Category: blog (Page 3 of 4)

How to Use Apple’s Stock App

Source: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/stocks/id1069512882

Apple has a great Stocks app which assists investors with prices updated in real time as well as a consistent stream of news articles from many media sources.

This is helpful because while you will have your standard lineup of stocks you can check prices at a glance with, you'll also be able to customize your stocks with new additions.

Say for instance you're on reddit financial threads or talking with a business partner about an exciting new stock, you can add this one to your roster here for it's history, prices and anything else you'd like to follow up with.

The Easy Process of Apple Stock Price Checking

First step is just opening up your Apple Stocks App.

You'll see the indices and funds with a standard stock lists that often begin with the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 for example.

Right after these, you're probably going to see Apple Inc following those indices.

How to use Stocks app on iPhone 1.PNG — The stock stats for the day are @ the Apple Stock app's home page.

To view more stock prices simply scroll down
Tap on a stock to get more info

You'll see the chart displaying a stocks price for the day once you tap on it
Timeline options: Simply click on a measurement of time like a month or 6 months and more times frames to gauge the trending prices for a span of time.

Apple Stocks Media Intel

There's a handy section called "Business News" that you can tap on at the bottom to view the top stories in business that Apple News displays

How to add new stocks

1. Click on the search bar at the top:

How to use Stocks app on iPhone 4 — Just like Google search bars type search terms here for stocks

2. Type in the stock ticker symbol for a stock you want to see.

3. Tap on the stock you want to look at. Make sure to click on the right stock and correct exchange.

4. After the stock chart comes up, you can see all of the info just like with the stocks on your standard list.

5. Click on the add button located in the top right hand side to add this stock to your roster

Simple Steps for Removing Stocks

1. Press the edit button in the top right corner of the app's home screen.

2. Just tap the minus sign next to the prices you want to remove then "Done"

Here's a list of promising tech stocks in 2020:

Top Tech Stocks for September 2020

If you're applying First Principle Thinking described in my last blog you're full of ideas for improving your business & investments. So which stocks are you excited on investing in?

Comment below!

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How Elon Musk Uses The Power of 1st Principle Thinking

Credit: Tech Insider/Recode/NASA

While Amazon & eBay are killing it in the ecom sphere, Elon Musk is crushing it in a real life Tony Stark way.

Musk co-founded PayPal, created and owns Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink and The Boring Company that's working on hyperloop trains to go from New York to Washington in 29 minutes.

So how does a private citizen compete with NASA and launch his own rocket into space?

It starts with rejecting everything you've ever learned. Doubting the conclusions about everything concerning a problem you're trying to solve until all you're left with is the distilled truth.

Most companies in the beginning have experimental phases, where intrinsic motivation and curiosity drives most of their innovation.

But what happens over time? Processes form and management becomes to afraid to mess with an existing system, and so that system stagnates.

Breaking even becomes the benchmark instead of pioneering or breaking ground in a new field.

Elon Musk turned the space industry on its head by applying first principle thinking, instead of getting stuck thinking about things in the same way.

Are you familiar with invisible rules?

While that sounds a bit abstract invisible rules affect us every day.

These are the habits and behaviors that are so ingrained they exist as almost an invisible constitution or charter we unconsciously follow in business and in personal endeavors.

When something challenges habitual ways of thinking about an established mode of acting many get defensive and stand up for...their own limitations.

First principle thinking is one of the best ways to undo these invisible rules that limit our ability to innovate.

First principle thinking reverse-engineers complex problems and frees our minds to creative possibility. Sometimes called “reasoning from first principles,” the concept is to break down complex problems into simple elements and then reassemble them from the ground up.

It’s one of the best ways to learn how to think for yourself and unlock your own creative potential, and move from linear to non-linear results exponentially as Elon Musk has done.

In early 2002, Musk founded the company that would be known as Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, with over a $100 million of the money received from the PayPal sale. Musk's goal was to make spaceflight cheaper by a factor of 10.

SpaceX's end goal is to bring economies to scale for colonizing Mars. Musk said that SpaceX won't file for an initial public offering until the "Mars Colonial Transporter" is flying regularly.

When PayPal was sold to eBay, Musk went to the beach in Rio de Janeiro but he wasn't just there for the scenery; he was reading Fundamentals of Rocket Propulsion.

Elon Musk spotted the trend that despite everything else getting smaller and cheaper like computers and smart phones, rockets get more expensive without improving.

Musk went to Russia to see if he could get rockets any cheaper than the American ones which were a stunning $130,000,000 dollars.

He met with many Russian officials, drank lots of vodka but even trying to grab a decommissioned intercontinental ballistic missile (missiles de-armed of weapons) the cheapest he could find was $20 million.

It was also pretty slim pickings if you're looking for a venture capitalist to fund your trip to Mars so the real life inspiration for Marvel's Iron Man had to regroup.

By the way, the Iron Man filmmaker Jon Favreau inspired Elon Musk to make tech that was only in a comic book to become a reality:

"I think it's important to reason from first principles rather than by analogy," Musk said in an interview with Kevin Rose.

"The normal way we conduct our lives is we reason by analogy," he said. "[With analogy] we are doing this because it's like something else that was done, or it is like what other people are doing. [With first principles] you boil things down to the most fundamental truths … and then reason up from there."

Elon used first principle thinking to overcome the road block that progress creates, meaning processes are created by definition to look backwards and not be questioned.

After failing to get affordable rockets from Russia, on the way back to America, Elon Musk told the aerospace consultant who accompanied him there that,"I think we can build a rocket ourselves."

Elon Musk decided to ignore everything he knew and that the public knows about the process of sending a rocket into space (via NASA).

Rather than tackle this from a 30,000 view, Musk went microscopic and broke apart the physics involved in sending a rocket into space.

Tesla's founder examined what rockets are made out of:

Titanium, copper, carbon fibers and aerospace-grade aluminum alloys.

Then, still using first principle thinking he researched what the cost of these materials is on a commodity market and discovered that the materials of a rocket costs around 2% of the selling price.

This was due in large part to the outsourcing within the space industry for all the work in building the individual parts for cutting the metal and shaping the atoms.

Musk decided to set up shop with vertical integration owning the entire process of manufacturing and launching rockets.

SpaceX manufactures around 80% of their own rocket components and does some pretty innovative sourcing for their raw materials.

One SpaceX employee bought theodolite, which is used to track and align rockets, for $25,000 on eBay after finding out the new version cost too much.

This type of first principle thinking was used across the board for SpaceX.

Instead of using expensive materials for handles of hatches, they used spare parts from bathroom stall latches.

SpaceX avoided paying through the nose for astronaut custom-built harnesses and used race-car safety belts.

They swapped out specialty onboard computers that range in price up to $1 million dollars with the same type of computer that you're using in an ATM for only $5,000.

The way of thinking by analogy, following old established-process-based routines would have you think, well if NASA can't use the same rocket twice, I doubt anyone else can.

Musk turned this whole fallacy on its head.

This approach of first principle thinking truly reached the pinnacle of rocket science innovation when Elon Musk's SpaceX designed rockets to be re-usable.

And did so successfully not just theoretically.

Falcon 9 is a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured by SpaceX for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond. Falcon 9 is the world's first orbital class reusable rocket.

[Source:SpaceX.com]

Today's blog isn't about hero-worshipping Elon Musk - it's a tale told about how to learn from what's already working but in a way that even defies this sentence.

When you talk about reverse engineering a sales funnel or an existing business model, and making improvements on it, or the poster boy formula in blogging or YouTube it's a way of learning from what's already working without really learning.

Shifting to first principle thinking means taking apart a process, forgetting what you already know about it and seeing if there is a non-linear way to make the leap to new ideas.

Even our keyboards are flawed, if you look at the top row of keys you'll see it's designed to spell out "typewriter" to sell more typewriters not for an ergonomic method of typing the alphabet into words efficiently.

But it's a process, it's just "the way things are" so we accept it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Elon Musk didn't. And his results speak for themselves.

Musk cherry-picked the best, brightest avionics engineers -many formerly at NASA- and gave them the freedom to build rockets instead of push paper, get stuck in procedure and never see their dreams materialize.

Musk hosts a regular Friday lunch where anyone can ask questions about where SpaceX is going.

So the next time you're faced with a wall you can't seem to break down to either solve a problem, innovate a product, design a new marketing strategy or invent a solution - try first principle thinking.

You may just find a winner.

What something you're trying to solve for right now?

Comment below!

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What Made Amazon & eBay So Successful

Amazon & eBay are successful companies but how did they get to be successful?

In the real world outside of pure economic theory, every business is successful to the extent that it does something other businesses cannot.

This is true across the board, just as companies that fail all share one common trait: they failed to escape the competition.

Many companies that managed to stay above water eventually fail because they lacked the foresight to evaluate their value based on the money they will make in the future.

A successful business is defined in part by its ability to generate cash flow in the future, and eBay as well as Amazon set up business models that only became more relevant to consumers as time passed.

The advances of technology for personal computers, desktops then laptops, smartphones then app stores with one-click buy options and QR codes offered an infrastructure for these two e-commerce sites that didn't exist when they started.

Many startups focus only on the immediate future, but for a business to be valuable it has to grow and endure. Growth is easy to measure but durability is more obscure so it gets ignored.

The best startups should integrate the potential for a much greater scale built into the first design and combine that with a well defined brand.

Why Amazon and eBay succeeded where others failed is they both cultivated the perfect target market of a particular group of people concentrated together that were served by few competitors.

For Amazon it was books, then later CDs and then later the world's largest online general store.

For eBay they dominated the market for beanie babies in 1995, then stamps and much more. eBay's success is attributed to its unique business plan: allowing people or businesses to list new or used items for auction for a very low fee.

After you dominate a niche market, the next step is to gradually expand into related and slightly broader markets - both Amazon & eBay did this and generated large revenue in the process by becoming household names.

At the time, no one else was doing this. eBay was successful almost from day 1. eBay's founder tells a story about how one of the first items he listed, after creating the website, was a "broken" laser pointer.

He was specifically saying it was broken. Yet, the auction attracted a lot bids and the broken laser pointer sold for something like $15.

Those results were typical for many buyers and sellers.

Instead of starting with an idea for a product and trying to convince executives that customers will "love the idea," Amazon works from the viewpoint of the customer to come up with ideas that will generate value.

An example of this is Amazon Prime.

Prime was created because it was understood within Amazon that customers wanted to buy quality products for less money, and customers wanted to receive products as fast as possible.

And it worked. Incredibly well.

Amazon is exploring AR technology as well (you can read about advances in Augmented Reality in this blog here).

