I doodle therefore I am

I doodle.  There, I said it.  Doodling is...an artform, creative, intellectual...heck, it's also really fun!



Until next time...
ThatRunninGuy

The King’s Speech – 4 lessons for leaders

I loved the movie. It was probably the best movie I have ever seen so strong were the characterizations. My friend Marguerite Orane of Free and Laughing was also moved by the movie and went further and identified 4 lessons for leaders.  She did a really good job of cutting out the BS and reducing down four.  I especially like her last one:  credentials don't matter, results do!  Click on this link to read her post:

the King's Speach - 4 lessons for leaders.

Until next time...

ThatRunninGuy

The Mystery behind "the mykals report" Name

It was supposed to allow me to remain anonymous. Obviously that did not work.

Since I began blogging last October, I have been asked numerous times what "the mykals report" stood for. It is a long story that began in 1979 but I will be brief.

At the time I was in my second year in the Broadcasting program at the Doon campus of Conestoga College. I was already working part time as the evening operator (playing the music and commercials for the Announcers) at CKKW and CFCA in Kitchener (now changed to http://www.koolfm.com/). I was also the operator for Don Cameron who was the play-by-by Announcer for the Kitchener Ranger Hockey team broadcasts.

But as much as I enjoyed the job, I desperately wanted to be an on-air 'DJ'. That was the real reason I had gotten into broadcasting school.

I dreamed about being on-air. Talked about it constantly. Drove my fellow schoolmates and friends crazy.

I applied to all the radio stations within a reasonable driving distance from Kitchener...Brantford, Guelph even Hamilton. Created and endlessly updated my demo tape (yes, we used reel-to-reel tape in those days). Finally after months of 'no's, my persistence paid off. I got a call from the Program Director at CJOY in Guelph http://www.cjoy.com/home/default.aspx. Would I like the all-night weekend shift and could I start that weekend. Yes and yes!

Dream come true. For less pay and fewer hours but I didn't care, I was going to be a DJ!

But I needed an on-air name. Everybody did it. No one went on-air with their real names. After as much deliberation I could squeeze into the couple of days before I went on-air for the first time, I settled on 'Christopher Michaels". Shortened to 'Chris Michaels'.

A star was born...

OK, it was only Guelph, midnight to 6 am Friday and Saturday nights but I was the DJ! Thank you Gord Field, the Program Director at the time for believing in me.

Back to 'the mykals report' name. I wanted to remain anonymous. "Ahhh I thought...I can resurrect my old on-air name, 'Michaels'".

The blog name, "The Michael's Report" sounded official. Unfortunately it was taken. But never one to give up, I spelled it phonetically..."my-kals". A blog was born.

For those of you who have been following the blog for a while, you know that I stepped out from behind the mask some time ago. More fun that way.

It has been quite the journey over these past few months and as I ramp-up my fund raising efforts with the Reggae Marathon, it is likely to continue evolving.

Until next time...

PS: I wrote about the drive from Kitchener to Guelph in an earlier blog. That Plymouth Valiant sure was a good car http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/2008/11/69-valiant.html

PPS: The picture is of the 1981 Radio and Television Broadcasting Graduating Class. Yes, I am in the picture :)

Found my way...again

It is easy to get distracted. I know, I just went through it.

It began with the excitement surrounding the MACLEANS article in March. (Yes, the article still exists on-line, I may never live it down: http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/31/retiring-into-the-unknown/). At the time, I was flitting madly in a number of directions: public speaking, sales consultant, blogger, advertising. If the phone rang (and it didn't ring often) I jumped at any and every opportunity. "New" was good...or so it seemed.

The result was that I found myself being very active but not very productive. And growing anxious with each passing day. It was very frustrating to Sally and I give her much credit for sticking with me through this frenzy.

Of course it had to end. As predicted by Andy Warhol our 15 minutes of fame ended. Mind you, I managed to stretch it out to 23 minutes with the radio interviews that I gave. I was pleased to hear that the interview on 570 CHYM in Kitchener gave them a solid hour of radio http://www.570news.com/shows/gary-doyle-show/.

The end came most unexpectedly. I was having lunch in Kitchener with the owner of a another small advertising agency. We were discussing how I would help him grow his business.

I stopped chewing for a moment when I realized that I had lost my focus on growing my business.

Eureka moment. The rest of the conversation faded into white noise after that.

On the long drive back home to the Beach on the back roads north-east of Kitchener with the sunroof open and Dave Matthews cranked up loud on the stereo, I came back down to earth. And not with a thud.

I got home that night, played with Tia, spoke at length with Sally and made the not-so-painful decision to re-focus on the key thing: working with her to build our home-based marketing business in Collingwood and Wasaga Beach.

