goodness in sharing…

5 years…

…actually, not quite 5 years. In 2005 I joined Carmichael Lynch as a research specialist. Back then social media was a buzz word, Twitter still had the “track” feature and Facebook was just for college kids. Through the years I had the fortune to work with some great people to create some great work. The clients and people at CL are both top notch and will be missed. But this Friday will be my last day at Carmichael Lynch.

Next week I will be packing up my new car (I know, this still shocks some of my family/friends that I have a car) and will be heading South…to Dallas…yes, that’s Dallas, Texas. I know…here I was worried that I was moving to a non-snow state. But they just got 10 inches of snow there last week. So, I guess my new winter coat won’t go to waste after all. See, everything is going to be fine :)

In Dallas, I will be joining Matt Dickman at Fleishman-Hillard as Senior Vice President of Social Strategy. Though the decision to move South was a tough one, the opportunity to work with Matt and Fleishman-Hillard team/client roster was something that I could not pass up.

To my Minneapolis friends and family – you will be missed. Well, the -20 degree weather might not be missed but the art openings, soccer, broomball, board games, Irish pubs, beer tastings and Thanksgiving dinners will be.

Thank all over you for the laughs and great times over the last 5 years.

If you are ever in Dallas, much sure you stop by and say “howdy”.

Something like this, more or less. This is not new. It is more notes on how I’ve been thinking about it lately.

The words of the master were sign #3;

Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

Mr Ferris Bueller

Seriously, in last 4-5 days I’ve seen nothing but signs that say – slow down. First it was the International Institute of Not Doing Much and then Good magazine has an whole issue towards slowing down. So I did what any self-respecting person who thinks that the random appearance of three similar ideas/objects will bring meaning to life and slowed down. Here is what I’ve done so far.

1) I’ve stepped back. I’ve tried to observe what is going on around me. How are things moving around me? What am I moving around? So far, what I’ve noticed is things are not really that complex. If you just notice, most solutions and ideas are right in front of you. You just might need a different perspective. Going a tad slower allows for the possibility of multiple perspectives.

2) Enjoy more by doing less. 2K10 friendship day was great. Simple. Awesome. Noticed many small things. Felt weird and sorry and sad for Tyson

3) Turned the corner. Broke a promise never to blog too personal. Can’t win them all.

And in turn slow fashion…that’s about all I have to say about that for now. Though, has given me time to have a few good thinks.

A person should not believe in an “-ism,” he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, “I don’t believe in Beatles, I just believe in me.”

Mr Ferris Bueller

At work I was asked to contribute to a white paper on “what provides you with inspiration” with further direction that “blogs are not allowed”. One of my colleagues shared that she picks a new place she wants to visit each month and researches it online like she was going there.

Clever. I like that and may steal it.

So I had a think as to where I take my mental breaks and get inspiration…besides blogs and RSS feeds. Looking back on my behavior over the last couple of months – I get a lot of inspiration from reading Smart Money and Fortune Small Business. I tend to read those magazines cover to cover. Why? Because from them you can read several different packs of tea leaves from several different angles. For example in this month’s Smart Money there is an article about the housing marketing – What’s Your House Really Worth?. Now, I haven’t read the entire article yet but the part of the article that got me thinking was how new home purchasers are using mortgage data pulled from multiple internet sites to make their offers – and getting great deals. Then they had a side bar reviewing the different sites.

What peaked my interest is how the internet is exposing data and the changed behaviors we have because of it. That there is enough data, accessible in a way for the average user to make a smarter decision about anything. I wonder if I need to make a t-shirt that says, “Did you check your internet before making that decision?”

I kid about that…but really, how many smarter decisions could we make if we would look at internet first?. I mean, I love my android barscan app to price check wine to compare prices and read reviews (although, hasn’t stopped me from buying it at that location yet…but I’m sure it will soon)

I like reading Smart Money and Fortune Small Business because it tips me off to the innovative ways people are solving problems around the business they create or the financial problems they are solving. You can learn a lot from what others are being successful at, and re-purpose that to ideation in your own life. That is one of the places I get inspiration. Thinking about it, I should probably ad the Economist to that list.

And no, this post was not solicited by either magazine

The short of it: I’ve blogged on and off and off and quite and restarted and stopped and created an excuse and quite and….It’s been a vicious cycle. So why go at this again?

Well, I think we are actually headed into a really interesting time in the space that I work and like to spend time thinking about – some sort of digital marketing something. Think it is a good time to be writing again.

I’ve also decided to blog everyday for a year. 365 posts. I’ve needed a fun challenge for awhile now. To help supply material, things I find interesting I’m tumblring.

Kottke.org commented on The decline of cooking and the rise of watching people cook and what I wondered was what maybe needs to change is the watching/cooking experience of a TV cooking show, i.e. combine the two. We have plenty of TVs/computers in the kitchen these days… maybe it’s time to rethink the interaction between program, site and kitchen experience.

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This site is slick, but could they add some tag clouds, topic trends, etc. of what the Congress was saying? I really digging sites that helps us share data and create new ways to look at data. And I think people in general are as well. But one thing I haven’t sorted out is why do people like it? Do we like becoming conscious of our numbers or more a ‘gold star – Look at how well I did’ effect (an interesting conceptual consumption theory). Because we’re seeing more and more aggregated data sites like Mint.com getting us hooked on personal metrics.

Speaking of watching numbers and thinking you’re cool… guess who is #1 on dodgeball in the twin cities this weekend so far?

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I love watching/learning about Augmented Reality projects for two reasons. 1) It’s really interesting to have a technology force the discussion/idea to what is a ‘platform’ and how “digital” is moving off the computer screen 2) It’s a technology idea that is growing up right in front of our eyes. The improvements and cleverness are rapidly evolving. Here is one of the cooler ones I’ve seen in lately, spotted on Games Alfresco.

We’ve seen this before, but the AR business cards are really making some interesting steps forwards. The link has the video, which shows the interaction of being able to call the person directly from the AR. I like this demo because it is showing the possible adoption of video/mics built into most computers these days and combining your social graph (your social media footprint) with platforms outside of the computer environment.

Want to watch those spots from days gone by? Duke University has put a collection online. See what the Madmen were making

No, can’t drive your car with your iPhone, but close

Speaking of mobile phones, Americans no longer use them predominately to talk…52 percent of Americans use mobile for non-voice activities: Study. Which is pretty crazy to think about. I think we’ve passed the tipping point for mobile devices, and we should really start to think of mobile as another communication platform. Much like we think of the internet as a platform, we should think about how to weave mobile into our communication efforts as another main 360 connection point (and not just apps, but how people connect to data/communication on the go).

The Forrester Groundswell Awards are coming in, and it looks like some really interesting stuff. Nominated is the BLT (Bacon Lovers Talk) site.

Nascar Handpicks 28 Websites to Cover Races

I think this article is worth a read for a couple of reasons… it points to an interesting side of the evolution of media. Because of the financial impact of both newspapers folding and newspapers (along with other publishers) not being able to send reporters to cover the races Nascar realized that they needed find a new way to get coverage to help keep fans informed/enthusiastic about the sport. They opened it to find top sites that covered Nascar and give them passes to races.

This has impact on several areas of our business.

Media – we know that traditional publishers are dying. This could really impact the fragmentation of “eyeballs”.
PR – Traditional reporters are losing both their “voice” and “ access”.
Digital – There is more content to aggregate, more opportunities to help fans find and access the content.

Brands – Could “sponsoring” reporters, i.e. give them money to help them just cover events, be way to develop relationships with a “publisher” and their readers.

What are your thoughts?

via brandflakesforbreakfast.