Amazon’s success depends on the fact that it is two very different but seamlessly integrated shopping places at once:

A store, like Walmart, (with Vendors offering products to Amazon) and a marketplace, like eBay, (with sellers selling direct to consumer).

Both eBay and Amazon often offer free shipping and returns which is a huge deal breaker for many consumers. Personally, I rarely buy products I have to pay an additional price for shipping on.

The most successful companies like Amazon & eBay make the core progression:

1. Dominate a specific niche

2. Have scalability built into the business's design

3. Scale to adjacent markets as part of their founding narrative

And there you have it, the secret to Amazon and eBay's success. When I first started up in the entrepreneur space I tried to focus on everything instead of one specific field.

The same goes for when I quit working at Facebook, I tried to offer my services as just a Facebook expert. My business suffered as a result of being too general.

When I sub niched down to being a Facebook policy expert business started booming, so that's a real life example that relates to these 3 killer steps to becoming a successful startup.

What's your favorite thing you like about using eBay or Amazon?

Comment below!

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Huge Potential of Extended Reality XR

Augmented Reality (AR) is the next big thing in new tech and there's a reason for it: new developments are happening at rapid fire pace that is creating an amazing experience.

AR adds layers of virtual objects to the real environment. In contrast to Virtual Reality (VR), AR is an interactive experience of a real world environment where the objects in the real world are enhanced by computer generated perceptual information.

AR combines the real and virtual world, a real time interaction and accurate 3D registration of real and virtual objects across multiple senses.

The overlaid sensory info can be destructive where the natural environment can be masked to show virtual items, constructive or additive to the natural environment.

VR on the other hand replaces reality completely with a virtual reality.
The 1st AR technology was developed in 1968 in Harvard when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland created an AR head mounted system but it didn’t really take off until 2016 when Pokemon Go launched.

In addition to video games that allow you to fight epic battles in your living room, with systems like Lenovo Mirage (smartphone powered AR) there are applications for space exploration as well.
Here's Seismic Games debut teaser trailer for Blade Runner: Revelations, on the Lenovo Mirage Solo Google Daydream headset:

Nasa has stated they plan on using AR to keep track of astronaut’s health while they are in space.
Using a customized, 3D virtual reality (VR) simulation that animated the speed and direction of 4 million stars in the local Milky Way neighborhood, astronomer Marc Kuchner & researcher Susan Higashio obtained a new perspective on the stars’ motions, improving our understanding of star groupings.

Nasa scientists, using VR animated star clusters, found stars that may have been classified into the wrong groups as well as star groups that could belong to larger groupings.

Google is using AR to translate street signs and books in real time from one language to the user’s native language:

Medical training, education, manufacturing, military, are all industries that are planning on using AR for virtual floating touch screen objects that hang in mid air.

Some really cool camera-based AR apps out right now include on the simplest level, iPhone’s free measure app that lets you measure the size of someone’s height in real time or tables length and width.

Ikea created an app called Ikea Place that lets you virtually place true to scale 3D models of Ikea furniture in your living room.

You’ll select an item from their digital catalogue, then using your smartphone camera you take a picture of your place. Then you can put the furniture anywhere in your house to see how it would look in real life.

The fashion industry isn’t getting left out of the loop for AR either. Many clothing brands let you try on clothes virtually so you can see what you’d look like in new threads without physically having to be there.

One of the the neatest AR apps out there that’s free is called Jig Space. This app lets you explore 3D objects in space, history, inside the planet Earth, how-to, machines and more.

One of the biggest issues with AR is that data has to be real time rendered right as an end user makes a decision without images and info lagging. 5G phones may help with this.
Real time content and AR content sometimes aren’t able to respond to each other fast enough to create a smooth experience.
MR or mixed reality hopes to fix this issue by using occlusion to remove the boundaries between real and virtual interactions.

MR merges real and virtual worlds together to create new environments and visualizations. Where physical and digital items coexist and interact with each other in real time.
MR doesn’t take place in exclusively the physical or virtual world, but is a hybrid reality where both come together.

While MR is similar to Augmented Reality one of the main distinctions between the two is that Mixed Reality allows a virtual overlay of graphics to interact with the real world. If you're dealing with Zoom fatigue you'll have a lot more options now,

Last year in February (2019) Microsoft came out with a new product called Hololens 2. These are Mixed Reality Smart Glasses. Their product demo was pretty impressive, using an application created with the unreal engine.

A few months later, the Hololens 2 Emulator was released to developers to allow them to create applications for the Hololens 2.

The Hololens 2 features include:

A diagonal field of view of 52 degrees, a resolution of 47 pixels per degree, accelerated work loads such as eye tracking, spacial audio, fully articulated hand tracking, semantic labeling and more.

The price tag is a bit heft at $3500 dollars.

AR, VR and MR is at the forefront of new business ventures predicted to create windfalls for both investors and creators, especially given current occupation limits, social distancing and stay at home orders which are intense in countries like Australia.

With everyone at home so often these days, Augmented Reality shows promise of sky rocketing in demand and sales as does VR and MR.

AR, Virtual Reality (VR), and MR are under the umbrella of XR or Extended Reality.

We’ve gone from hunters and gatherers to 3D printing hamburger patties grown from stem cells without harming animals or cutting down rain forests for cattle grazing lands.

While much of this new tech that can solve resource deficits has yet to be deployed at a level prevalent enough to have a global impact - we have the tools now to solve major issues like world hunger and starvation at a lower cost.

I hope this is something that becomes sponsored as a world-wide initiative to help end the nutrition issues in developing countries, food deserts in the United States of America and problematic issues for starving military families that are denied benefits.

But that’s more on the 3D printing and stem cell grown food topic, going back to AR, VR and MR, you’d think there would be once device that harnesses all three in XR.

And there is.

May 2020 Qualcomm who makes the chip for the Oculus Quest VR headset announced they are colloborating with 15 world operators to create XR viewers.

These operators are planning on making XR part of their 5G offerings for both businesses and consumers, debuting next year in 2021.

These XR viewers will be a pair of light weight glasses with 8K 360 degree video capabilities.
They’ll connect to a smartphone powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 or 865 mobile platform. These will be tethered via UBC cable to the 5G smartphones for an immersive XR experience with high bandwidth and low latency.

This will allow everyday experiences like doing planks for your morning workouts can become Augmented Reality experiences right before your eyes.

In the business world, these XR glasses can facilitate workplace meetings with holographic telepresence using virtual collaboration platforms.

It’s predicted that XR Viewers will become wireless and 5G tethered glasses will become available.

NVIDIA is another tech company vying for a place in XR tech wave maker history. Nvidia is known for designing GPUs. Their Cloud XR is their foundation platform for streaming Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality & Mixed Reality content from any open VR or XR application on a remote server.

Another contender is Nreal light glasses, which look pretty badass and are priced at around $586).

Nreal previously shipped a $1,199 developer kit that included a controller and a dedicated mini-computer.
The Nreal Light is a light sunglasses-style headset that tethers to a separate computing device — in this case, the Galaxy Note 20. It uses spatial tracking & projected images to overlay apps onto the real world, and Nreal sells it as a more spacious alternative to a smartphone for watching videos, playing games, or reading websites.

Sensors track the eyes' movements as well as 3D-mapping the view in front of them, so that digital characters and objects can be seen to interact with the environment.

Microphones and speakers are also built into the frames. And users control objects in view via what looks like a curved laser pointer.

It’s promising to support Chrome, Facebook, and Instagram, among other apps, at launch.
That’s a huge advancement as a way to enhance viewing YouTube videos right?

Personally, I'm not a big VR person, after watching the Matrix so many times I'd rather not get sucked into an addiction to a non-real environment - although clearly there are benefits like Nasa's applications to astronomy and more.

But AR? Please, I want my Nreal glasses today! It makes what was once fantasy for tactile overlays you see in movies about the future, actually a reality.

I can see so much potential for designing tech, new clothes, innovative solutions to issues facing the world, I can't wait until economies of scale make AR tech part of everyday life.

What about you? What's your favorite thing discussed in today's blog on AR, VR and XR?

Comment below!

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5 Top Tips to Avoid Zoom Fatigue

Credit: Google Trends

While working at Facebook I interfaced with teams around the world on video, which was cool when mixed with real life meetings with fellow Facebook colleagues but now everything is on Zoom.

If you feel like you're getting a lot more tired at the EOD than pre-covid19 you’re not alone. Zoom fatigue is a real issue that many of us suffer from since March of this year.

Back in the 80s Sci Fi films showed video chatting as futuristic tech - their future is our right now but why are Zoom video chats tiring?

Well, in a real life meeting there is a lot more social stimulation, just being around other people can be invigorating. But in the silo of staring intently at a screen to retain the info can be exhausting.

Video Calls Make Us Lose Focus

Being able to do a quick whispered comment in a meeting to a colleague and then refocus doesn't have a Zoom equivalent. It's way too easy to lose our focus and go down the rabbit hole.

It starts innocently enough with one email, one Facebook messenger response, one text, or perhaps a Slack convo that we attempt to do all within a minute or two

10 minutes later we refocus, look up and have no idea what was being said and look like an ass to other conference attendees.

Not to worry! For all you social media marketers on Facebook, IG, Twitter, and business owners or remote workers I've got a few tips to help:

Here Are 5 Tips to Relieve Zoom Fatigue

1. Talk On The Phone - Yes This Is Still A Thing

Ask any preteen right now & they'll say phones are so 1999, but phone calls are still a thing for a lot of people, especially those who run their own businesses.

Phone calls are especially helpful to reduce Zoom fatigue. When on the phone with Mari Smith, the Queen of Facebook, we chatted about my upcoming feature in her Facebook Marketing Essentials course (FBME2).

Mari and I opted for a phone call instead of Zoom, because we have both been on so many Zoom calls recently due to covid 19. A phone call was a nice break from Zoom fatigue.

Here's a plug for her marketing course I'm featured in talking on Facebook policies: Mari Smith's Facebook Marketing Essentials 2

Back to relieving Zoom fatigue - if you're a pacer like me, talking when you walk helps get the creative juices flowing as well for new business ideas and conversation starters.

You can also see if there are any calls that you can switch to email or Slack if they aren't too too in-depth, this will help you recharge and refresh. Phone calls also let you do a little multitasking without appearing rude to your Zoom guests.

Saying something as simple as, "I'd appreciate a chance to recharge from staring at screens so much, mind if we switch to a phone call?"

Chances are, the other person is also facing Zoom fatigue and would enjoy a break too.

If you're a business consultant and give career advice, this can be achieved just as well over a phone call as on Zoom. You can even build in looking at a website a client has on your computer for a couple of minutes, giving feedback, and then stepping away from the screen.

