some time to kill .

Of course, that is AFTER you respond to the questions via comments back to the site!

I have the comic strip.  I need to write a great posting on it .

- mike vizdos

This may be my most favorit cartoon yet.

Hang on.

And get ready to turn up the volume!

- mike vizdos

If you missed the latest comic strip and blog entry, check out the posting, “Chicken Soup.  Scrum Style.”

More importantly, read the comments that are addressing the questions I posed in the blog entry.

They do rock.

Please keep adding to them.

Also.

Let me know (either via email or a comment below this posting) how you like this format — and if it is engaging enough for you.

I value your feedback and active engagement in this community.

Wow.

It continues to grow.

And.

Pass this site and the info and the comic on to your teams and managers and executives in your organizations.

Start the tough conversations.

Let me know if I can help you.

Let’s see if we can continue challenging the status quo of work today.

Help me.

And this WILL continue helping others.

Thank you!

- mike vizdos

If you have any ideas please contact me and we can talk about exploring them via a comic strip or even you writing a guest blog entry!

Here is the scenario:

You are running a Scrum Team in an organization that contains a large contingent of Waterfall Projects and surviving somehow in a command-and-control environment.

Maybe you even have multiple teams running at this point.

You are following the “Combo Approach” of rolling this out, and you have support of the team and a person at the highest level within the organization, so that when impediments are hit they can be cleared if you ask.

All of the sudden, there is a reorganization.

The Chickens have moved around.

Your Scrum Team inherits some very new Chickens with little experience using Scrum and are pretty tight when it comes to command-and-control management styles.

One of the new Chickens walks into the Scrum Team room and asks for status reports to start up again. In writing using the template this Chicken has always used to get control of projects.

Starting today.

You look at this Chicken in amazement.

You ask, “Why?”

This project seems to be out of control in the view of this Chicken.

“We also need to start having daily one hour status meetings from everyone in this group… Fifteen minutes is not enough. I (The Chicken) will run the meeting and set the agenda. It may have to be two times a day.”

The Chicken wants a “all hands” meeting at the end of the day today for a few hours.

The Chicken is thinking about instituting mandatory sixty hour work weeks.

The words “Microsoft Project” are thrown around.

The Chicken also wants to put the teams back into offices because their stature in the company is high — the team members have all been with the company for a long time and want their own offices back (according to the Chicken).

The Chicken wants to have an all day post moderm to determine the root cause of the problems with this team because the boss of the Chicken wants the Chicken to be in charge.

So,

What do YOU do?

- As a Team Member?
- As a ScrumMaster?
- As a Product Owner?
- As “The Chicken”?

Comment on your responses.

Let’s get the conversation going!

I know.  I know.  It’s hard to believe.

After a long hiatus, Tony and I are back and committed to weekly releases of comic strips once again.  Since literally blowing past our two-year birthday, we love to see our “original” members from the beginning hanging in there and all the “new” people joining every day.

You’ll see it around this time tomorrow.

Please do us a facor and pass this on to your teams, family, and friends who may be interested in this type of information.  If people sign up via email, they (you???) will get free stuff (always a good thing) from me.

As the travel season winds down from totally insane to just a little nutsy for the remainder of the year, I will be able to spend more time with you — my lifeblood of the community and friends that I have met or have yet to meet one day.

Thanks again, and have an incredible week. I am off to Kansas City for a few days.

- mike vizdos

www.michaelvizdos.com
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