I shaved my legs. Because the wetsuit was pulling on my Sampras- (or bear-) like leg-hair. That pile’o'hair on the ground? Yeah, that came from my legs. Gross. But… I can see why women do this. Pants and sheets now feel awesome.

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Ick. It was not the best week for me. I am six days away from my competition. My diet continues to be good, but my dedication to working out amid new business meetings, trips to Louisville and Milwaukee, and going-away parties for interns has not been phenomenal.

Oh, well. I felt great yesterday on a run with Kevin, and then in our subsequent ride (before I flatted somewhere in Bloomingdale, Illinois).

Labor day for me will be spent laboring at race distances in all three disciplines. It will be the “big test” before next Saturday’s race.

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Yesterday I was in a new-business meeting. We were at the offices of a local company looking to make a push in the 4th quarter; their brand has been around for a long time, but recently had some tough times…they’re rebounding from their difficulties and doing a great job of it in a down market. I feel like we at Hoffman York get pulled into a lot of these situations, where a brand has turned a corner and is looking to do something new, do something fresh and get some more good attention. I think we do a pretty good job of that, so I guess it makes sense.

And while I love the presentation portion of the new-business meeting process–the adrenaline rush of presenting is one of my favorite thrill rides–it’s the after-deck discussion that really gets me going. But yesterday’s meeting left me more excited than I usually am. The Interactive/Digital portion of the preso usually comes last–that’s me–so a lot of the initial seated questions were about the web.

Here’s the question that got me excited:

“On the web, is it possible to talk about yourself in a self-effacing way without alienating your core customers?”

I nearly jumped out of my seat. I can talk about the web until I’m blue in the face, but selling people on the worth of the newer web ideas is hard work. So to hear a higher-level marketing person say something like that, just after I was talking about how to talk to blogs, distributed e-commerce (Etsy.com), and the web not being the exclusive domain of Gen Y… “Well, now we can really start talking,” I thought. I was stoked.

On the web, there’s really no situation where keeping it real can go wrong. More on that in a second.

Last time I checked, “Self-Effacing” was one of the qualities that humble people have. And when was the last time you said, “I hate that guy. He’s so humble”? Never. You wouldn’t say that. Because people like humble people. Humility is part and parcel of putting others first and is absolutely part of what the brand in discussion is all about. I mean, there are a few brands I can think of where humility might not be part of the mix–maybe some super luxe brands? Vertu? Bentley? Is good customer service possible without humility, and is that not part of your brand?–but I think it might be applicable in almost all situations.

Keeping it Real

[”When Keeping it Real Goes Wrong” - some offensive language]

I recently read 37signals new book, Getting Real. It’s based on their experiences building their online productivity software suite, which I highly recommend, by the way. And while what they’ve written is specific to software development, it nevertheless is applicable to all kinds of situations.

If you’ve read or heard anything about 37signals, you know that they are all about finding the most efficient way to a solution. Where most software companies try and fail to gold-plate a product before it comes out, including all the features iterated in their technical spec document, 37signals works to isolate the functionality that is key to the task at hand, and then works to make that really work before launching a product. Then they allow people to play with it, and continually update it with metrics and their experiences in mind.

And while it’s a philosophy that any Project Manager, Planner, AE, Strategist, Programmer, Designer, whatever, would be well-served to consider, I think it’s probably most useful when thinking about branding in an increasingly digital world.

Mostly because I think we get wrapped up in talking about brands, spend time charting them out and examining them and thinking about them and dreaming while staring into a storefront and writing and rewriting propositions, designing and redesigning logos, choosing and re-choosing color palettes… [breath] we end up spending so much time on these things that we never get a chance to actually do anything.

The old model of branding goes something like this:

• Start with agency-specific model of branding
• Endless research before a solution is proposed
• Endless revisions before a solution is launched
• Development of Brand Standards
• Enforcement of Brand Compliance

The new way of doing things goes something like this:

• Discuss the problem with people you trust
• Devise a solution and act
• Course-correct as necessary

I’m being a little simplistic about it, and probably a little harsh on the old school. And sure, plenty of good brands were created using the old process, no matter what you or I may think of it.

The Human Model
Let’s think about this for a second.

Some people like to talk about brands in the context of people. I personally like to think of it in this way. Some don’t.