2. Integrate Breaks Into Your Daily Schedule

Uninterrupted screen staring will tire us out so we need visual breaks to "refresh our mental screens" in a manner of speaking. Visual breaks help us refocus, if our brains are growing fatigued.

When you plan the day, build in a few breaks. If you have a longer Zoom call scheduled, make sure to take a few mini breaks and look away from your computer screen. Follow the 20 second rule, for every 20 minutes staring at the screen look at something 20 feet away, for 20 seconds.

Your friends, family, and business associates are going to be a lot more understanding than we may assume, if you both want to talk without having to look at the screen, to give your eyes a break for a moment (and perhaps add some carrots into your diet).

Sometimes things just get busy and you have nonstop Zoom calls, make sure that your scheduling app, daily planner Google Calendar or smart phone notepad (wherever you schedule the day at) also includes a buffer of 20-30 minutes between meetings.

This will give you a little bit of time to go for a 10 minute walk outside (walking increases productivity and creativity up to 60%), make a cup of coffee, meditate for 5 minutes, make a healthy snack and look away from the screen.

3. Notice Zoom Callers Backgrounds

Now this may sound silly at first, but you can actually reduce strain by simply taking a moment to look at the background of your Zoom counterparts.

Sometimes we stare at our own faces too much on Zoom calls, or other people's faces, but when you take a moment to notice the plants in your associates background, book titles on their bookshelf, it can give your eyes a break from staring at the same thing.

At the same time, if you're on a Zoom meeting with a bunch of people and they all have clutter in their backgrounds, don't focus on that. Even ask people not speaking to use avatars or suggest plain backgrounds either with a green screen and the Zoom virtual background feature or just for them to sit with a plain wall behind them.

4. Ensure There's Speaking Protocol for Social Zooms

Given that we are all on lockdown due to Covid-19 regulations often socializing nowadays is done on Zoom calls. But, if everyone is talking at once (especially when there's alcohol involved) this can lead to fatigue (and annoyance if your guests decide yell over others to be heard).

This can be solved by just simply verbalizing that taking turns is going to be followed. Now everyone gets a chance to talk and it isn't a room of people talking at once - this relieves screen fatigue.

When there aren't clear expectations outlined, the more alpha members of both genders jump in and compete for conversation space. By outlining expectations and format, this helps everyone out and reduces Zoom fatigue.

5. Reduce Multitasking

Multitasking IRL or on Zoom actually lessens our productivity. For those readers who are entrepreneurs and are familiar with 'serial entrepreneurship' you understand how spreading yourself too thin isn't as effective as laser-focusing on one project and nurturing it to perfection.

While it's tempting to think that you can use Zoom to do more in less time, research shows that trying to do a lot of things at once leads to a lesser performance.

This is due in part because you have to turn one part of your brain off and back on for the different types of tasks, which equals around a 40% dive in productivity.

According to the Stanford Memory Laboratory, those who multitask a lot can’t even remember stuff as well as those who choose to use tunnel vision productively, which makes sense given the experiences I've had and fellow startup founders in juggling 10 things at once leading to less quality than focusing on one thing or just a few things.

This also reminds me of another proof of concept moment in business history. Ebay started by dominating a small market of those who liked beanie babies, Amazon started with just books.

It was by focusing on a smaller area first, and getting expert level at this that lead to these companies' success and later expansion to other markets. You can read more about this in the blog on What Made Amazon & eBay So Successful (it's all in the power of dominating sub niches).

They key take away here is that when you're on a Zoom call, it'll be helpful to close the other tabs you have open and put away your smart phone. Be here now. Distractions can wait.
Practice these 5 tips and you'll find it refreshing to relieve the Zoom fatigue as we adapt to the new normal. By the end of 2021 I predict we'll have things more or less back to normal.
In the meantime I hope you've found these steps helpful. Do you have anything you've done to help with Zoom fatigue that isn't on this list or have a story about Zoom fatigue you want to share?

Comment below!

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Nerd Batman: Business Profile of Dean Kamen

Meet Dean Kamen the inventor of the Segway and the iBOT -- a motorized wheelchair that climbs stairs. Stephen Colbert took one for a spin. He lives on a island powered by wind & solar and holds over 1,000 patents.

The iBot was revealed in 1999. The IBOT™ is a battery-powered wheelchair built from sensors, microprocessors and gyroscopes that can climb stairs and stand upright on two wheels, empowering handicapped people to see and move at eye-level.

Kamen was already being paid for his ideas as a teenager; he built light and sound systems for local bands and museums. He was earning $60,000 -more than both of his parents- before even graduating high school.

Kamen went to college at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but dropped out in 1976 before graduating because of his invention of an insulin pump called AutoSyringe.

He sold this invention to the health care company, Baxter International making him a millionaire.

That's a pretty fast start, I mean, aside from children who just inherent millions of dollars, for a self-made millionaire it's pretty impressive.

I dropped out of college to work at Facebook for a few years before going back and finishing my degree in Geography but perhaps it would have paid off to invest in the list of inventions I've created but never followed up with.

World Health Organization stats show there's are 900 million people worldwide without a supply of clean drinking water and 3.5 million people die every year due to diseases in unsanitary water they drink. Despite the fact that over two-thirds of our planet's surface is covered with water, only 1% of it is potable.

Dean decided to tackle this problem with the invention of the Slingshot - a vapor distillation system powered by a Stirling engine. It's about the size of a mini fridge and can run off any combustable fuel even animal dung.

Credit: Coca-Cola's Site

The Slingshot uses less electricity than a hair dryer and can purify water from any source whether that's ocean salt water, sewage, urine, polluted groundwater and more. One device can produce clean drinking water for up to 100 people a day.

Slingshot was successfully tested for a month in a village in Honduras 2006. While the initial devices cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, Kamen is hoping that in the future there will be increased economies of scale to drive down the cost to $2,000 each.

Meantime, he struck up a deal with Coca-Cola: Kamen would build a better soda fountain for Coca-Cola and in return Coke is using their global distribution network to distribute the Slingshot to water-scarce countries.

Coke got together with 10 international organizations and started distributing the Slingshot in 2013 as part of their Ekocenter kiosks.

These kiosks are solar powered shipping containers that provide impoverished communities with safe drinking water, internet access and items like mosquito repellant as well as first-aid kits (and of course Coke for sale).

By 2017 there are 150 Ekocenters in 8 countries, most of them run sustainably by women entrepreneurs, providing 78.1 million liters of clean drinking water.

A Multimillionaire With A Conscience

In an interview with Tech Crunch, Kamen talked about the conversations he has with the youth:

"You asked what keeps me up at night. There will be a never ending set of potential catastrophes that confront humanity and the way we will avoid succumbing to those catastrophes is well-educated kids that have the appropriate perspective and judgment as to how to use that education and their technology for good."

Covid rocked the nation with countless jobs lost, economy plunges, and stores everywhere requiring face masks to buy groceries or shop at any retail establishment.

Dean and the airplane maker Boeing gave New Hampshire more than half a million face masks.

Boeing's 737-700 aircraft flew around 540,000 medical-grade face masks from China to Manchester-Boston Regional airport, as part of a deal Kamen coordinated, who brought 91,000 pounds of personal protective equipment to the state the previous weekend.

Kamen got the face masks from manufacturers in China through his company DEKA Research and Development, Corp.

Kamen's Secret Bat Cave

Credit: Spectrum.ieee

Like Batman, Dean Kamen has his own secret layer, a private island he owns off the coast of Connecticut (though officially in New York state) called North Dumpling Island.

Dean has a charred, yellowing copy of North Dumpling’s ancient constitution, a nearly verbatim match with the U.S. Constitution, and his own currency which is more of a joke, measured in units of Pi (3.14159).

Kamen's island is a success story for Zero-Net energy - it's completely sustainable using renewable energy.

Using a combination of wind and solar energy and heavy usage of LED lights, the island works independently of regional electrical grids. There is even a lighthouse, a replica of Stonehenge, and a “navy” consisting of one amphibious vehicle.

Photo: Kevin Cooley

No one knows who built this replication of Stonehenge, it was there when Kamen bought the island. The official vehicle of Dean Kamen’s island nation is, you guessed it, a Segway.

The rockstar inventor flies around in a souped-up Enstrom 480 helicopter between North Dumpling and his main residence, a majestic house in Manchester, N.H., near his Deka Research and Development Corp. in a row of refurbished mill buildings.

Credit: Spectrum

To coordinate the different sources, Kamen designed an intelligent system that knows, down to an individual solar panel or light source, how much energy is being produced and consumed on the island.

Kamen's LED lights are pretty sweet.They wash over the island in colors which cycle through the rainbow (and they can be set to a disco beat, but that’s another story). Just as amazing is the system’s engineering marvel that lets Kamen control every circuit on his island empire from anywhere in the world.

Photo: Kevin Cooley

The Stirling engine is the backup generator on the island, a 193-year-old design modified by Kamen to meet his needs.

Kamen believes in the future that almost everyone should have some means of locally generating electric power. It’s the only logical solution for an overtaxed, under maintained national grid that’s vulnerable to any disruption, be it an ice storm or a terrorist attack.

I think what I find interesting about Kamen - I mean there are a 1000 interesting things but to hone in on one - is that he is still down to earth, less of a holier-than-thou titan more of a nerd Batman, often dressed in denim.

"It's not about technology it's about people and stories," Kamen said in an appeal to the heart.

He recounts how DARPA approached him asking how is it that when a soldier gets hurt in battle, they get top of the line surgery civilians wouldn't get but if they lose an arm or leg they get the same wooden stick with a hook on the end that was given to them in the Civil War a century ago?

DARPA asked Kamen to build something that could interface between machines and humans, Kamen disbelievingly said (paraphrasing), "I think they were watching too much Terminator films."

Yet 15 months later, Dean Kamen had a working model where a soldier who lost his arm in the services, was able to use a robotic arm to pick up a grape (it's quit amazing) in this Ted Talk:

What do you think Kamen should invent next?

. . .

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Mapping the Future With Drone-Powered Reforestation

While the incredible developments in Cellular Architecture are paving the way for the future of biotech, another company is tackling deforestation on a whole new level.

Dendra, formerly known as Biocarbon Engineering, has developed a system of drones that replant trees. They received 2.5 million in funding with some promising projects on the way.

But first, let's examine why cutting down millions of trees everyday is worth investigating solutions to. What are the real effects of clear cutting forests?

Deforestation has side effects that many are not aware of, and it is a rampant issue today that is degrading the biome we rely on to survive.

It's not good for business when your business is located on a river delta that's getting deforested and your mangrove trees aren't there to break the wind and rain if a hurricane or cyclone hits.