I got on the phone the next morning to extricate myself from the distractions. Yes, I told some people 'No'.

Whew, what a relief.

Some thanks: to Lauren Pibworth who helped me to realize that I like performing in front of a crowd after all...just a more specific one; to Tia for reminding me to play more often; but most importantly to Sally for not giving up.

You can check us out here:

• Wasaga Beach Road Runners. Running with a group is the coolest thing I have done in years. "Reggae Marathon here I come" http://sites.google.com/site/wasagabeachroadrunners/
• Pre Paid Legal. We specialize in curing your scotoma about Identity Theft. "Don't leave home without our 'Black Card'". www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/spennock
• Altered Perception Inc. "We take your business communication from perception to reality". http://alteredperceptioninc.com/

Watch for us throughout Georgian Bay this summer! And I mean that literally since I will be training for the Reggae Marathon with lots of road work along the roads around Collingwood and Wasaga Beach.

How Social Media Marketing is similar to Network Marketing

I gave a talk recently at the Wasaga Beach Women's Business Association. This is an active group of women business owners who are progressive and are interested in growing their businesses. Many of them already understand the benefits of marketing online and see the benefits of using twitter, Linkedin and facebook.

My topic was, "How to maximize your marketing in turbulent times". I focused on how to incorporate social media marketing into existing marketing plans. Below is the text of my presentation:



Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak at your event this evening.

I am sure that you did not know that US President Obama had a summer place in Wasaga Beach. It has been suggested that I bear a slight resemblance to Obama. While I don’t see it, I’ll do my best to tell what’s really happening on the Internet and deliver a marketing stimulus package for your business.

With regards to Social Marketing, it feels like 1995 all over again. That’s the year the World Wide Web exploded. Everyone was talking about it, everyone knew they had to be on it, but very few knew what to do. It was very experimental.

We are in a similar place today with social marketing, social media, web marketing or whatever you want to call what we are experiencing with Internet marketing today.

This is a ‘good news/bad news’ story. The good news is that we will get used to it sooner or later. We will learn how to adapt to it in the same way we became addicted to the World Wide Web. The bad news is that we have some experimenting to do.

Tonight I am going to share some of the things I have learned about social marketing on the Internet that will speed up your learning. In the process these techniques will improve the effectiveness of your marketing. Inexpensively!

What is Social Marketing? A simple way to look at it is to compare it to what we are doing here tonight: networking with other people in a social setting.

Instead of being together in a physical location, the technology of the Internet allows you to connect with individuals on a one-to-one basis. Like this meeting, it is interactive: people talk to you. And just like every successful network meeting, the more you put in the more you get out.

Social marketing happens in a number of ways: through email from your customers (assuming you check and respond regularly), on network sites like facebook http://www.facebook.com/ and others, and on specialized web sites called blogs https://www.blogger.com/start

Blogs are web sites that contain stories or articles that are written about very specialized topics. The author publishes a story and people react either positively or negatively by leaving comments. Other people react not only to the article but also to the comments and so on and so on. Your community grows with people who want to connect with you.

Let me give you an example of social marketing to illustrate: A number of years ago we were planning a trip to Greece. We started our research on the web. We found a specific site that seemed much more personal than others http://www.greektravel.com/. It gave us lots of details on some off-the-beaten path things to see, and places to go. It even recommended a local travel agent based in Athens. That made sense to us: work with someone who lived and worked in the market. Without having met the agent, we contracted with them to book us the Greek portion of our travel. We believed that because they were local they would make better recommendations. And we trusted that because they came from a reputable web site that we respected we would be taken care of. We were not disappointed. And when we had a problem with a ferry, we had someone local to contact to help us with the problem. Think about how you could use that same technique to reach out to people who want to visit Wasaga Beach and may even want to move here to live. Wouldn’t it be great if you could begin to build a relationship with them?

And the kicker: Social Media is inexpensive. It allows a small and mid-size company to compete on a level playing field with larger companies.

At a network event and in social marketing, the etiquette is the same. There are three basic questions: Who are you? What do you do? What can you do for me?

WHO ARE YOU?
That is a favourite song from The Who http://www.thewho.com/(and the theme song to a favourite show, CSI http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi/). It is the first and most important question you ask at a network event. It is also the first question you need to ask and answer when you get into Social Marketing.

From a business perspective, ‘who you are’ defines what business you are in. For example, “My name is Chris Morales and I am an Internet Marketing Consultant”. You immediately have an image of who I am. It begins to paint a picture of what business I am in and what my brand stands for.

Its all about ‘Brand Image’. It’s what we do at altered perception, the design studio I consult for in Barrie. We work with small and medium-sized businesses to create their brand image: we take their brand from perception to reality.