“What would Brand X do if they were a person? What would they wear? What would they look like? How would they talk to people? How would they act in this situation?”

If you think of things in this way, who goes through the “old” process before they act on something? Maybe the most neurotic person in the world. Most people think for a while, poke around on the internet if it’s something regarding some sort of purchase, talk to their friends and family, and then go off and do whatever it is they’ve been contemplating. Granted, people often make horrible decisions with life-changing ramifications. But I think if you are considerate, humble, and think of others first–as a brand or as a person–you’ll make decent decisions and be able to course-correct if you make any mistakes. And if your brand is strong enough, with enough people surrounding it, you’ll have the support you need to get through the tough times.

So, Now What?
I’ll have to rely on a piece of advice that my mom is always giving me, one that I think has helped me stay on track: “Just Be Yourself.”

If a brand can just be itself in everything it does, it’ll be better off. Instead of telling people that you’re the best at X and the leader in Y, just be the best and interact with people the way they want to be interacted with: like people, not consumers. Like people, not site visitors.

And lastly, some advice that my dad gave me before I went to college: “If someone is going somewhere and asks if you want to go, go with them. Do as many new things, go as many new places as you can.” Think of the most well-rounded people you know. The people who have been abroad. The people who are well-read. The people that everyone likes. These people have probably been more places, tasted more food, and tried more things than most people. Why not be like that if you’re a brand?

So, now what? Be well-rounded, but do what you do very well. And be yourself.

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Went open-water swimming for the first time in a long time yesterday.

Last time I swam, for real, outside of a pool I was probably around 12 years old, competing in a kids triathlon in Benbow Lake somewhere in Southern Humboldt.

Chicago maintains a “lane line” just off Olive Beach that you can see above, demarcated on one of My Maps on Google that I’m using to track training distances.

A few observations on open-water swimming.

1. It’s hard. Really, really hard.
2. The waves are what makes it difficult. Timing your breath is tough, and when a couple waves/wakes hit you in succession, there’s a real chance that you could be making negative progress.
3. You’ve got to constantly pick your head up and set your sights on where you want to go. It should be easier in a tri because I can follow people.
4. Though it’s hard, it seems easier, or quicker, to cover distance. We could not believe that the lane line was 400m long, despite the reality of the situation (I measured it). Perhaps the lack of walls leads to this.
5. I will be renting a wetsuit for the competition, which should help cut some time and effort out of the swim. That said, I feel pretty good having swam about a mile yesterday.

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So good. Flickr for more.

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My dogs are tired. It’s been a big couple days for them. Yesterday they ran 5 miles on the street (my ’round the Sears Tower loop’) and kicked their way through 1/2 a mile in the pool. Today, they powered me through 5.25 with Kevin (former distance runner at Kentucky) and 24 miles on my bike at race pace. I was hoping to get to the pool, too, today… but that might be a bit unrealistic.

I wanted to share some of my diet experiences with y’all, because over the last week, I’ve lost 12 pounds of real weight. I have a fast metabolism anyway, so my body responds pretty quick, but here’s what I’ve had over the past two days:

Friday

• Almond croissant & Americano, large
• Chicken Burrito Bowl, with Guac
• Grilled cheese, banana, clementine, apple, Orangina
• Some Reese’s Pieces
• A ton of water

Saturday

• Cheesy scrambled eggs (2), oatmeal, 1/2 grapefruit
• Large iced coffee, banana, apple, clementine, saltines, cheese
• Dinner TBD. Perhaps 2 chicken enchiladas
• As usual, a ton of water

My diet before would have absolutely featured 1 or 2 burgers, plenty of fried stuff, several beers and probably, given the days, a couple mixed drinks. Depending of course on how aggressive my extracurriculars were. Having not had much at all to drink (a glass of wine at Ravinia) over the past 9 days has been absolutely essential to my training process. I feel great. Granted, over the past week I covered 98.41 miles across the three disciplines [see my workout plan here], and my diet has completely reversed from normal, but I credit much of my good feeling to ditching drinking. The other side effect: one cup of coffee per day, and I’ve got a ton of energy. I feel almost like that annoyingly energetic kid that I was in high school.

You can follow my diet choices on twitter, too.

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Last night I went to Ravinia with some stranger-friends that I met on the train platform last time I was at the venue for Matisyahu. We saw UB40. You know, the “Red, Red Wine” guys.