Did you know the Amazon actually puts water into the atmosphere? The rainforests pump something like 20 billion tons of water into the atmosphere daily. This means less forests = more drought.

More drought means more massive migrations from coastal cities into inner urban areas, which means higher rents, less capacity and options for when you want to pick out your new house and a huge strain on basic resources for every city that coastal city refugees flee to.

This may mean increased profits for the real estate sector but everyone else will have to also deal with artificially inflated mortgage rates and scarcity.

Deforestation releases more CO2 than cars which average 14% of all carbon emissions, while deforestation contributes to 15% of carbon emissions. This is because when trees are cut down they release the CO2 they were storing back into the air.

Drought, increased green house gasses, erosion, less protection against cyclones and flooding (trees stop floods from over taking a field) - clearly the cons outweigh the pros.

But there is some nice innovation in drone technology that will help remedy the loss of trees.Let's dive into what Dendra is doing with drones and deforestation.

The Dendra system uses satellite and drone-collected data to find out the best location to plant a tree. The planting drones then fire a biodegradable seedpod into the ground with pressurized air at each predetermined spots.

The speed these are fired is around 120 seedpods per minute. The seedpods are filled with a germinated seed, nutrients, and other vital components.

These penetrate the ground, and, activated by moisture, will grow into healthy trees.

What kind of numbers are we talking about for the amount of trees that can be planted?

Two drone pilots, piloting 10 drones can plant 400,000 trees per day. If this was expanded to 400 teams then planting 10 billion trees each year would be feasible.

There is more than one company out there making waves in this field, Droneseed is another one also using Drone tech to 10X tree planting abilities.

Flash Forest as Newsweek reports, is also using drones to replant forests and combat the increased carbon in our atmosphere due to deforestation. Their drones shoot vessels into the dirt.

Each vessel contains three germinated seeds as well as other species which support the area, a fungus called mycorrhizae which helps plants to develop, fertilizers, and other "secret" ingredients.

Are you an Angel Investor? Perhaps you may want to invest in one of these companies on the cutting edge of reforestation. Here's Flash Forest's kickstarter page.

What other promising companies helping with deforestation have you heard of?

. . .

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Cellular Architecture Might Just Save the Planet

As medical tech is rapidly advancing (re: Microbots blog), the world desperately needs businesses to step up and solve the energy crisis, global warming, deforestation and water problems.

Fortunately, in our rapidly advancing world of interconnected geniuses there are solutions coming to some of these planet-wide issues that affect everyone.

Something as simple as a turkey sandwich has a high water cost, but not for all ingredients.

A loaf of bread takes about 240 gallons of water to produce, while one pound of cheese takes about 382 gallons. A simple cheese sandwich adds up to about 56 gallons of water. Add some sliced turkey, and the water footprint jumps to 148 gallons.

Source: https://foodprint.org/issues/the-water-footprint-of-food/

Meat production worldwide, accounts for between 14.5 percent and 18 percent of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions as well.

Additionally, cattle farming is destroying the largest producer of oxygen for the planet, the Amazon rainforest. According to the business section of the Washington Post:

From 2010 to 2017, beef exports climbed 25 percent, to 1.5 million tons, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. To accommodate that growth, cattle ranchers have been pushing their herds into the Amazon, clear-cutting and burning the forest as they go.

You don't have to be a tie dye Woodstock-Whole Foods hippie to crunch the data and see the viability of a business model that relies on depleting oxygen supplies for hamburgers - isn't viable.

Poorly planned resource management strategies mean there will be less hamburgers not more if there isn't a smarter approach to meat production - because when all the land is farmed & water is used up, what then?

The Toll on Biodiversity

The principal drivers of biodiversity loss include habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, pollution and climate change.

Livestock farming isn't by itself 100% detrimental to the environment and biodiversity. In fact, past pastoralism practices helped create high value cultural and natural areas we have today because of the grassland ecosystems that grazing creates.

However, the problem is that many ecosystems created by traditional farming practices have all but disappeared due to increasing agricultural intensification, especially in developed countries.
It comes down to supply and demand. When the demand is greater than the supply, suppliers can be motivated to cut corners or try methods of production that have long lasting damage in peripheral areas.
Hong Kong is the biggest global importer of Brazilian beef products, bringing in about $1.5 billion worth in 2017, according to the Brazilian Beef Exporters Association. China is second, at nearly $1 billion, followed by Iran, Egypt and Russia. The United States, which imported $295 million in beef, came in sixth.

The increased demand for meat has resulted in attempts to increase the level of production, where to increase farming outputs, farmers and big corps owning farms have moved livestock out of pastures and into barns so that agricultural areas can be harvested more intensively.

Agricultural intensification has been widely regarded as a driving force of biodiversity loss and whereas traditional farms provided important habitats for biodiversity, many of these important habitats are either declining or have been lost already.

So what's the solution? The whole world has to go vegetarian? Or vegan? While that would solve a ton of problems for reduced water supplies and loss of biodiversity it isn't realistic to expect the entire planet to get on board with changing their diet.

Luckily, there is another way to solve these problems and it begins with a $300,000 dollar burger.

Source: Dw.com

Stem Cell Grown Meat Offers Hope

Cultured stem cell grown meat on the other hand uses 99% less land, and 82 to 96 % less water, as well as producing 78-96% less greenhouse gasses.

The first lab grown hamburger patty cost $300,000 dollars to make. It was made in a Dutch lab at Maastricht University. The material was made from stem cells extracted from a cow's neck. By contrast, now Aleph Farms' small piece of steak costs $50 to produce.

Cellular agriculture is a brand new industry and there are a lot of opportunities for start ups to gain a foot hold here and make it big, just like there is in autonomous surgeon robots of microscopic size in the biotech field.

The Promising New Field Of Cellular Agriculture

San Francisco, California–based Memphis Meats has beef, duck, and chicken under development—with investment from (conventional) meat giant Tyson Foods. JUST, also based in San Francisco, has a chicken product based on cells originally isolated from the feather of a chicken (named Ian).

In 2018, the U.S. Cattlemen’s Association in Washington, D.C., petitioned USDA to restrict the use of the words “beef” & “meat” on product labels to only products taken from animals who “have been born, raised, and harvested in the traditional manner.”

So there is bound to be contention from rivaling industries of traditional farming. The dairy and meat industry are heavily subsidized by the FDA with powerful lobbyists backed by millions of dollars.

Just how will this come to a head when stem cell grown meat becomes a major threat to the meat market? Will big farms stock go down?

Will they try a smear campaign or bribe politicians like the auto industrial complex did for the electric car (before Elon Musk wiped the floor with the more aesthetic-driven Tesla)?

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially amidst the new covid-altered world. But there is also one more thing to consider:

Just what is the USDA’s responsibilities when it comes to lab-grown meat? That isn't clear at all here's why:

In order to inspect the lab grown meat, the USDA will need people they don't have right now, with higher qualifications in the type of science needed to even understand what they are regulating.

As of right now, the proposal to have USDA regulate cellular agriculture doesn’t have unanimous support, even in the agriculture subcommittee that advanced the bill to the full Appropriations Committee.

From Sciencemag.com:

Representative Rosa DeLauro (D–CT) argued that the decision is premature. “Presently, I don’t believe we know enough about the strengths and weaknesses of this type of food production,” she says. “We should allow experts to weigh in before taking on this major policy implication.” In March, DeLauro wrote to the U.S. Government Accountability Office to request a review of the regulatory framework for cellular agriculture.

What is clear is that this is one of the new industries that has risen to the call for helping us regulate resource management better so that many can enjoy eating meat without depleting our supplies.

In addition to saving animals from whole sale slaughter in the billions every year, stem cell grown cultured meat requires less energy, takes up less land, and releases less methane and other greenhouse gases than traditional meat production does.

Would you eat a lab grown hamburger?

. . .

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Microbots: The Future of Biotech

Credit: Newsweek

Entrepreneurs are at it again with an incredible new development: The Soft Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR). It's a robot that sutures soft tissue with built in dexterity and AI learning abilities.

Just the size of a small vitamin capsule, a robotic cylinder is hooked onto the end of a catheter. It's inserted at the base of the heart and using a motorized drive system this microbot cruises to a patient's leaking heart valve.

The robotic cylinder moves along side the ventricular wall, locating the damaged valve near the top of the ventricle using both touch sensors and vision.

After that the microbot gets into position by the leaking valve while a surgeon launches the minuscule stopper from this tiny robot which stops the leak.

If Elon Musk wants to take us to Mars, we'll need innovative solutions like robotic surgeons for the journey through space in case of injuries.

Right now there is more of a proliferation of cobots - robots that work with surgeons instead of replace them - but eventually much of these operations will be done by autonomous robots that work faster and learn quicker than humans.

Entrepreneurs aren't the only ones who see the huge potential of the microbot industry; Google's parent company Alphabet partnered with Johnson & Johnson to create surgical robots.

This partnership is called Verb Surgical, and their robotic surgeons hit the market this year with the goal to democratize surgery.

One of the side affects of mass production, when larger companies get involved, is the price is driven down making this one day a quite affordable procedure cheaper than the insanely expensive hospital bills Americans have to pay for routine medical work.

Bionaut's Microscopic Robot Surgeon

Ever heard of Bionaut? I haven't either yet this Israeli startup is making waves right now in the bio tech world. Their robot is nearly microscopic in size and speeds through tissue at 60 centimeters per hour.

Credit: https://www.bionautlabs.com

Bionaut's microbot is precise and uses magnetic fields to guide its path through the body. It's remote controlled to deliver cancer treating drugs at the precise location cancerous cells spring up.

This offers a huge advantage to traditional system-wide treatment of chemotherapy which kills off so much of healthy immune system defenses, because the robotic surgeon targets only where the cancer pops up.

Credit: https://www.bionautlabs.com/

While my stance on self-driving cars won't change (we deserve our own autonomy for where we go and when, giving this up is tantamount to a civil liberty - altho public transit or having it an option for Lyft or Uber is great) it does seem like a great idea to automate surgery when possible.

According to the scientific journal Nature, mistakes by clinicians lead to more than 200,000 US deaths each year. I've had my experience with doctors making mistakes in hospitals too.

Luckily not with any surgeries, still it's a powerful argument for supervised microbot surgeries to be in our future some day.

A 10 Year Plan

Autonomous surgery would also help rural areas that also suffer from food deserts and lack of access to surgeons.

Realistically, it's going to take another 10 years to get to the point of full autonomy because where robots fail and humans are more efficient is when something unexpected happens.

