The Big Guy Blog

A road warrior I am not

2009-11-11T11:24:35Z

I don't travel a lot for business - maybe three to five times a year. When I do it's usually for a new business pitch, client meetings or training sessions. Being a big guy it's also an uncomfortable experience because honestly, who the heck can fit into those seats anyways?

It's also an uncomfortable experience because I hate breaking my routine. We get into habits and grooves, becoming creatures of habit. When that routine is broken, it throws us for a loop.

The biggest reason travel makes me uneasy is that I miss the family. The kids are young and they don't understand what it means for daddy to be gone for that long of a period, as they are used to routines as well. I know I will see them in a matter if hours, but trying to explain that to a nearly six year old and a three old is like trying to read and understand the healthcare reform legislation. Regardless, it's hard and I miss them (and Mrs. Big Guy as well).

On the flip side, these travel opportunities are exciting and new. It's an experience I embrace because it's good to test yourself every once and a while -- push yourself if you will. Comfort zones are meant to be stepped out of from time to time.

That goes for business practices as well. Success only comes if you take risks and step out of that comfort zone. Eventually those out of comfort zone experiences will become part of the routine. Then it's time to do it all again.

p.s. I am writing this from 10,000 feet. I am having one of those out of comfort zone days. :)

Smarter Headlines Are Like Bad Cream

2009-11-09T00:00:29Z

I was thinking last week about how cluttered my social web experience is these days. Yes, I know that I am a heavy user of the social web and my online travels have taken me further than most. However, those regular facebook-types are starting to feel a little bogged down by options:

- which photo sharing service to use?
- what service best suits my video needs?
- do I even need a micro blogging service?
- what the heck is foursquare and why do I want to tell people where I am eating?

On the flip side of all of this, we want people to read our stuff. Our attention spans online are measured in seconds, not minutes.

What does all this mean for content creators?

Headlines will make or break the deal. If you're not writing headlines that capture eyeballs, your content is for not.

So, like bad cream in coffee, be smart about your headlines so your content will rise to the top.

How do you get readers enaged? On the flip side, what attributes of content grab your attention?

Sunday is the New Monday

2009-11-08T23:12:11Z

Work has been interestingly busy as of late with lots of different projects on my plate - creative projects, new business stuff, presentations and your run of the mill client demands. I find myself using Sundays to prepare for the week, do some writing, catch up on time entry and program management stuff -- all pretty much to get me ready to roll on Monday.

Today I spent the morning doing the stuff outlined above, but then decided to shelf the brain for the rest of the day and play couch jockey.

That got me thinking, since when did weekends start on Saturday morning and end late that night. How often do we get an opportunity to stretch out on the couch and read books to your kids or talk silly talk just because?

The lesson here: unplug for a little bit. The world will continue to rotate. Time continues to move. In these chill out, relax situations however, time tends to move a little slower and that's ok by me.

iPhone 3Gs vs Verizon Droid

2009-11-06T14:00:59Z

I will admit, I'm intrigued by the Droid. I'm not sure that it's an iPhone killer, but Verizon is getting closer and closer to playing in the same sandbox...well, maybe the same block, different sandboxes.

If you can't see the video, please click here.

The Social Education or Lackthereof

2009-11-05T16:00:50Z

I was reading a story over at Inside Higher Ed about the use of Twitter in the classroom and thought to myself, why don't educators use social media more to engage their students? Yes, there is this thing about younger saavy web users NOT embracing microblogging services like Twitter, but don't you think that if their teachers were leveraging these tools that they'd have to engage?

Of course.

On the other hand, you don't want to force students into smething they don't want to do because then it'll become a chore and eerily similar to "homework."

As I got to thinking about this more, I thought about my own college experience. Other than my relatively small journalism classes (small being 25-35 students), my classrooms were 70-125 kids deep. There's no way you can build a relationships with a professor with that many students in the class even if you sit in the front row and continuously ask questions. However, if the content being discussed in class was augmented with the tools I use to connect with friends and family, I might have paid more attention in those accounting classes and became an accountant vs a PR guy.

Google Commerce (Social?) Search

2009-11-05T14:15:23Z

As I plowed through the good ole RSS reader last night I came across the news about Google's Commerce search. It's a simple premise really. Google is trying to help our retailers present their products faster and more organized online, just in time for the holiday shopping bonanza.

Check out the video for further explanation:

One thing I found interesting, was the fact that Google's Social Search was missing from this service. Yes, helping consumers find stuff quicker is fantastic, but wouldn't be an even better service if their social search was wrapped up in it? Imagine looking at digital video cameras and having things like blog reviews, Twitter postings and unboxing videos wrapped into user comments that typically appear with products?

To me, that makes Google Commerce Search a much more intuitive product for consumers. Yes retailers might be gun shy about bad product reviews, but hey, that's the game. With social media, there's no more hiding from negative feedback on products or services. The key is to address it.

What are you opinions of Google Commerce Search?

Bird or Rondo's shot?

2009-11-04T14:30:43Z

You tell me. What shot was better?

Bird:

Rondo:

I vote for Rondo's shot mostly because he had someone taller than him, defending and trying to block the shot. Rondo's was also a fade-a-way or sorts.

What do you think? Cast your vote in the comments.

You know what you know

2009-11-04T02:48:55Z

I did a presentation for Suffolk University tonight about the use of social media for brand building that can impact your career and/or business. It was very interesting to listen to the questions folks asked and the comments made to me in private. Here is a sample:

- is a blog the right thing for me?
- how can I get any value out of LinkedIn?
- what do you do about sharing info that would show your hand that you are looking for a job?
- can you hire someone to do this work for me?
- how do you get all these services to work together?

