Tim Putnam

Sheryl Crow at the Franklin Theatre.

2011-12-04T19:59:00.001-06:00

One Cow

2011-10-31T21:30:00.001-05:00

Gates.

2011-10-29T16:19:00.001-05:00

U2. Sitting next to @sgordon70. Yea, please.

2011-07-02T19:19:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday to the kid who made me a dad. Love you, Miles. #fb

2011-06-30T18:44:00.001-05:00

How to tell stories. By Ira Glass.

2011-06-09T10:00:00.001-05:00

Tell better stories. Ira Glass is here to tell you how.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Bang this.

2011-05-28T14:19:00.001-05:00

Grilled Cheeserie. This is happening now.

2011-05-26T12:17:00.001-05:00

Night light

2011-05-24T20:06:00.001-05:00

A farewell.

2011-05-18T21:40:00.001-05:00

Six years ago I took a job as a web designer/account manager/customer support rep for Music City Networks to create and develop online communities for entertainers. I have always been a jack of all trades, master of none, so the job was a good fit.

Over the years the higher-ups gave me the chance to be as involved as I wanted to be, leading pitch meetings, developing marketing for the company, etc. In 2007 I became a partner and we grew from a team of five to 14. That team of 14 has grown to over 45 this year. Today I said goodbye to a company that allowed me the creative space to try, the space to fail, and I am grateful for the experience. I am proud of what we accomplished. Most of all I am proud of the team assembled around me. Leaving today was tough. I have spent every day of the past six years with some of them. We grew with smart, talented, kind people, so leaving was a little like saying goodbye to family when moving away for college. So this is a farewell to my good friends at MCN. I wish for you the space to fail, and through failure to grow, and through growth, to succeed. And I hope you have a blast (and many laughs) doing it all no matter where your path takes you.

This is happening.

2011-05-17T17:30:00.001-05:00

What's your best margarita recipe? Leave it in the comments!

2011-05-15T11:24:00.001-05:00

I'm looking for a killer margarita recipe for a dinner party. Got one? Leave it (or a link) in the comments. Muchas gracias!

Happy birthday @sgordon70 - this song is for you. @kateo you can come, too.

2011-05-04T18:08:00.001-05:00

Molecular Listen on Posterous

Scott and I were at a nerd gathering in Nashville a couple years ago listening to Kate O'Neill wax philosophical on "Why Your Website Sucks." One of the examples being dissected was Vanderbilt University's Molecular Biology website. While important work was being done in the front of the class, Scott and I were going through various pronunciations of the word, "Molecular."

Moleculllllaaaarrr

Mrlculaaaarrrrrrr

Moooolecuuuuulrrrrrrrrr

M'l'c'l'rrrrrrrrrr

Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Several days later I received a voicemail from Scott, "Molecularrrrrrrr...arrr." Then I sampled his voice and made this song.

Scott, thanks for that memory and happy birthday, bro!

I love you. I know.

2011-05-04T10:48:00.001-05:00

The @eliyoungband Crazy Girl EP is now the #1 album on iTunes Country charts and top 10 overall. Thank YOU!!!

2011-05-03T10:54:00.001-05:00

Wow, what a way to start a Tuesday.

My song, "The Fight" which I wrote with Natalie Hemby was released on iTunes today as part of the Eli Young Band "Crazy Girl EP". This morning it is already the #1 album on the iTunes Country Chart and in the top 10 overall albums (in the amazing company of Adele and the Beastie Boys).

I just want to thank all the early adopters, friends, fans of Eli Young Band, and anyone else who happened upon the project. Thank you for listening. Thanks also to Natalie, Mike Wrucke, and Eli Young Band. I'm proud of this song, and I hope it resonates with you.

Download the song here.

Who wants to go skiing with me next winter?

2011-04-29T13:29:00.001-05:00

TED talk: The Birth of a Word.

2011-04-27T12:43:00.001-05:00

Deb Roy has the ultimate home movie collection thanks to his project with MIT to track how his son learns language. The graphs in this presentation make my head spin, but the application of their findings to the social sphere are remarkable.

Social Media Monitoring Tools (infographic)

2011-04-26T09:37:00.001-05:00

Flowtown - Social Media Marketing Application

Is Bestie Boys' Hot Sauce Committee Part Two cover a QR code? Look and listen here.

2011-04-25T16:28:00.001-05:00

Beastie Boys started streaming their new album from their site about four hours ago after the album was leaked (similar to Foo Fighters).