Whether a blood vessel is located in a place it wasn't supposed to be, or a new reaction during surgery happens, robots can't adapt yet as well as human surgeons who have more contextual knowledge and experience.

The DaVinci surgical system has already been using robotic arms to assist with minimally invasive surgeries with 3D high definition views of the surgical area since 1995.

Being able to stack new tools onto an existing system like the DaVinci one, will make the transition smoother, since it's already a stable platform with over a decade of proven results.

Would you trust a robot surgeon to operate on you?

. . .

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The Next Big Break in the Internet of Things

Credit: Wikipedia

AI is huge right now, it's at the forefront of redefining business and how we live our lives. Last blog's article on Direct Mail still holds true for it being a great marketing technique with little competition but let's fast forward.

It's January 2028 and you're walking in downtown New York City, the vaccine has been released and life has returned to normal. You hail an autonomous Lyft car, driven by robots and GPS sensors and step in.

As you head towards the pizza place you're meeting your friend for lunch at, he's a fellow startup founder, you realize you forgot your blazer.

It's cold in New York City right now plus you like dressing up when you go out. Shortly after realizing you forgot your blazer you find a leather jacket online you really like.

The leather comes from stem cell grown fabric, so no animal cruelty was involved and no rain forest was cut down to provide grazing fields for the cows that in 2020 would have been killed and skinned for your leather jack.

Super.

You add the leather jacket to your shopping cart and redirect your thoughts towards the meeting with your fellow business owner friend.

The clothing store's AI connects with your iPhone, Samsung or Android's AI and reroutes the autonomous self driving Lyft car.

You now arrive at the clothing store, pulling up right in front of the front doors. You get out and go to a terminal like an ATM but bigger just to the left of the front doors.

Opening an app on your phone you hold the screen facing scanners on a digital display and check in. Within 2 minutes a sales rep comes out with your new leather jacket.

It fits perfectly as the store has an online profile for you with all your sizes 3D body scanned with a Wii sensor from your phone. Your shoes also have weight sensors that adjust as you gain or lose weight.

There was no line at the store and the cost of the jacket was automatically deducted from your bank account as soon as the sales rep handed it to you, because sensors tracked the process from online to storefront coordinated with your payment profile with the store and Lyft.

Additionally, running on an automation, the store's marketing department already knows this is your first purchase and by the time you get home from lunch there's a coupon QR code emailed to you for 20% off your next purchase.

The store's inventory automatically updates, as there are also sensors built into the clothes rack your jacket hun on and sends an order fulfillment email based on existing supply and demand for this product.

Back up inventory is already on the way from the warehouse as this jacket has been trending this year.

The Internet of Things

As much as that may sound futuristic, it isn't that far off from where we are right now due to advances in AI and the increased prevalence and efficiency of the Internet of Things (IoT).

Smart toasters, smart NEST Wi-Fi-enabled thermostats (who once tried to recruit me to work for them) and fitness collars for dogs are just a few examples of IoTs

If you're not familiar, here's Wired's explanation of what the Internet of Things is and does:

"In the broadest sense, the term IoT encompasses everything connected to the internet, but it is increasingly being used to define objects that "talk" to each other. "Simply, the Internet of Things is made up of devices – from simple sensors to smartphones and wearables – connected together," Matthew Evans, the IoT program head at techUK, says."

"By combining these connected devices with automated systems, it is possible to "gather information, analyse it and create an action" to help someone with a particular task, or learn from a process. In reality, this ranges from smart mirrors to beacons in shops and beyond."

Smart Checkouts

The vast majority of people are not aware of some of the newest tech that has arrived and automatic checkouts have already been created.

January 2018 Amazon released the first Amazon Go store in Seattle, Washington. In 2019, they released 7 more stores and plan for 3,000 Go stores by 2021.

Credit: Wikipedia

So how does it work? Essentially, you walk in, get what you want and are automatically charged for it - no cashier, no self-check out of scanning things yourself. Just stroll in, grab what you need and peace out.

From the Wiki on Amazon Go:

The Amazon Go app for iOS and Android links to their Amazon account and is the primary method of paying for items at the store, alongside cash at certain locations. The app is required to enter the store, which has turnstiles that scan a QR code generated on the app.

The app allows users to add others to their Amazon account, so a family's purchases can be charged to the same bill. The ceiling of the store has multiple cameras and store shelves have weight sensors, to detect which item(s) a customer took.

Credit: Wikipedia

If a customer takes an item off the shelf, it will be added to the customer's virtual cart. Similarly, if a customer places an item back on the shelf, it is removed from the customer's virtual cart.

What Are the Implications of Automated Checkout?

Retailers will save billions on employee wages they have to shell out, as well as benefits, training managers and more.

There will be less space needed without cashier stations as well so that adds to store's real estate to stock more products in the same amount of space. But Business.org reports a few drawbacks.

At the same time, if a UPC doesn't scan correctly or an item isn't provided that was there last week or you just can't find something - customer service will take a hit.

There may be a way to jerry rig the system to increase theft as well through burner phones or if a thief stole your phone and you didn't have a screen lock on it.

The lack of one-on-one interaction is probably the biggest loss in my opinion. I enjoy interacting with cashiers, waitresses, baristas and more - it's a good way to break the covid cabin fever now and even in normal times humanizes the buying process and adds some social spark to the day.

What do you think?

. . .

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Direct Mail Makes A Comeback in 2020

Direct Mail is making a comeback! When was the last time you got a hand written letter from a friend or family member? Probably a while. But you still get those oil change coupons right?

You don't need a mindset changing Haiku to see the facts told by data:

US Postal Service reports that around 77 billion pieces of mail are made and sent each year. The result? 28 percent higher sales for companies who send mailers like catalogs and offers.

Ever get an Ikea catalogue in the mail with colorful pictures and designs? Even I can't resist looking through it.

USPS held another study which surprisingly found that while mobile marketers are spending $247 billion by the end of 2020, direct mail marketing offers a higher return for a much much smaller investment.

What are the numbers?

Well, direct mail campaigns expect on average $2,095 in sales for every $167 spent. For those not great at math, that's a return of 1,300 %!!

That's a bit more than just, "Will this ad double my ROI?"

There are some important deets to consider here. One is that direct mail isn't just about emotions, although that’s an important element of branding.

It's about taking action, reaching your audience, directly in a way that convinces them to act. Really, when you consider the big picture, direct mail is just another aspect of content marketing.

Online ads often get skipped over, it's much harder to ignore physical mail.People open mail faster - as soon as they get it often - than other mediums so there's that benefit.

The Millennial factor - as a Millennial I can speak to this as well, we love the 90s, and much of that old school feel. There is something about direct mail that inspires nostalgia.

With COVID city wide shut downs globally, people are just at home more anyways. And they are looking for new things to do. Direct mail is making old new again.

These days there is a lot more customization so using cookie data and more, direct mail campaigns can be segmented just like you would an ad on Facebook, and offer a more personalized experience to convert even higher.

Also there are very few advertisers using this method to reach customers - it isn't at all saturated, so there's that as well.

For more tips read Neil Patel's blog post on direct mail here.

What was the last letter you remember receiving? Or mailed ad that you liked? How will you use this strategy for your business?

. . .

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How A Haiku Changed How I Thought About Everything

Credit: Artly Snuff

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

"Breaking the silence

Of an ancient pond,

A frog jumped into water —

A deep resonance."

I saw this haiku and it struck me as such a contrast to the chaos spinning around us all right now.

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) composed it at a haiku gathering in 1686, and while many haiku poets at the time were focused on the sound of frogs croaking, depicted in poems, Basho chose to focus on the sound of water.

The thing is, this 16th century poet wasn't seeing a pond or the frog.He made the world of silence which was broken by a small creature in his mind.

There was something about this utter simplicity, free of the complications of today's world that struck me. It felt like the places our minds go is sometimes limited by pre-existing narratives. Invisible prisons we make in thought-form.

The habits of familiar neural pathways dictate to us what we should be thinking about and in what way we should think about the creations of our own mind.

What Many of Us Have Decided...

The way we choose to think about the world, ourselves and what's possible write the script for our future actions. What is possible always remains to be seen yet many of us have already decided what we can and can't do.

This is especially relevant in the art of innovation in workplace. Time are changing so rapidly now, the structure of society, commerce, socializing, economics, city planning and more is all being re-written on the fly.

Many business owners lament on their perceived hopeless future given the restrictions put in place to protect public safety - which the debate is still rampant on how this is being done.

The entrepreneurs, like myself, will glibly say, "Pivot, adapt, now is the time!" but I think we forget sometimes that not everyone thinks like an entrepreneur.

Many entrepreneurs don't think like an entrepreneur - they still have the ingrained corporate life dictating what they are capable of and where they see or don't see possibilities.

And to be fair, not every industry can adapt as easily. Dine in restaurants that don't just provide food, but the ambiance and the lived experience of being there.

You can't exactly translate this to curbside pick ups and e-commerce store fronts online. In the last blog I interviewed Josh Brown, owner of Genuine Joe Coffeehouse and we talked of his struggles to stay in business.

I suggested selling whole coffee beans in bulk online, and he talked about the strong community that keeps him afloat needs to be able to walk up and order at the shop.

That's part of what Genuine Joe provides and there is a lot more involved in pivoting to selling whole beans in 1 pound bags online, including the margins for the cost of shipping.

I think my suggestion made too many assumptions without thinking about this model of business more.

I also feel many of us in the startup world take mindset for granted. It's easy for a lot of us to say, "Just pivot, and adapt!" because of how we think and are trained to think.

It's not easy to rewrite the way a mind works or thinks about things, in order to see more opportunities, as it seems to some of us already well adapted to this lifestyle.

The Art of Headspace

Creating space inside our minds to grow and re-examine thought patterns and habits will not only help us grow in business but also develop our perception.

Each year, since I started actively working on cultivating and deepening the field of vision and perceptive powers of who I am, who others are, how they see the world, themselves, me and our interdependent relations it's like lifting a veil.

Each year more is seen. The eyes perceive more depth to each situation, more context is noticed for how and why things come to be the way they are.

This frees me to improve, move the needle on personal and professional goals. This past week alone, I launched 2 new businesses, after starting an e-commerce business 2 weeks ago.

Basho's Frog haiku was said to have been created when Basho’s Zen master, Boncho, visited him. According to legend, the master asked Basho a koan-like question (which is a riddle without an answer).

Basho, decided not to answer directly or even try to. He replied instead with “a frog jumps into, the sound of water.”

Life doesn't always make sense. There isn't always a linear pathway to solutions to customer dilemmas or to our own lives and their meandering pathways into the future.