There were quite a few others but they are in the same vein. The questions show me that there still remains this fear about social media and an extreme lack of knowledge about how these services work. The biggest thing I noticed was that no matter where the attendees were in their career -- grad student to 30 year veteran --all face similar fears and concerns, all of which circle around an unknown factor.

The great thing about social media is that it's ok to test, fail and learn. There is no right way to use any of these services. They can be leverged for different types of professions and utilized for all types of personals and professional brand.

The underlying theme however, is the unknown. Unlike folks like myself, this social media stuff is still the wild west. Embracing the unknown is a hard thing to do.

What prevents you from leveraging social media for you brand?

Social Media Books: Guru or Not to Guru

2009-11-02T15:00:12Z

Over the weekend I had a spirited Twitter convo with a contact of mine about social media experts and the books they have, are planning to and eventually will publish. His premise was that it was all nonsense and that these self help books were written by people that don't care about you. All they want to do is make a quick buck and they are pretty much taking advantage of the reader.

I agree with this and don't agree with this. Here's why:

The 3pm Call

2009-10-30T19:00:38Z

All husbands will chuckle and nod when they read this post. It's about the 3pm telephone call from the wife. You know what I'm talking about:

You: "Hello."

Wife: "Hey hon, how's your day going?"

You: "Good. You?"

Wife: "Good. What time are you coming home?"

You: "Ah, not sure. The usual I'm guess."

Wife: "Ok. What do you want for dinner?"

You: "Not sure. Whatever is fine. Doesn't matter."

Wife: "Ok, I'll whip something up. Call me when you're leaving."

You: "Ah, ok. Will do."

Now, here's what's really being said.

Ying and Yangs of Dating and Marriage

2009-10-30T18:31:33Z

I recently celebrated my seventh wedding anniversary. By no means is seven years a milestone, but in this day in age when divorce papers are as common as wedding nuptials, seven years is a pretty good benchmark. We've made it this far. Haven't killed each other yet. Finances are in order. Food is on the table. Kids are healthy. All is good in the Big Guy household.

As I mulled over the seven years and everything in between, I started to think about the things I forgot during the courting years and the stuff I had no idea was coming down the pike during the marathon that is marriage. It's what I call the Ying and Yang of the marriage process.

Seriously, Control Your Kids

2009-10-30T14:29:35Z

This week the kids, wife and I attended the haunted hallway at my oldest's grammar school. It was very creative and scared the crap out of the kids and event startled the wife a couple of times.

The best action, however, was outside in the 45 minute line that we waited in.

Overheard:

Mom: "Dylan, git ovaheeya or I'm gunna call your dad ta pick ya up."

Kid: "Good. He'z gunna but me more video games."

Mom: "No he won't cuz your bein' a wise ahhhss."Couple more gems:

"What the fhack iz up wit dis line. It's a frickin' hallway. How long ken it take to git through the damn thing?"

"Man...deerz a lot of milfs heeya. Love dis."

Basically, the entire thing was a zoo. There were kids running around like they were giving out free TVs after a hurricane. Kids were bumping into parents. Other kids were screaming. Some of the older kids were being so flip that I wanted to slap them.

This brings me to my point. Why in the world can't parents control their kids? It drives me absolutely nuts. Kids don't rule the roost. You do. You're the parent. You tell them where to stand and to behave.

Then again, after hearing all the potty mouth parents in line I quickly came to a few conclusions:

- There are some really ignorant people in this world that have no class. Unfortunately, there's no test to be a parent.

- The fhackin' dood mentality is alive and well on the North Shore of Boston.

- I can so sympathize with parents of the 1950s. If some other kid wised up, you had all the freedom in the world to give the kid a little dope slap upside the head and if the parent didn't like it, you could bring them to the woodshed too.

Originally posted at Every Other Thursday.

The Fine Print in Cloud Adoption

2009-10-29T13:00:01Z

Some news filtered through the web yesterday about the LA City Council that voted to move the city’s 30,000 email users to a system provided by Google, but only after a provision that the city be compensated if there is security breach in the data held on Google’s servers.

This news tells me two things. One, cloud computing has arrived, especially if a public sector agency is going to embrace it. Typically, technology moves slower than a turtle in the public sector. Secondly, there still is a bit of hesitancy to move sensitive data to the cloud as indicated by the loud and clear provision in the contract that address potential data breaches. I'm wondering if the city would make the same request if they were dealing with an EMC, IBM, etc. Would it be part of the press release? Would it be part of their messaging that was delivered to news channels via a press release?

Probably not.

Kudo's to the city for riding the cloud wave. It's an aggressive move, but one that makes total sense. What I question however, was why the felt the need to make the security breach provision such a big PR deal.

What are your thoughts? I'm guessing most understand the need for the provision, but is it necessary for it to be a main focus of the story? What does that really say about cloud computing and confidence in it?

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

2009-10-26T14:00:05Z

Today is my youngest's birthday. We had a party over the weekend. Here's my view of it:

Dear Mrs. Big Guy

2009-10-26T13:15:47Z

It poured on our wedding day. Good luck, as they say.Dear Mrs. Big Guy,

Today is our seventh wedding anniversary. Somedays it feels like we've been married for 50 years and some days it feels like we've been married for 50 days. The days blend together and we get into our grooves of going to work when it's still dark out or getting up early to do school drop off at 7:50am. Regardless, I'm thankful that we're more than just ships passing in the night. We've made it seven years without killing each other, having two beautiful kids, a warm and caring home, a loving interwoven family and a life that I wouldn't trade for all the money in world (well...kidding).

In my blogging tradition, here are my seven things I'm thankful for as we look forward to another year of blissful marriage: