Monkey Outta Nowhere

New Monkey Outta Nowhere Business Cards

We just ordered some slick new business cards. Check 'em out. Designed by Michael Buckingham of Holy Cow Creative, the back of the cards feature some of the major projects we work on. It's a great solution and should keep head monkey Kevin D. Hendricks from having to juggle multiple cards. He talks more about the new cards on his personal blog.

UnSummit, Cultivate & Story: Oh My!

We run a pretty tight ship around here at Monkey Outta Nowhere, but in the last month we've splurged and attended three conferences: UnSummit in Minneapolis and Cultivate and Story in Chicago.

OK, UnSummit is a free anti-conference so we didn't exactly splurge to attend that one. But it still takes time and effort to get there. The day-long Saturday event sparked lots of thinking and ideas, primarily about social media and marketing, and offered a great chance to meet local people. Specific lessons from UnSummit can be found on my personal blog.

Cultivate and Story were two church communications conferences in Chicago (OK, Story was really 40 miles outside Chicago in Aurora). And OK, I didn't really splurge for those either--Cultivate is cheap and I scored a free ticket to Story. But Monkey Outta Nowhere did have to shell out for daycare, travel and lodging, so this wasn't a cheap trip. I've been working in the church communications field since 2004 when I started editing the church communications blog Church Marketing Sucks. In that time I haven't attended any church communications events, so this was a great chance to dive in and meet people I've followed online for years. Both events, though very different, had incredible content. I also share lessons from Cultivate and Story on my personal blog.

WebDesign.com

In 2009 Monkey Outta Nowhere began creating content for WebDesign.com, a web services company that helps small businesses and organizations maximize their potential on the web. We helped write a foundational white paper and contributed to WebDesign.com's blog.

Some of our blog entries include:

A series on utilizing Facebook, including an especially helpful piece on how to make the most of Facebook fan pages.
Another series on how businesses and organizations can make the most of Twitter.
Content is King - A reflection on the importance of content.
Your Mother's Marketing Rules - Arguing for honesty in marketing.
Your Own Platform to Counter Complaints - Urging organizations to get into the online conversation.
The Web Has Your Marketing's Back - Having a web site can boost your other marketing efforts.
Why Wouldn't You Want a Website? - Tackling misperceptions about websites.
Lame Website or No Website? - Pushing for even a weak website as better than no online presence.

Web Site Tweaks

We've made a few tweaks around the ol' Monkey Outta Nowhere web site:

We've added a new contact form.
We updated and revised the about us page.
We updated the bio of our founder, Kevin D. Hendricks.

All small, quick changes that hopefully bring our site in line with some of the web advice we've been sharing lately. And more importantly, they should make our site a little more effective.

Movie Review: I Can Do Bad All By Myself

I recently reviewed Tyler Perry's I Can Do Bad All By Myself for the teen site PlanetWisdom.

Blogging for WebDesign.com

Earlier this year I started blogging to help launch the new site WebDesign.com. I've written a number of entries about how web sites can help small businesses. Here's a quick sample of the better entries:

And that's just a quick overview. Visit WebDesign.com for more.

Dora's Mexican Restaurant

As I mentioned on my personal blog, we're teaming up with a local restaurant, Dora's Mexican Restaurant, to help them navigate the online world and boost business. We're going with a bare bones web site (we're talking textbook bootstrapping here) and free tools like Twitter and a Facebook page.

This is one of the rare times when Monkey Outta Nowhere actually builds a web site. As anyone can tell, we're not known for our coding skills. But it works, and what we're really offering here is strategy, content and execution. We're hoping the 'tell a friend' impact of social media paired with content (daily specials, offers and updates) will bring people through Dora's door.

Summer Movie Reviews

Summer movie season is in full swing and I stepped up to the plate for the teen site PlanetWisdom, writing reviews on Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian and the Eddie Murphy flick Imagine That.

Recent Church Marketing Sucks Posts

While I've been involved in the nonprofit church communications blog Church Marketing Sucks since its humble beginnings in 2004, I've had more of a behind-the-scenes, editorial role in the past year or so and have done less blogging. But in the past month I've written my fair share of new blog entries:

More Movie Reviews

Another pair of movie reviews has gone live, Obsessed and Ghosts of Girlfriends Past at the teen site PlanetWisdom.

Movie Review: Push

Last weekend I reviewed the super-powered Push for the teen site PlanetWisdom. It was a fun little bit of popcorn action, but don't try thinking too hard. As one reviewer lamented, "Not even a drunk Dakota Fanning can save this mediocre sci-fi thriller."

Movie Review: Taken

Last weekend I got to see the Liam Neeson flick Taken and write a review for the teen site PlanetWisdom. You can read my review of the vengeance-fueled action thriller online, though perhaps the most important line is this comment: "Most victims of human trafficking don't have Liam Neeson to go all CIA operative on their captors." That sad reality makes what would have been another violent action movie much more poignant.

Happy Holidays 2008

Say hello to our white-faced saki monkey. In celebration of the holiday season Monkey Outta Nowhere sponsored the fuzzy little primate from the nearby Como Zoo. Our sponsorship helps support a local urban zoo that's a great family-friendly, low-cost attraction. Plus--monkeys!

We hope you and your family--and the white-faced saki monkey's--have a happy holiday.

2008 Highlights from the Head Monkey

As the year winds down I thought it might be fun to share highlights from the personal blog or our Head Monkey, yours truly. Not all of these are business related, but they don't always have to be (that's why they're on the personal blog). But sometimes it just helps to know more about who you're dealing with.

So, I present highlights from the personal blog of Kevin D. Hendricks:

Adopted a boy from Ethiopia (we can go pick him up in two to four months).
Picked a fight with former Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki.
Celebrated 10 years of blogging.
Shared the book I wrote in 1st grade: Mike, The Cat.
Wrote my third novel.
Shaved my head.
Wrote about how you can change the world.
Told Anne Lamott she needs a web site.
Spent a night homeless.
Had way too much fun twittering fake vice-presidential candidates.
Talked about politics too much.
Interviewed on the Something Beautiful podcast.
Yearned to write a fake Twitter character.
Watched the demolition of a 570-foot smokestack.
Eulogized my Great Uncle Junior and my wife's grandfather.
Became a dot com (finally registered kevindhendricks.com).

It's been a busy year.

Homeless For a Night

An article about my experience being homeless for a night was recently published in the online webzine Wrecked for the Ordinary. In the article I shared the lessons learned from a night sleeping outside in Minnesota in October. Spoiler alert: I didn't have a good time.