Your business is what you do. Let’s take a look at some familiar business names:

Tim Hortons: Business – Coffee http://www.timhortons.com/
Staples: Business – Office supplies http://www.staples.com/
Zoomer Business – retirement http://zoomermedia.ca/
Google: Business – Internet search http://www.google.com/
Starbucks: Business – Coffee http://www.starbucks.ca/en-ca/

WHAT DO YOU DO?
This is the qualifier, the elevator pitch if you will. Let’s use my personal example again: “My name is Chris Morales. I am an Internet Marketing Consultant and I specialize in Social Marketing”.

Now lets take a look at those businesses again, this time thinking what their Brand Image communicates:

Tim Hortons: Brand Image – Canadiana
Staples: Brand Image – Easy
Zoomer: Brand Image – Active Boomers
Google: Brand Image – the Internet
Starbucks: Brand Image – Exclusive club

These companies spend millions of dollars annually communicating their brand to consumers. They are now starting to move into social media. And unlike other forms of marketing and media, the cost is low…free except for your time commitment.

WHAT CAN YOU DO FOR ME?
The final piece of the puzzle is the obvious one. The Benefit. Again using myself as an example, it would go something like this, “My name is Chris Morales. I am an Internet Marketing Consultant and I specialize in Social Marketing. I show small to mid-size businesses how to increase the effectiveness of their marketing.

At this point in the conversation, the other person is either interested or not. But recognize that you can’t be all things to all people. Your best and most profitable relationships in business are with people who are interested in you and what you have to offer. They tell their friends and associates.

MARKETING YOUR BRAND SOCIALLY
So with increasing confidence and potential results, you can now start to use social marketing for your business.

You are all familiar with each other so you likely know each other really well. But the first time you came here, you had to exchange information. That is exactly what social marketing does. It just uses the Internet technology to do it on a more sophisticated scale.

On the numerous social networking sites, facebook being the most well known, each user sets up a profile or brand image as soon as they join. Putting in a lot of information allows the individual to get more out of the experience.

If I could offer one piece of advice to you on how to maximize your social media marketing, it would be to be honest, genuine and authentic. Just like you expect from the person whom you are talking to. And yes, I made this mistake. When I first started my blog, I didn’t put a profile picture up and I didn’t tell them where I lived. Very limited acceptance on-line. Once I posted my picture on the Beach and put my profile in detail, visitors to my blog increased from 300 a month to 1,200 per month consistently.

There are numerous web sites that you can market socially on. I recommend you start with “The Big 3’: facebook, twitter, Linkedin.

facebook http://www.facebook.com/ is more of a social network where friends go to keep in touch. It is evolving fast. Nike http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nike/language_select/ for example has a an extensive presence on facebook. Their primary profile page has over 1.4 million ‘friends’.

Twitter http://twitter.com/ is similar to a broadcast medium. You are limited to 140 characters to send your message, but you can include links back to your web site. Its called a ‘tweet’. You only communicate with people in your network. Back to Nike for an example. I am interested in marathon running. I follow Nike’s on twitter. Multiple times a day I see tweets from them noting a tip on training. It is relevant and interesting to me. Keeps Nike top-of-mind. What shoe am I likely to strongly consider when I need to buy shoes again.

Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/ is more business-focused. You can think of it as facebook for business. You can follow in and participate in various business-related topics. In my case, I follow discussions on how to use social media more effectively. I also follow discussions on marathon running and the automotive industry.

All these social marketing networks are free to join and participate in. Think about that. To reach customers and build your brand presence doesn’t cost anything but time.

“Can the Internet benefit me here in Wasaga Beach?” I say ‘yes’ to that. Let me end with a recent, personal example:

“How social media got me into Macleans magazine”. I posted an article on my personal blog about customer service. I twittered it. I talked about it on my facebook and Linkedin pages. I commented on an article on macleans.ca. The writer saw my comments, checked me out and thought I would make a good story.

The article appeared in MACLEANS April 6 http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/31/retiring-into-the-unknown/ Since then awareness for my brand has continued to grow. Radio interviews, business opportunities. I could not have afforded the exposure if I had to pay for it. Through social marketing it has cost me time at my computer.

If it can work for me, it can work for you.

And to display proper social marketing etiquette, here is how you can follow me:

Facebook: Chris Morales

Linkedin: Chris Morales

Twitter: Chris_Morales

Personal web site: www.prepaidlegal.com/hub/spennock

I look forward to seeing you on-line.

Thank you very much for your attention tonight.

Identity Theft videos on YouTube

Identity Theft is a serious and growing issue. We found these videos on YouTube. They are worth the time to watch:

• Child: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJH0PkuFbNw
• Medical: http://www.youtube.com/watchv=2reDPc9hJlY
• Medical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYFj3-Mqu8
• FQA's: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYyKRKX6K1s

Sally and I have become much more aware of the issue since becoming Independent Associates with Pre Paid Legal. And since hearing Michael McCoy, the author of 'The Silent Crime' speak last Saturday, it is especially top-of-mind for us.

I have been notoriously lax in minimizing the risk. Sally not so.

If you have any stories please leave us a comment.

I need a vacation from being unemployed and famous!

I had a heck of a time with this post this week. After a week that saw me speak at my very first corporate event (it went well), give a number of radio interviews as a result of the MACLEANS article, and conclude three days of focused effort for Pre Paid Legal, I am exhausted.

I have stopped and started this post so many times, I have lost track.

So to heck with it, here is what is on my mind this week:

A cautionary tale: don't ever take anything for granted. I did. I though it would be easy to replace my corporate job within 4 months. Hard work yes, but with all my experience, energy and enthusiasm, I figured no business could resist the total package. Was I wrong. Not only did I loose my job, but a number of friends and associates from the advertising world also got 'right sized'.

I have been blogging and playing in the social media marketing world through all of it and have recently gained my 15 minutes of fame with the article in MACLEANS a couple of weeks ago. And the radio interviews and blog recognition have extended the fame to about 25 minutes. But it all seems hollow and pointless. Something is missing and I don't mean just the money.

I think I need a vacation.

No I'm not kidding. The hardest part of not having a 'job' is trying to keep all the balls up in he air for the multiple things I am doing: Altered Perception, Pre Paid Legal, blogging and social media marketing, corporate speaker.

'Brand Morales' covers a lot of divisions that are all active every day. (Yes, that is my logo above. I am playing with the tag line, "building brand value by unleashing the hidden potential".

Last week as an example:

• Monday: got to bed finally at 2 am after finalizing the presentation for Tuesday evening to the Wasaga Beach Women's Business Association
• Tuesday: interview with 97.7 The Beach at 9 am and another at 1 pm with 570 CHYM. They love my story of blogging my way into MACLEANS. Then presentation to the Women's Business association at 7 pm before getting home at 11 am
• Wednesday: Pre Paid Legal Business all day: presentations in Kitchener to two businesses and two 'cold calls' to other companies. Then back to Barrie for the evening business meeting.
• Thursday: more Pre Paid Legal prospecting in Toronto this time. Plus another radio interview this time with 1290 News in London.
• Friday: some advertising business before a return visit back to Toronto for an evening of training for Pre Paid Legal.

Whew!

For this upcoming week, I am only going to do three things:

1. Stop and take a breath. And stop trying so hard.
2. Get back to the basics. Focus on fewer things
3. Continue to build business relationships.

This will seem like a vacation.

Finally, let me sum it up this way:

• It sucks to have all this energy, experience ambition and ideas...yet be sitting on the sidelines.

This 'sabbatical' has been good: I no longer have to live in Toronto during the week away from Sally and Tia. I have learned a ton about social media marketing and got the MACLEANS media exposure. Plus it was fun to give those radio interviews. I have great support from Sally and all my friends and family, plus I have met some really great people including Tammy and Kristi at Altered Perception, Teresa with Pre Paid Legal and Paul with Avenue A.

Champagne soon.

Until next week...

PS: check out this web site for the #2 ranking I received for my story about how to beat the recession: http://communitymarketing.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/04/how-25-professionals-create-success-in-a-recession.html

Andy Warhol's 15 Minutes of Fame

The response to both the article in MACLEANS and my blog post has been very positive. Thank you to all of you who have left comments so far. You can read the comments for yourself here by clicking on this link: The Morales View: Races to Finish: How Blogging got me into MACLEANS Magazine.

Sally and I now understand what Andy Warhol meant when he stated that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. We have been recognized in the local Loblaws Supercentre, a number of people and organizations have contacted us about becoming involved with them, and we have experienced increased success in our Pre Paid Legal business.

And it continues...

This Tuesday, April 14, I will be appearing live on 97.7 The Beach http://www.977thebeach.ca/ The combination of blogging, social media and the appearance last week in MACLEANS magazine apparently got their attention. It should be fun and of course I will blog about it next week :)

For all my radio industry friends, associates and classmates from the Broadcasting program at Conestoga College (class of '81) it has only taken me 25 years to get back on the radio. :)

How Blogging got me into MACLEANS Magazine

I went back to school in the Fall of 2008. I was laid off from my executive-level job in advertising. An early casualty of the fast downward spiral in the economy.

Unfortunately I was not alone: a number of very good friends and business associates also got the bullet. None of us understood what was happening. We were seasoned executives who had built and led effective teams in developing marketing and advertising campaigns. Yet we were out of work.

To find a way out, my decision was to begin blogging; to learn about social internet marketing. There were three specific reasons.

First, I wanted to write a book. Mine was about the crazy sayings that I had heard over my long advertising and marketing career. Those original posts and are archived under the Label, "Working". One day I will get around to actually printing it...maybe.

The second reason was more personal: I needed an outlet for my emotions surrounding the death of my Father in September. That post can be found under, "Living" http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/2008/12/he-was-supposed-to-live-forever.html.

The third reason was to find a job. And since I was feeling more comfortable in the social marketing world, I blogged about that as well http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/2009/02/my-hero-pilot.html. It was more of a rant but that post was likely the match that lit the fuse that led to appearing in MACLEANS magazine.

As a Newbie Blogger, I searched constantly for ways to improve my on-line presence and increase traffic for my blog. One of the ways suggested was to comment on other blogs leaving a URL for tracking back. I started to do that and still do on a regular basis. My favourite news magazine blog was MACLEANS http://www2.macleans.ca/category/blog-central/. I got in the habit of commenting about stories that I was interested. One of those comments caught the attention of the reporter, Colin Campbell. The magazine was publishing an on-going series of articles, "The New Middle Class Reality" and he wanted to interview me.

After some consideration, I agreed. The interview was done over the telephone and lasted about an hour. I gave him a lot of material and was pleasantly surprised at the quotes that got published.

After that, MACLEANS sent photographer Cole Garside to our home in Wasaga Beach. Great young photographer. He spent the morning with us and shot over 500 photos. He told us that MACLEANS wanted to get natural shots of us going about our regular workday routine. I had never had that experience before but after a few minutes I actually forgot he was there. It helped that I had a conference call that morning with Motivatorman, Emmanuel Lopez http://motivatorman.blogspot.com/.

Only after the photo session did it feel that that this was really going to happen. But until I actually picked up the printed magazine and flipped to page 34, it wasn't real. I bought all the copies in the store immediately!

You are can read the article on-line here http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/03/31/retiring-into-the-unknown/

Since then Sally and I have had our share of fame. We have been introduced at a business meeting as 'those people in MACLEANS' and Sally has even been stopped in the local supermarket by someone who recognized her. We love our 15 minutes of fame :)

A final note: while I haven't found a 'job' yet, I now work in multiple areas. I do sales and marketing for alteredperceptioninc.com in Barrie, Sally and I are Independent Associates with Pre Paid Legal and my public speaking career kicks off April 14 at my first event at a Women's Business Association in Wasaga Beach.

School may now be out, but the learning continues. :)

Rolling Stone Magazine's take on the Global Financial situation

Rolling Stone Magazine Reporter Matt Taibbi published an article on March 19 entitled, "The Big Takeover". In it he comprehensively details how the world got into the financial mess. He lays the blame squarely on certain specific actions in the US financial markets, and goes on to postulate that a takeover play is underway.



While I do not agree with him on the takeover of the financial markets by the US Federal government, his article is one of the best in explaining the mess. Follow this link directly to the entire article in Rolling Stone Magazine:



http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover

MSTRKRFT was awesome on Jimmy Kimmel!

We stayed up until 1 am Thursday morning to catch MSTRKRFT on Jimmy Kimmel. This was well past my usual bedtime, but it was worth it. It was the first time we had seen MSTRKRFT perform http://www.mstrkrft.com/. We were blown away: it was really cool to see our nephew, Al P doing his thing on a national late night talk show.

And surprise...we enjoyed the Jimmy Kimmel Show! http://abc.go.com/latenight/jimmykimmel/index. He had a great opening monologue and excellent guests. Jimmy's interaction with them was right on. Even though we tuned specifically in to catch MSTRKRFT, we ended up becoming fans. Since we rarely see 12 midnight during the work week, a PVR is suddenly in our future.

Great show...great performance...early to bed tonight :)

How to be a better Blogger using Twitter, Linkedin, facebook

Over the months of my blogging, I have occasionally posted articles documenting my experience as a newbie blogger. I did this as a way to share my learning. This post continues the story and and at the suggestion of Blogger.com, asks for something as well: please follow my blogs.

Here is my experience since my last update:

• About a month ago I decided to stop the emails to friends and family telling them to check out the blog posts. Now I only promote online. I am sure they are relieved :). It was a scary day for me however. And a surprising thing happened: visits to my blogs increased.
• Promote on facebook (http://www.facebook.com/) in a couple of places: on my 'Status' and in relevant groups. This is a great social network site with more emphasis on the social.
• Promote on Linkedin (http://www.linkedin.com/) in my 'Status' area and in relevant groups as well. Linkedin is a more business-oriented network. I have received the most response here. The comments on the blogs and the direct communication is generally more well thought out. Plus, I have expanded my network because of the email exchanges. I strongly recommend linkedin.
• Twitter of course (http://twitter.com/). This is a bit of a 'Push' network, but I always see an increase in blog visits when I tweet a new post.
• And most recently, I have found Ping (http://ping.fm/). This site is still in beta, but it allows you to update all your networks with one post. I currently use it to post to twitter, facebook and linkedin. I like the one-stop approach and heartily recommend this.
• I stumbleupon as well (http://www.stumbleupon.com/). This is in my browser toolbar and is an easy way to say 'I like it'.
• I submit my articles to digg (http://digg.com/). Gives me additional exposure.
• I submit my posts to Zimbio as well (http://www.zimbio.com/). I used to publish to my own ezines, but now I submit to various others. This seems more effective.
• I have increased my blog roll on each of my blogs. I ask for a reciprocal link as well.
• I post comments on various blogs that interest me. I post with my name and blog URL.

All of that sounds like a lot of work. It is but it actually takes about 15 minutes after I post new material. And with ping.fm, I can update twitter, linkedin and facebook with one post. This is much more efficient.

And now the next step, working to increase my followers. Please check out my three blogs and if you see something you enjoy, follow me. Here are the blogs:

• http://mykalsreport.blogspot.com/
• http://giraffemarketing.blogspot.com/
• http://realjamaicancooking.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your support

Mstrkrft on Jimmy Kimmel March 18

My wife Sally and I were in our home office this morning with our first cup of coffee. We were settling in for the day when we received a call from her very excited brother, Ed. He was buzzing with excitement; we had to put him on the speaker phone! His news: his son, Al P (http://www.mstrkrft.com/) was going to be on the Jimmy Kimmel Show March 18! Check out this link to the show that notes the appearance next Wednesday: http://abc.go.com/latenight/jimmykimmel/index?pn=upcomingguests#t=0

Sally and I will not miss the show next week! His parents plan to PVR it.

The phone call this morning reminded me that true personal happiness and success can be found in a simple phrase, "Follow your passion!". As parents of 4 boys and mentors to numerous young people, we have given this advice repeatedly. Sally and I recently retired from the corporate rat and are now following our true passion of living and working together. We wish we had done it sooner.

I wish I had met Al sooner as well. About 8 years ago, when I did meet him, he had his own recording studio in the basement of his parent's home. He recorded some material for me for a pet project (a late night stream-of-consciousness radio show). He even had me record some spoken word material for a musical project he was working on. I could tell then that he was living his passion. I should have gotten his autograph then.

We get so distracted don't we. We let intrusions get in the way of what we truly want to do. Al, thanks for reminding me that it is not too late to get on the right track.

We'll be applauding next Wednesday.

How 25 divided by 5 equals 14

This video was sent to me by a friend. for all you mathematicians out there, this video link proves absolutely without a doubt that 25 divided by 5 equals 14. Hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omyUncKI7oU

Friday the 13th Sucks!

Friday the 13th really sucks. For some people, but not for me.

Here we are, an entire society of grownups caught up in the belief that it is a 'Bad Luck' day. And all because of some events that while terrible, occurred in the past. Spending any energy today worrying about what terrible things may happen because of the day and date is a waste of time.

But thanks to the superstition, lots of people will be playing it close-to-the vest today and will play it conservatively. I have a 'High Energy' day planned today to take advantage that.

My plans include actively prospecting for new business in all the areas I work in. I am sending out a proposal for a FREE marketing seminar to Alteredperceptioninc prospects. I have a teleconference with a business in Newfoundland to discuss sales and marketing plans. And I am moving forward on a project that will take a group of runners to Jamaica to compete in and complete their first marathon. And to top it off, I am taking my wife to dinner at an excellent local Italian restaurant tonight.

Thanks to everyone who believes in bad luck today. Due to you and your superstitions, it will be a GREAT day for me today.

Inspiration

I have been saving these inspirational and motivational sayings for a rainy day and it seems to be doing that literally this morning north of Toronto.

These sayings and “ism’s” were collected from various sources over many years. I keep this list up-to-date and refer to it often. I would love to hear from you if you have any to share. Please do so in the comment area immediately below this article. I hope you find some inspiration:

• If you want to dance with god, you’ve got to ask

• From Barak Obama's inauguration speech, Jan 20, 2009
  -Freedom to Choose
  -Turning point for change
  -Let me have the wisdom to lead with humility
  -Choose hope over fear
  -We are willing to extend a hand if you unclench your fist

• Pain is the doorway to great learning. So sorry, but happy to hear
  that you're earning your wisdom. See you in class.

• Don't invest emotionally in the unknown

• 3 Rules to live by
  1. Remember who you are and where you came from.
  2. You don’t have to be the best but you must try your best.
  3. You don’t have to succeed at everything but you must learn from your experiences.

• Accuse you of success

• Leadership in business
  -Hire what you don't know
  -No dreams, no future
  -Don't find fault with what you don't understand
  -Emotion is essential
  -The best companies in the world are always worried

• Some questions are hazard, some are instinct, some are based on a premature understanding that is more than instinct, but less than knowledge.

• Actions have reactions, don't be quick to judge, you may not know the hardships people don't speak of.

• Your behaviour is a reflection of what you truly believe

• If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice

• Learn what to accept and what to push for change

• Failure to plan on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part

• The essence of strategy is sacrifice

And again, please feel free to leave your comments in section immediately below this article.

PS: yes, that is a picture of Tia our Tiny Yorkie with the HUGE personality

My Hero the Pilot

One of the things that I have always aspired to is to be cool under fire. Both in life and in business. Movie characters like Clint Eastwood in just about everything he has ever done, but especially Kelly’s Heroes. Tom Hanks in Apollo 13. The character, Draper in Mad Men. But the recent fantastic story of the pilot who landed his plane in the Hudson River really caught my attention. His years of experience allowed him to make the instant decision that saved the lives of all his passengers. He was over 50.

I must confess. For the past 18 months or so I have been stressed about turning 50. That ‘special day’ occurred in February 2008. So with 51 just around the corner, I have been thinking about it once again.

I work in advertising. A young person’s game I was told. Get out before you turn 50. I have believed that my entire working career. Unfortunately I managed to make that advice come true.

I realize now though that I have led myself astray. Years of experience matter! . Now more so than ever in this economic climate. To have all of that thrown out just because I hit 5-0 seems stupid.

Well to borrow a line from another movie, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

And that’s where my pilot hero entered. Experience got the job done!

Youth with all its fresh energy and enthusiasm is not the exclusive preserve of the young. I know I am not the first to figure that out. At 50 I still have the naïve optimism I had when I was 21. Just ask my wife, Sally.

I also however have the grey hair, love handles and wrinkles of 30 years of living. And the experience gained from being in the trenches of business.

Looking for an opportunity that takes advantage of my experience now. The search has been frustrating. Lots of naysayers out there. But through blogging I have met some new, positive influences. And I continue to be optimistic, enthusiastic and energetic. The passengers of the flight that landed in the Hudson would agree.

PS: The headline for my personal ad: “Enthusiastic, energetic, experienced…gets the job done!”

Until next week…

Baby Steps…life after losing your job

Square peg, round hole.

That sums up how I felt day one at my previous employer. Knew it the first day. Figured I could beat it. Felt bullish! After all, I had conquered the franchise/dealer world. This would be piece of cake.

Lasted 15 months. 9 of them hell. Couldn’t get a handle on the client. Despite my best efforts. Challenges with the internal team in terms of getting them on side. Roles duplicated and not clearly defined. I was in a marathon and the company was running sprints.

It was uncomfortable. But there was learning. Lots of it. Steep learning curve. Very steep! Unfortunately the learning didn't help with the work situation, but it led to a brave new world for me...

It began with Alan Kay of the Glassgow Group http://www.glasgrp.com/ . He was brought in to lead a series of cross department training sessions. How to implement change within an organization. Nothing new here. What was new to me was the approach: breaking down the goal into smaller ‘baby steps’. Won't get into the details, probably mess them up. Check it out for yourself. My takeaway:

• Define the goal (s) you would like to accomplish
• On a scale of 1 – 10, rank where you currently stand on each one
• Then ask the question, “What would it take to move to a 10?”

The answers are the ‘baby steps’.

What appealed to me most though was focusing on solutions. Never liked 'analyzing a problem to death'. Negative energy! Solution-approach: positive energy! Felt right for me. Embraced it. Then forgot about it.

Layoff in August '08 galvanized me into action. But not until I had spent months playing the blame game.

Bad timing. Not only were agencies holding off on hiring, most of the ones I wanted to work for were downsizing. And crazy me, I wanted to work in the automotive category based on my previous experience!

Blamed everyone and everything. “Poor me”.

Finally in early December a friend (thank you EI and I don’t mean Employment Insurance) suggested I participate in a teleconference hosted by Jack Canfield of ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’ fame http://jackcanfield.com/intro_audio_thankyou. It was the catalyst I needed to get going again.

And once I added the ‘baby steps’ process, positive things started to happen.

Set my goal: work. Simple, I was unemployed.