I like this good faith push both bands have now done. Does getting a preview like this (in full) make you excited for the album or influence you to buy?

Does anyone know if the cover is a QR code?

Stick around for a listen or treat your ears at Beastie's Hot Sauce site.

Hot Sauce Committee Part Two by Beastie Boys

How to be enchanting (infographic).

2011-04-25T13:18:00.001-05:00

@eddiemeehan don't be fooled by cuteness. She plays mind games with you then turns Banshee.

2011-04-24T13:24:00.001-05:00

quadrocopter - intelligent flying ping-pong playing thingys.

2011-04-20T10:19:00.001-05:00

Quadrocopters are on the heels of Festo, which I blogged about here, in that they are experimenting with intelligent maneuverability and acrobatics with robotics.

This is like something out of a James Bond film, but future applications could be really interesting...think search and rescue, surveillance, or just a wicked competitor at ping pong.

And a little science behind how they work:

I want one as a pet.

@sgordon70 I eat people like you for breakfast.

2011-04-16T08:44:00.001-05:00

Product storytelling - How to create value in a product and inspire the team behind it.

2011-04-15T12:52:00.001-05:00

I re-tweeted this article vai @uxfeeds this morning, and I'm very much aligned with the ideas. When we redesigned the Music City Networks website a little a while ago, I spent a lot of time developing the copy, creating the brand personality, and putting products into buckets that all had a strategy behind it. At the time I worked with a very talented team who believed in what we were doing, and it required a few changes to our internal team in terms of how we viewed our company and our product.

A product is more than an idea, it's more than a website, and it's more than a transaction or list of functionalities. A product should provide an experience or service that adds value to someone's life through fulfilling a need or satisfying a desire.

I wanted our different departments (design, development, digital strategy, etc.) to tell a story about how, when working together or individually, our services could meed a client's needs. The products would have to align with an overall company philosophy that would strengthen the story. Our company story would transcend into our products, which is why we included a fun staff page and invited employees to blog. The personality of the company had a lot to do with the story our products told.

Who are the product storytellers? Part matchmaker, marketer, technologist, and artist, the product storytellers ask questions, find answers, and figure out how to distill a vision or idea into a product story.

Developing our story required a 30k foot view of the company, our services, and a look at who we were. I had to consider who would be looking at our website. Because we served both clients (people who pay us to build websites) and customers (people who then buy things from those websites), we had to be very strong in portraying what our product was, while at the same time offering outlets to customer support and an easy way to get in touch with us. Then the development and design teams stepped up with supporting functionality and design that was an extension of who we are at our core.

A product storyteller should be positioned in the company to help break down the walls between all groups, facilitate the development of a single story, foster collaboration between groups, and ensure that every interaction a consumer has with a product or brand maps back to that story...Not only do product storytellers identify the intended product value, they also share and evangelize this story throughout their organizations. This is important because it ensures that the entire team understands the why behind what they are doing...Without a firm understanding of the why, the team risks becoming task focused, losing sight of the big picture, and deflating any sense of empowerment or excitement that once existed.

We knew that in developing a story approach, we would have to get the entire company on board with our philosophy. A detailed strategy was created and shown to staff so that who we were as a company came from each employee and was consistent at each touch point with clients and customers.

Product storytellers should be at the intersection of product, marketing, and technology to help ensure that what's being created clearly maps back to a product story that identifies the plot, people, and perceived value to the consumer.

It was important to identify the "product buckets" we wanted to present, tell their story in an exciting way, and be creative with the technology behind the delivery to showcase some of our skills since we are a technology company. By showing our cool products, backed by creative people, both with a fun attitude and clever copy, the product and brand personality was front and center of our website. It truly was a mashup of product, marketing, and technology people that allowed us to deliver a site that truly got our message across.

The product storyteller synthesizes rather than analyzes, sees the big picture rather than becoming stuck in the details, and ensures that all product interactions and touchpoints form a cohesive and value-based consumer experience.

How did we do? There have been challenges remaining consistent and getting everyone to buy in, but overall I think the vision was achieved. Our perceived value has certainly increased and people realize that not only will they be getting a powerful product, they'll be working with fun people along the way.

Check out the full article here - definitely a good read if you're into this kind of stuff.

The low bar has been set. Your day will be better than this.

2011-04-15T08:54:00.001-05:00

On my way in to the office today I passed this guy. Recalibrate your settings, this guy wins for getting off to a bad start.