How we choose to think about a problem has just as much power to solve it as the effort we make to create solutions. (Here's an interesting montage of Basho's journey)

This is true everywhere for everyone but it isn't the default go to method for problem solving.

Things get much easier when we can think about how we are thinking and shift perspectives. This is why it's good to bounce ideas off associates and friends and family.

It may not even be what they say, but how they say it, or the way they choose to look at something that triggers that "ah ha" moment for us.

How We Think About How We Think

The Frog Haiku is something that stopped my scrolling this morning and made me think about how I think and the value in changing perspectives to achieve enlightenment.

Enlightenment in the sense of realizing new things that our perception had missed before which can improve our business and enjoyment of life.

Just a few thoughts to marinate on Monday. Hope the rest of your week goes well. Any favorite poems or writings that changed your perspective recently?

. . .

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Local Biz Spotlight: Genuine Joe Coffeehouse

Genuine Joe: Keep Austin Genuine

In a new series, the Jetski Shaman blog will talk with a local business about their super hero origin story to present day operations. We start this series with a spotlight on a beloved local coffee shop Called Genuine Joe Coffeehouse.

I’d worked next door to Genuine Joe when I was a job staffer and used to go in every day for a nice hot cup of coffee or latte. Later as a college student I spent countless hours studying there, going to Meetup groups there and open mics.

Genuine Joe Coffeehouse celebrates it’s 15th anniversary this week and is located at 2001 W. Anderson Ln, Austin, TX 78757.

Recommended song to play while reading blog 13th Floor.

I sat down with the owner, Josh Brown, who used to be a barista at Genuine Joe before purchasing the coffee shop from the previous owners.

Jetski Shaman: “Where are you from?”

Josh: “I’ve lived in Austin since 1994, and originally I’m from Alaska. My dad was a land surveyor who found work in Austin which is why we moved here. It’s also that’s why he was in Alaska. He was doing land surveying.”

Josh: “We lived in Colorado for a while and Sacramento in the middle of nowhere. New Mexico is where I spent a lot of my childhood until i was 10.”

Josh: “I went to Anderson high school in Austin. Studied history at Austin Community College.”

Jetski Shaman: “What got you into coffee or food service?”

Josh: “Bunch of different paths very serendipitous. It came down to me being interested in how a functioning community can exist in the modern era.”

Josh: “Especially when everything is so distant, when technological innovation replaces people’s hunger for that even tho they still need it. History made me think of the problems when people isolate themselves and lose their ties to feeling a part of something and how that’s really dangerous.”

Josh: “…and how a coffee shop is one of those places where at least theoretically a functioning community can actually exist.”

Josh: “At least to a greater extent than a lot of other settings and it’s also inclusive as opposed to something that is a community surrounding a work, or faith or something else. This is a place where people from a lot of different backgrounds can come together.”

Jetski Shaman: “How did you discover Genuine Joe Coffeeshop?”

Josh: “I came to it through music, I started playing open mics here before I was employed at Genuine Joes. I loved coffee all the way through.”

Josh: “The coffee was a means to an ends on providing a space for several generations and backgrounds to come together in a way that is meaningful.”

Jetski Shaman: “How long did you work at Genuine Joes before you bought it?”

“Almost 7 years.”

Credit: Genuine Joe Facebook Page here

Josh: “It was a surprise to me: I almost quit, went traveling, caught up with family. When I came back I’d resigned but someone needed a shift covered, and they didn’t even ask me I ended up working there. I managed for a few years.”

Josh: “Later that year I was informed there was an opportunity to own this place. We celebrate 15 years this week. I go back to intersecting with the place for 13 or 14 of those [years]. Either on the background or the forefront of my life in one way or the other.”

Josh: “You asked me why I got started in coffee, this was a motivating factor, that have been further explored through experience."

Josh: "It's one thing to do something everyday and have it become 2nd nature and someone who read a couple of books about something and suddenly has a whole lot of ideas about something as opposed to someone who spent years putting time into a craft.”

“It takes on a different tone when you’ve had your pretty ideas or prejudices fall flat on their face, you’re afforded the possibility to learn from these things and learn something new.”

Jetski Shaman: “Were you saving up money while working at Genuine Joe’s?”

Genuine Joe Coffeehouse Owner Josh: “Yes. I had some savings that was a windfall from family tragedy & enough money came into my hands to get my foot in the door as far as financing the place.”

Josh: “But I intended to make my own shop with that money. I didn’t find the right place for that, I know now how little I knew at the time.”

Josh: “By the time I bought the shop I knew how much I didn’t know about what I was getting into. I’m pretty fortunate this is the way it turned out.”

Jetski Shaman: “How long have you owned Genuine Joes?”

“3 years and change.”

“Any regrets?”

“On the whole not too many. A lot of things I wish I would have done a little differently. If anyone is in a similar position to where i was when I bought the place I could pass on a few things that would save them a hell of a lot of grief. Procedural things not the big picture all in all.”

Jetski Shaman: “What kind of things?”

Josh: “I wish i would have known from the beginning how to communicate effectively. Best hiring processes, best administrative processes.”

Josh: “There’s no way I would have known those in the first place so it’s foolish to regret any of those things that came out of this experience.”

Jetski Shaman: “What advice would you give someone who wants to buy an established coffee shop now?”

Josh: “Don’t do it now until covid has done its worst. We are able to hold on because we have a community that has been forged over 15 years in a lot of ways the community is stronger than ever.”

Jetski Shaman: “So say it’s after covid, and life is somewhat normal? What tips would you give?”

Josh: “#1 Check with the different resources in the city.”

Josh: “Make sure you’re familiar with whatever small business training is available form chamber of commerce you can get a lot of resources and grants and possibly apply for small biz dev initiatives.”

Josh: “Go to the permitting department for the health department where you live.When you change the ownership they’ll give you an inspection to make sure you’re up to spec when the ownership changes.”

Josh: “You can call in a mock inspection though, I wish I would have done that. I ended up owing thousands of dollars."

"If I’d known to call in that inspection before that would affected the sales price or there would have been a clause they would have had to get it up to code before the biz changed hands.”

Jetski Shaman: “Did you have a good relationships with the previous owners when you were working here?”

Josh: “Dave and Vic owned it before.There was ups and downs during 7 years in the food industry.We have a much better relationship now and understand each other better now that we’ve been in each other’s shoes.”

“I remember working here for a long time there was a lot of things that frustrated me which you get as an employee so when I took over it was interesting looking at what I would change and what I would revisit down the line.”

“My goal was to not make the changes too obvious so customers retained the feeling of continuity. Whereas behind the scenes I was trying to make it better and make the place live up to what I felt its promise was.”

“Soon enough I found myself in the same position of having the people who worked for me having thoughts on how they wish the biz could be worked better than I knew.”

Jetski Shaman: “I can relate to that because when I was homeless going to high school, I was a problem student causing trouble in class. Then less than a decade later I became a substitute teacher at Austin Independent School District while working on my degree at UT.”

Jetski Shaman: “And in more than one class I had to deal with a disruptive student. Except, I totally got that there were factors behind it, in their home life. It’s interesting how things come full circle when you step into other people’s shoes.”

Jetski Shaman: “What is your biggest achievement for the changes you’ve made with Genuine Joes?”

Josh: “The main thing is a project that’s on going. This place has always been known as an unpretentious comfortable place.”

Josh: “We focus on exclusively supporting local vendors, I got rid of a lot of the menu that I didn’t like. Almost all the furniture here is new since I took over."

Jetski Shaman: "I know I love the tacos and cinnamon rolls!"

Not a stock photo - actual cinnamon rolls from Genuine Joe

Josh: “There was an idea of the place but the reality is it was falling apart. Chairs were way past their prime, this place needed love and attention and a re-imagining."

Not to reinvent the place but to figure out what that potential was what the most important things int he shop was and how to articulate that.”

Josh: "People say this place is “homey.” One of the most important part of a home is that it’s loved and maintained.”

Jetski Shaman: “That’s great.”

[Editor’s note: Genuine Joe Coffeehouse is open, no dine in but they are open for curb side pick up & outdoor seating is available].

Josh: “One of the biggest improvements is what we’re doing while the doors are closed: we’re repainting place, redesigning the furnishing, the porch has been completely spruced up. There’s shade, fresh traffic, it’s open to foot traffic.”

Josh: “It looks 3 times better than before, because its the only seating I’m comfortable with due to COVID. The primer is going down on the murals in the bathroom.”

Jetski Shaman: “What’s your revenue percentage wise per month now versus before covid?”

Josh: “Less than a 3rd percent than what you made before.”

Jetski Shaman: “What are you doing right now to cope with covid?”

Josh: “We have a greater emphasis on the personal. I get to find out what the lived experience is of those coping with covid in different sectors.”

Josh: “Because what used to be routine stopping by a coffee shop that wasn’t a bigger deal is now a bigger deal due to the fact that customers can’t come inside.”

“I take the time to remember people and learn things about people and have convos that continue over weeks and months, that people really need in these really isolating and uncertain times.”

“There’s a lot of people that this the only place they go, because they trust how we operate and this is the only place they go outside their home.”

“My other customers are getting to know each other waiting for coffee. That Community that I dreamed of before I got started is starting to shine in ways that I never thought was possible.”

Josh: “At the end of last year before covid hit we got a surprise we won the Best of Austin Critics picks, from the Austin Chronicle which is is a big deal it’s very competitive.”

Josh: “We got the plaque that said Best Dispenser of Coffee and Comfort.”

Josh: “Everything we had been trying to do was paying off & we were really busy. March was going to be a record month for the entire time we’ve been in operation."

"Halfway through March the shelter in place happened and it wasn’t a record month anymore.”

Jetski Shaman: “What are your plans going forward?”

Josh: “We just have to hold on and adapt to the circumstances and if we do that we’ll come back twice as strong.”

Jetski Shaman: “Yeah I agree because due to the cabin fever people have, they will be super stoked to find places to go out to and there will be a significant overflow of business.”

Josh: “One of the best things is now that we’ve renovated our porch we’ll be in a better place to accommodate the overflow of extra business.”

Josh: ”We’re improving things now because we have to. But every covid adaption we’re placing is one I plan for us to have as part of the permanent infrastructure of the shop.”

Jetski Shaman: “That’s a great strategy.”

Josh: “I don’t want to expand locations.”
Jetski Shaman: “You dont’ want to become another Starbucks?”

Josh: “No i don’t want to lose the personality we have.”

Jetski Shaman: “What mistakes do you see other businesses making right now you’d wish they’d avoid?”

Josh: "The main mistake I’ve seen businesses make is rushing to open as soon as it was legally feasible. That opening contributed to additional cases in the community and those businesses then had to shutter or reduce capacity.”

Josh: “Everything about that is bad: it’s bad for the staff, bad for the community as a whole and it confuses people when things keep changes.”

Josh: “One of my rules here is I don’t want to make any changes that I don’t want to stick to.You don’t want to provide things that you’ll have to take back, it’s expensive to roll something out and then have to scrap it.”

Jetski Shaman: “That makes sense.”

Jetski Shaman: “What do your parents think of your business venture?”

Josh: “It’s been a very interesting transition in the past while. I receive a lot less unsolicited business advice these days.”

Jetski Shaman: “Were they proud of you?”

Josh: “Oh yeah quite.”

Jetski Shaman: “Do they come here?”

Josh: “Yes they’ve come by. I’m really blessed from support all around. It’s ridiculous. I can never begin to hope to ask for the level of support I’ve received. It keeps me honest, during the difficult times it gives me something I need to live up to.”

Jetski Shaman: “Were there any people that doubted you or discouraged you from owning a coffee shop?”

Josh: “Sometimes in that first period of time leading up to the purchase, it felt like there were 2 categories of people:

1. Those of who disapproved of me buying the shop in the first place and

2. Those who merely disapproved of how I was going about it. but that’s just how it felt, they talked less to me and more about me to other people."

Jetski Shaman: “At what point did you feel you had proved them wrong?”

Josh: “Still not sure I have, but one of the most valuable lessons was that…other people’s opinions about what I was doing didn’t matter.”

Jetski Shaman: “What matters?”

Josh: “Head down, try to do the right job in the right way. There are 2 elements: the principles of what I felt the business should mean and represent on the large scale. Then there are procedures of the nuts and bolts of the place how you administer and get from point A to B of the place.”

Josh: “I learned to work with other people’s input on the procedural side and weave the best of everyone’s ideas on how to make things better and that process is still ongoing.”

Josh: “One thing I didn’t put people in the driver’s seat for was the principles of the place and what Genuine Joe’s meant. Over time I learned how to articulate these principles better.”

Josh: “If people shared these principles this was a home for them.”

Credit: Genuine Joe FB Page

Jetski Shaman: “So was there ever a day when you felt like, I did it, I’ve made it?”

Josh: “Yes & no. I get some of that feeling every day. It’s complicated.”

Jetski Shaman: “Well are you proud of yourself for daring to start this adventure?”

Josh: “I don’t really think in those terms anymore.”

Jetski Shaman: “What terms do you think of?”

Josh: “I’m happy i’m part of this adventure. I’m happy i backed myself into a role that is valuable to myself and other people. It didn’t have to be that way and I’m very thrilled to be a part of that.”

Josh: “I’m happy to know I am stronger and more resilient than I thought I could be. That’s good.”

I encourage you to stop by Genuine Joe Coffeehouse, did I mention they serve breakfast tacos too?!

Genuine Joe Coffeehouse is open for business, curbside pick up, their phone number is: 512-220-1576. Address: 2001 W. Anderson Ln, Austin, TX 78757.

Scan this QR code to donate to Genuine Joe Coffeehouse & help Josh keep the doors open:

http://

Support your local businesses and the dream of building a meaningful community another way here:

Donate to Genuine Joe Coffeehouse

What do you love about coffee shops? Have a great memory about Genuine Joe's? Comment below!

. . .

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The Secret Power of Follow Up Questions

Right now it is especially important to stop looking at TikTok & develop the skill of active listening.

Customer feedback is often ignored and profits are lost because a Startup founder is too attached to an old idea that is no longer feasible in today’s market.

We’ve got black lives matters protests, we’ve got different opinions on COVID-19, opinions on how the government is handling it...

What they should be doing what they shouldn’t be doing..blah blah blah. It's so much!

When you find yourself going down a black hole of madness and negativity there is another option:

Instead of just waiting for someone to stop talking and eagerly decide exactly who they are and tell them this forcefully, we can also choose to simply pause. Ask a few questions to clarify their point of view.

We can exchange the eagerness to speak our opinion for curiosity.

The Art of Follow Up Questions

I believe that right now many of us have lost the art of follow-up questions.

I was hanging out with a friend I’ve known since childhood and I share the exciting news of one of the biggest moments of my life, of launching my second business in e-commerce.

He asked zero follow-up questions and made me feel like I hadn’t even spoken. And I know honestly reflecting there were moments as a teen, I was so eager to share something that didn’t notice the other person had just shared something meaningful.

The good thing about perspective is you can use it to examine itself. Instead of the knee-jerk reaction many have to constructive feedback to say, “Well I guess I failed at that too.” < end convo > we have the amazing quality of trying just a little harder.

Studies Show That...

Right now is a great time to examine perspectives, especially our own, and see how we can do better, be better than just mediocre.

The Harvard Business Review did a study on active listening that revealed some key insights here.

Credit: Harvard Business Review

Imagine that - when someone gives you feedback and sounds judgmental af you don't receive their feedback too well. On the flip side, when feedback is delivered from someone who is active listening, it is 10 times more well received.

The study the Harvard Business Review did demonstrates this isn't just a theory but statistically proven true time after time. One lab experiment assigned 112 undergraduate students to be speaker or listener.

Another lab experiment done with 114 undergraduates at a business school. The students were told to talk about their future plans and each student was paired with poor, moderate and good listeners. This is what they found:

Credit: Harvard Business Review

Our customers deserve better too. Many are buying on debts they can’t pay back and it’s not too much to ask for active listening to play a role in the customer experience.

The Pay Off is Big

The teenage version of ourselves isn’t who we are today - we are fully capable of asking follow up questions to demonstrate sincere interest in our clientele.

And, the added perks of doing so are many. The small amount of energy invested in being curious, will often reduce conflict, and increase CTV.

The range of environments and businesses that benefit from follow up questions and active listening is well documented. In the medical peer-reviewed Electron Physician journal a study revealed that:

"One of the important causes of medical errors and unintentional harm to patients is ineffective communication. Active listening does not come naturally to most of us, and, like other communication skills, it must be learned and developed."

I definitely don't want a doctor to operate on the wrong body part because he didn't listen well! Asking follow up questions derived from sincerely listening to someone has tremendous value.

This journal also makes the important observation - active listening doesn't always come naturally.

You do have to make an effort to develop it to benefit from these skills. But, the pay off is huge:

Better business deals, better converting sales funnel, positive social circles and high-power networking.

Appreciated & Respected

I’ve learned since being a child, the value in asking follow-up questions. I've learned the value of active listening and making other people feel appreciated and respected.

Personally & professionally.

Of course, I'm still working on perfecting it but, I'm aware of where the work needs to be done which is where the first battle is won.

When someone doesn't feel appreciated or respected who's shopping at your store or contracting your service you reduce their loyalty and chance they'll give you repeat business.

In social circles, this can cause unnecessary rifts that are easier to prevent than repair.

That’s why it’s important right now to just take a moment and pause before we respond to other people.

This helps us in our business doing market research on what the customers really want instead of our assumption of how we can solve their pain points.

What are the underlying circumstances of a pain point?

What second solution are they trying to solve in addition to the first?

These sort of questions are not asked nor are they answered when we are quick to assume that we know what another person feels, thinks, or believes.

We won't know a prospects' wants and needs unless we ask follow-up questions.

Omitting this very crucial part of social interaction is what leads very good people who used to be great friends to sometimes never even speak again because they take a hard stance on one issue, and refuse to listen to each other.

With the heightened emotion, panic, fear and everything else going on right now the reptile part of our animal brain that dictates the flight or fight response just assumes that if someone doesn’t agree with us about something like Covid they must be a danger to be avoided.

While this can be understandable if someone who tested positive is out shaking hands and kissing babies and refuses to socially distance - which would be irresponsible and unfair to other people who don’t want to get sick-

In other circumstances when it’s merely an intellectual debate those follow-up questions help us to understand why someone feels the way they feel.

You will discover using the secret power of follow up questions, pausing your first reaction, that you have more in common with another person than you think you do.

And they’ll hear your point of view better if you listen first. #facts

Great Follow Up Questions To Ask

So the next time you find yourself disagreeing with someone try waiting to share your opinion. First ask follow-up questions like:

What led you to believe this?

Is that so?

What do you think of other people that disagree with this point of view?

Do you think other people may have doubts about that?

What would you say to someone that doubted that this is the best approach?

Does their opinion have any merit?

Is there anything you think you should say to someone that you respect but may not share your opinion on this topic?

Do you have any doubts about the position you’ve taken on this issue?

In Conclusion...

By simply asking people for more information you show them that you are sincerely interested in understanding why they think the way they do instead of demonstrating to them that your only interest is in hearing yourself speak or being right or just scoring points in a conversation or debate.

And we need more constructive solution-focused conversations right now, less aimless arguing.

Asking questions through active listening also shows that you respect the other person.

How many times has a sales agent tried to pitch you over the phone, or at a car dealership or at Best Buy and was more concerned with getting to the end of their pitch than hearing you?

Annoying right?

Not just annoying - it’s ineffective. The sales agents that pause and listen to what the potential customer is actually saying convert at much higher rates because they’ve made people feel appreciated and respected.

Now that you’re taking the time to really ask why they feel the way they feel instead of assuming you already know everything about them because of one word that triggered you - everyone feels better.

It also empowers you to overcome misconceptions the other person may have had about you. As well as clear up misunderstandings you had about the other person.

So ask follow up questions!

It allows us to bridge gaps rather than burn bridges which is always a lot more advantageous.

Do you have a time you wish someone listened to you better as a customer or personally?

. . .

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TikTok – Spyware or Social Media App?

Did the Chinese create TikTok just for mining data? Is it any worse than what Facebook already does?

TikTok (formerly known as Musical.ly,)is a Chinese video-sharing social networking service owned by ByteDance. Most use the app for creating short music, lip-sync, dance,comedy and talent videos around 3 to 15 seconds long as well as short looping videos 3 to 60 seconds song.

Friends of mine encouraged me to get TikTok when it first came out but I didn't and I'm glad now that I didn't.

A college student from Palo Alto California, Misty Hong, is suing ByteDance for breaking federal computer fraud law, the California Constitution's right to privacy law and more.

TikTok uses close up videos of faces from their user base to collect biometric data, the lawsuit claims. After you shoot a video and click on the next button, these videos are transferred to many other websites without your knowledge.

This occurs before you even post the video or save it, Hong's lawsuit states. According to CNET:

"Hong downloaded TikTok in March or April 2019 but never created an account, according to the lawsuit. Months later, she discovered TikTok made one for her. She created five or six videos using the app but never saved or published the videos. Still, TikTok secretly took the videos and her data without her knowledge and sent the information to servers in China, according to the lawsuit."