Quick story: my roommate Eric and I are waiting for the train back downtown, which, of course, is delayed. We noticed two attractive ladies hopping the fence to get to the platform. One of them was whining about having cut her hand on the fence. Having sampled a few adult beverages at the concert–one of which was a big bottle of Rogue ale–I went up to talk to them, and we were fast friends. They were jobless recent Arizona grads, so I guess we should not have been surprised. We had a good time on the Metra, which, of course, was packed.

Back to last night: Ravinia is ridiculous. There’s a Pavilion (shown…the first image in the post) with seats (for the rich folks) and an enormous lawn for the rest of us. People bring pretty lavish spreads, and they show a huge variety of music, ranging from Rachmaninoff to the Backstreet Boys. Which, by the way, is sold out. So don’t try. I scalped a Pavilion ticket for the price of lawn admission, just in case the stranger-friends I was meeting were stranger than I thought. I also barely made the 6:44 train (delayed, yes!) and bought a round-trip Ravinia special ticket. If you’re wondering, I had a great time.

Anyhow, this ode to Ravinia has a reason. Two, really:

• Ravinia is a pretty ridiculous “system”, in terms of it being a fully integrated, interactive experience. From the $5 round-trip Metra ticket price (leaving from the swankiest station in Chicago, Ogilvie Transportation Center), to the design of the ticket, to the train stopping right in front of the venue, to the lawn, to the email-reminder system, to the landscaping, the design and the amenities, to the always-fun trainride back… the whole thing just works. I like seeing real-life examples of experience design that work out well. Moreover, the Ravinia brand isn’t what’s on their about page, but generally about what happens once you enter the doors of the train depot.
• Yesterday was a day off from training. I feel SO much better today having recovered for a full day, other than my bike commute to work. If you’re training for something, anything, recovery is just as important as activity.

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Last night I worked on my bike leg. 27 miles in about an hour and a half. Works out to an average of 18 mph. I tried to run afterward. No dice. Only got a mile away from the house before I had to turn around. Will have to work on that.

The pic is from a year ago. It’s me on the bike I’ll be racing with. It looks a little small for me, but feels good. It’s fast. It’s a 2005 (2006?) Specialized Langster, with a 48×18. Unless it’s ungodly windy on race day, I should be able to spin it pretty good. And I love nothing more than to take down dudes on multi-thousand-dollar, high-zoot bikes.

Updated workout regime (sic) here.

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Yesterday, Deb St. John of PeopleWorks came in to talk to us about client service and personality types. Deb’s a former employee of HY, and now runs PeopleWorks with her husband in Iowa. A couple weeks back, the client service department took a test of communication styles–”choose a word from the list of 8 below that you MOST identify with, and choose one that you LEAST identify with”–and we had a chance to see how we all scored in contrast to each other.

According to these tests, there are 4 key modes of communicating that represent your “observable behavior”. That behavior is grounded by motivators and talents, which are significantly tougher to change than your observable behavior. And according to this method, there are “adapted” and “natural” styles of communicating (see the bar charts above… the orange is my adapted score and the blue is my natural score) which represent who we are at work and who we are at home, respectively.

The results were fascinating, brought on a bunch of discussion, and I think will help us all communicate more effectively both with internal folks and our clients. On to the 4 modes, with my natural/adapted scores in parentheses after the description:

• Dominance - How you handle problems or challenges (86/70)
• Influence - How you handle people and influence others (86/88)
• Steadiness - How you handle change and pace yourself (16/23)
• Compliance - How you handle rules and procedures set by others (17/39)

Basically, the higher the score in each category, the more you possessed that particular trait. My scores put me pretty squarely in the Dominant/Influencing category, also known as “Persuaders”. My adapted scores changes somewhat significantly, meaning that I reduce my “Dominance” and increase my “Compliance” when I’m at work. I guess that makes me easier to get along with, but I’m not sure.

The fun part, for me, was to read the criticisms… which makes sense because I scored a 100% on competitiveness.