Rank: about 4 out of 10. Maybe even lower. Middle age ad guy looking for work in the advertising business north of Toronto as we sink into recession! Tons of experience though, smiles a lot and likes selling.

“What would it take to get to a 8?” OK, had to be realistic.

First step, decided I wanted to work with a small firm with direct contact with Creative and clients.

Second step, wanted to be close to home. Looked to Barrie.

Third step, contacted all the ad agencies and design firms in Barrie. Cold called them actually.

Got response from 2. One was interested and ‘put me on file’. Next.

The other was interested but was busy with work. Understood that. The mad rush to complete work before the end-of-the year. Set up a meeting for early January.

And after a 3 week courtship of emails, telephone conference calls and late afternoon meetings at the Williams Coffee Pub in Barrie, we closed the deal. Result: started working on new business with alteredperceptioninc on January 27. Check them out at http://www.alteredperceptioninc.com/. They do great work and I am excited to be working with them. I know, I know…shameless self promotion :)

And the best part of the experience? I blog about it. Now, that will get me to a '10'

Goals. Baby Steps. Positive Energy. Moving forward. The story continues…

Response to ‘You Get to Play Again Tomorrow’ post

Wow! It really is possible for an individual to change the world.

After I posted the story, ‘You get to play again tomorrow’, on Jan 20, I expected the usual response: some emails, normal level of site visits.

This time I received an unexpected and very pleasant surprise.

First I noticed that the number of hits to the blog jumped significantly. I did my usual promotion:

• email to my usual distribution list (thanks for continuing to put up with the email blast :))
• twittered it (http://twitter.com; follow me ‘Chris_Morales’)
• posted on facebook business/networking groups (http://www.facebook.com/)
• posted on Linkedin groups I belong to (http://www.linkedin.com/ .

Then I started getting emails. All complementary. Unusual. At first I chalked it up the giddiness of the day: January 20, Barak Obama’s inauguration http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjnygQ02aW4

Later that afternoon though, the answer was revealed. It came in the form of an email chain from a friend who had found the topic particularly relevant. He had not only forwarded it on to his staff, but had also sent it on to his associates in his company across the country!

This blew me away. I started blogging last fall as a rant (I had just lost my job at the time) and while it has morphed and changed over the months, I did not expect that it could be influential. Pleasant surprise.

As I reflected on this during the evening while watching Obama’s Inauguration Ball (yes, I watched over 8 hours of inauguration coverage that day!), I grew to appreciate the significance of what had happened. I was humbled and reminded of the fact that there are decent people in the world. It re-affirmed my personal belief system: act morally, ethically and treat others with respect at home, work and play.

As a final comment on this, here are two responses that from the email chain (I have removed the identities to protect their privacy)

• “Great (and edifying) story and made me think immediately of a few times both my kids and kids I coached said something similar, BUT, never took the time to write down”

• “This arrived at an opportune moment yesterday as doom and gloom was being spouted by some people in the office. This provided perspective and I've tuned the doom and gloomers out! We are playing again tomorrow!”
  

Thanks for forwarding the email, JY. And thanks again Andrew for teaching us that we do get to play again tomorrow.

You Get to Play Again Tomorrow

Advice can come from anywhere and anyone and any time. You just have to listen carefully.

A great observation about coping with unexpected challenges came from my son, Andrew. He was 12 years old.

At the time both he and his brother played baseball on a rep team. Lots of regular season games during the week and tournaments around southern Ontario on the weekends. This particular weekend we travelled to Stratford.

Trip started around noon Friday afternoon. Lived in Mississauga at the time. Wanted to beat the traffic and get there early for the early evening game.

After the usual pre-game drill, settled down to watch the game.

The team played well. Pitching was good, fielding solid. But the boys couldn’t buy a hit that evening. Ended up losing the low-scoring game.

In the car later that night on the drive home I of course offered my usual ‘armchair coach’ critique expert that I felt I was…not!

Me giving advice, the kids quiet, tired, not paying much attention. More interested in playing Tetris.

Somewhere along the 401 with the innocence of youth, and in a bid to shut me up, Andrew casually uttered, “I understand you are upset that we lost, Dad, but we get to play again tomorrow”.

Stopped talking immediately fortunately.

"You get to play again tomorrow".

Those words have stayed with me over the years. Have gotten me through some tough times. It is good advice for the challenging times we are currently experiencing.

Yes, sometimes despite your best efforts you loose. Did your best, did nothing wrong. External circumstances beyond your control. You’re out!

But unless you have committed a crime, you do get to play again tomorrow. Life provides opportunities for getting up, dusting yourself off and moving ahead. May not be exactly as it was before, but if you listen carefully to what you really want to do, you do get to play again tomorrow.

Thanks Andrew.