Here’s the fulltext of my report:

“Clay is a self-starter who likes new projects and is most comfortable when involved in a wide scope of activities. He is deadline conscious and becomes irritated if deadlines are delayed or missed. He wants to be seen as a winner and has an inherent dislike for losing or failing. He tends to work hard and long to be successful. He prefers being a team player, and wants each player to contribute along with him. Clay is extremely results-oriented, with a sense of urgency to complete projects quickly. He is a goal-oriented manager who believes in harnessing people to help him achieve his goals. He prefers an environment with variety and change. He is at his best when many projects are underway at once. He is forward-looking, aggressive and competitive. His vision of results is one of his positive strengths. He needs to relax an pace himself. He may expend too much energy trying to control himself and others.

“Clay is decisive and prefers to work for a decisive manager. He can experience stress if his manager does not possess similar traits. Sometimes he becomes emotionally involved in the decision-making process. He is a good problem solver and troubleshooter, always seeking new ways to solve old problems. Sometimes he may be so opinionated about a particular problem that he has difficulty letting others participate in the process. Clay finds it easy to share his opinions, though many people see his decisions as high-risk decisions. However, after the decision is made, he tends to work hard for a successful outcome. He likes to make decisions quickly. He will work long hours until a tough problem is solved. After it is solved, Clay may become bored with any routine work that follows.

“Clay should exhibit more patience and ask questions to make sure that others have understood what he has said. he tends to influence people by being direct, friendly and results-oriented. He tends to be intolerant of people who seem ambiguous or think too slowly. He challenges people who volunteer their opinions. Clay likes people who present their case effectively. When they do, he can make a quicker assessment or decision. He likes people who give him options as compared to their opinions. The options may help him make decisions, and he values his own opinion over that of others. He may sometimes mask his feelings in friendly terms. If pressured, Clay’s true feelings may emerge. He may lack the patience to listen and communicate with slower acting people.”

According to the tests…

I see myself as:
Pioneering, competitive, positive, assertive, confident, winning

Other people might see me as:
Demanding, egotistical, nervy, aggressive

And at worst:
Abrasive, arbitrary, controlling, opinionated

How I deal with Problems
Clay tends to deal with problems and challenges in a demanding, driving and self-willed manner. He is individualistic in his approach and actively seeks goals. Clay will attack problems and likes a position with authority and work that will constantly challenge him to perform up to his ability. He seeks to win against all obstacles.

How I deal with People
Clay’s natural style is to user persuasion and emotion to the extreme. He is positive and seeks to win by the virtues of his personality and verbal skills. He will convince you that what he is saying is not only right, but is exactly what is needed. He displays enthusiasm for almost any project.

How I deal with Pace
Even when the environment is frantic, he can still maintain a sense of equilibrium. He is capable of taking inconsistency to a new height and to initiate change at the drop of a hat.

How I deal with Procedures
Clay is independent by nature and feels comfortable in situations where the constraints are few and far between. He will follow rules as long as he feels that the rules are his. He has a tendency to rebel from rules set by others and wants input into any constraints.

Clay has a tendency to…

• Resist participation as part of the team, unless seen as a leader.
• Make “off the cuff” remarks that are often seen as personal prods.
• Have difficulty finding balance between family and work.
• Be inconsistent because of many stops, starts and ever-changing direction.
• Dislike routine work or routine people–unless he sees the need to further his goals.
• Have trouble delegating–can’t wait, so does it himself.
• Keep too many balls in the air, and if his support is week he will have a tendency to drop some of those balls.
• Be impulsive and seek change for change’s sake. May change priorities daily.

Whew! A scathing review. But accurate, if you ask me. The point of all this is not to say, “he’s better for this, she’s better for that” but rather to help you better understand yourself and those around you. Now I know a little bit more about why it is I do the things I do. And to be sure, there are good things that come out of the D+I combination. Don’t really want to share those too much here, lest I seem even more egomaniacal.

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Just got home (at 11:30 PM) from a 1,000 meter swim in the pool and a 4 mile run: home to Sears Tower to home.

Did a bit of a warmup, then did a 525 in about 9 minutes. That’s the race distance, and I want to be around 8 minutes coming out of the water on race day. I think I’ll manage that. Followed it up with a few easy 100s and then hit the road.

I’ve never felt better.

If you want to see my workout regime (sic), go to this google docs page. I told my roomie about it today and he called it a regimen, which led to us calling it Reggie-Man, and then it got its full title: Reggie-Man’s Workout Regimen. Yellow rows are completed workouts.

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