Well..um..that's a bit of a buzz kill from your singing dancing videos. Super glad to have dodged that bullet.

TikTok has been pulled from the App Store and Play Store in India, its largest market, and has seen similar protests from users in other major markets around the world, including the U.S.

The hacker group, Anonymous has posted on Twitter encouraging everyone to get off of TikTok:

Source: Twitter.com

Lawsuits aside, diving into the secrets to how TikTok works on the back end is quite revealing. A software engineer reverse engineered TikTok and found some alarming details he shared on Reddit:

Source: Reddit

Credit: Reddit Thread Here

I promise you, this isn't a smear campaign on TikTok as I'm objective towards the app having never used it or having an interest really for or against it. But researching TikTok bring up a lot of questionable data.

U.S. Army operatives aren’t allowed to use it, for instance, and the TSA asked employees to stop using it at work in February.

Not to mention the FTC is fining the company $5.7 million for mining data from children under 13 years old like email addresses, location, names, and age.

Instead of face privacy concerns head-on, TikTok and ByteDance continually attempt dodge them with convoluted location-based developer restrictions and subterfuge about where, exactly, the company is headquartered.

That alone should raise some suspicions. While there is, unfortunately, a lot of anti-Chinese sentiment in America right now, there are also real concerns about privacy being violated for those using the TikTok app.

Trump is threatening to ban TikTok with an executive order now, while Microsoft wants to buy TikTok. The problem is, trust.

With all the back doors that can be built into an app to remote filter data to servers in other countries, it would always be suspect. And in essence, it's Microsoft buying your data if you use TikTok, from China, to use for Microsoft products to finally compete with Facebook.

That doesn't exactly allay legitimate concerns about protection of our data. So yes, there are rumbles beneath the surface right now about all of this.

I believe it is a good time to assess priorities for what kids are exposed to. I'd like to opt out of this real life version of a Black Mirror episode we seem to be living in right now. We can do this by choosing what we expose ourselves to and our families.

Cognitive development of teens isn't exactly part of this business blog's focus, but it is something to keep in mind when making parental choices.

The news about TikTok's massive (intentional) data breaches is a good reminder that, even despite being in lockdown due to covid, we don't all have to keep staring at screens.

Do you use TikTok? Do your kids? What are some alternatives to staring at screens you enjoy? Comment below!

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7 Tips to Grow Your Instagram Following

Want a proven methods on how to increase your Instagram following? Read on!

Whether you're at an Airbnb chillaxing, at home or standing in line at the grocery store - you'll see people staring at Instagram on their smart phones.

I would never call myself a guru of IG but I'm hip on a few tips. Below you'll find proven methods to growing your Insta-following.

1. Run A Photo Contest

Running a photo contest can hyper charge your follows and engagement.

2. Use Best of Content on Your IG Channel

Taking the best-of-the-best user content from around the web and featuring it on your IG channel is also a great tool to super boost IG engagement.

3. Hashtag Strategy

While it's been debated for years on what the right amount of #hashtags is to use, it's generally agreed that using 9 hashtags for each post is the best strategy. You don't want to use more than that as IG can start reducing your reach if you do.

4. Post Daily

Post once daily at least, use tools like Buffer to preschedule your posts if you need to.

5. Take Advantage of Current Trends

Pay attention to what's trending & hijack trending hashtags to use with your own content.

6. Create Brand Themes & Colors

Make sure that you create a brand theme and color palette that's consistent to build that know-like-and-trust factor.

7. Run IG Ads & Collab With MicroInfluencers

If you got the bucks, run ads and pay micro influencers to sponsor your content - that's got go viral potential.

Even on the sub sub of those not micro influencers but just at like 9K-50K followers you can see about collabing to expand reach.

Here's an example of a great IG post:

What are your goals using Instagram? Comment below!

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Save energy and money - how much is it costing you to not know why Facebook is shutting you down? My calendar is here.

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Airbnb’s Interesting Windfall During Covid

While you're jamming to great music working from home, ever get cabin fever? Airbnb is the go-to choice to escape the confines of your home/office/sometimes-prison.

Isn't it struggling like other businesses right now due to covid?

Yes & No.

Airbnb was founded in 2008 by Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia then later, Nathan Blecharczy. They had the zany idea of just putting an air mattress in their living room in San Francisco and marketing that as a Bed and Breakfast. Yet now, Airbnb is a household name.

The founders are all billionaires at this point. The company was planning on going public this year, until the Corona Virus pandemic bottomed out many markets world wide.

Now, Airbnb bookings have tanked like Jurassic Park sequels.

According to AirDNA bookings in Europe collapsed in March, dropping 80% compared to the prior week in the week starting March 9, and another 10% on top of that for the week of March 16.

Today Sydney’s Opera House, Bangkok’s night markets, the Louvre Museum in Paris and the Colosseum in Rome are empty of those annoying tourists whose money generated significant income for cities, above & beyond just the gig economy.

Airbnb honored cancellations by all the guests despite how much this pissed off hosts. Founder Brian Chesky explained, in a letter to Airbnb Hosts,

"If we allowed guests to cancel and receive a refund, we knew it could have significant consequences on your livelihood. But, we couldn’t have guests and hosts feel pressured to put themselves into unsafe situations and create an additional public health hazard."

"We determined that we had to allow your guests to cancel and receive a full refund—including all our fees. Please know this decision was not a business decision, but based on protecting public health."

"However, while I believe we did the right thing in prioritizing health and safety, I’m sorry that we communicated this decision to guests without consulting you—like partners should. We have heard from you and we know we could have been better partners."

Airbnb intends to give a $250 million payout for the Airbnb hosts who lost income as guests canceled their stays due to the C-19 pandemic.

The founders are also creating a $10 million Superhost Relief Fund designed for Superhosts who rent out their own home and need help paying their rent or mortgage.

Not everyone views the economy crashing as a bad thing, for this particular industry. Critics bring up valid points on how Airbnb causes housing shortages as Short Term Rentals (STRs) are empty saved for Airbnbers while local residents can't find a place to call home.

Some of the most stinging critique comes from Lionel Laurent of the Bloomberg Opinion column:

"Paris has 100,000 empty homes and 100,000 second homes, according to the mayor’s office, fueling a sense of social injustice. One study of Airbnb in a Lisbon neighborhood between 2015 and 2017 found it looked less like a sharing economy and more like a buy-to-let craze, with 99% of short-term rentals marketed all year round."

I went to Paris for the first time last year and stayed in a charming chateaux, complete with a hookah and Pink Floyd on vinyl. But, like most tourists, I didn't consider locals may be put out by not having a place to rent.

Definitely food for thought. Laurent continues his comments here:

“Short-term rentals have had a disastrous impact on cities’ rental markets,” McGill University’s David Wachsmuth told The Intelligencer...Will a post-Covid-19 society really want that back?"

This is a good question, Laurent makes great points. Honestly, I think given the C-19 occupation limits and social distancing, Airbnb is a marriage of convenience that wins out over social justice concerns however justified.

It's more than just ease of use, staying at a vacation rental is now about safety and Airbnb offers a contactless check in & out system unlike most hotels.

While many things seem bleak, and doom scrolling frames things in a negative light ("It's sunny outside honey" "Yes but it must be part of a plot!") - there is an upside. We aren't losing Airbnb yet.

Airbnb's Windfall

For Airbnb hosts who have places in rural settings the market is booming thanks to cabin fever. Many want an escape and this is the perfect way to do so.

Rural hosts earned over $200 million dollars in just June 2020 alone, in the USA, according to Airbnb's newspage.

According to CNBC:

Trisha Mixer lost over $40,000 worth of bookings for her two properties outside Austin, Texas, when Covid-19 hit. But once the state started reopening in May, she said, she was “barraged” with requests. “You could tell people were desperate,” Mixer said.

Mixer’s two properties, a lake house and a cottage, are 30 and 90 minutes away from Austin, respectively, and the majority of her recent customers are other Texans — even people from Austin who just want to get away.

Summer weekends have always been popular, but this year she hasn’t had to do extra to fill up weekdays too. Mixer even raised prices a little to try to slow down the pace of bookings, but it didn’t work.

Her properties are filled through the summer, and weekend business looks steady through the end of October. On these getaways, just some space and, if possible, a swimming pool might be enough.

At Kathryn Langer’s property in Lake Travis, Texas, which sleeps nine people and does have the coveted pool, it is the “busiest and craziest” time in her four years of hosting on Airbnb. People are “stir crazy,” she said, adding that she had a guest who booked in May and then rebooked for August without having visited the first time yet.

Part of this is because of how scared people are of traveling now due to the added risks of catching the Corona Virus. It's much easier to find an Airbnb out in the country a few miles away from your city than it is to book a flight, wade through a crowd of strangers to and from your vacay destination.

In fact, I think I am going to have to check out some of the nearby lake view Airbnbs. This sounds like a safe easy get-away compared to braving an airport right now.

What about you? Willing to brave flying to an exotic destination, or stay in your state and hit up a rural Airbnb?

. . .

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Best Music To Work To

Last blog we discussed Time Management Tips, now let's talk about work music. Do you listen to music while you work?

It's pretty interesting that there are studies that show listening to music while you work can help boost productivity.

In the Psychology of Music journal, it was found that music increased the quality of work in software developers:

"Effects of music on work performance, in this case, software design, may be explained by increases in state positive affect. Data from 56 (male = 41, female = 15) developers were obtained from four different Canadian software companies.

Data were collected in the participants’ actual work environments over five weeks. Results indicated that state positive affect and quality-of-work were lowest with no music, while time-on-task was longest when music was removed."

Apparently, when you're in a good mood this improves the kind of work you do:

"Narrative responses revealed the value of music listening for positive mood change and enhanced perception on design while working. Evidence is provided of the presence of a learning curve in the use of music for positive mood alteration."

So what type of music is good to listen to?

Classical music apparently has some pretty incredible associations with developing cognitive development. In the Nature journal, Christopher Chabris found that:

"Rauscher et al. reported that listening to ten minutes of Mozart's music increased the abstract reasoning ability of college students, as measured by IQ scores, by 8 or 9 points compared with listening to relaxation instructions or silence, respectively1. This startling finding became known as the ‘Mozart effect’, and has since been explored by several research groups."

I was in a car accident that almost took away my ability to walk, when I was 15 years old. Part of my healing process was listening to Bach Sonatas every day.

The hospital had confined me to a wheelchair, but I would crawl across the floor of the hospital room 100 times each night listening to Bach. No one told me to do this, it was instinctive.

Was that a significant factor in my head healing from a closed in head injury, when I was hit by a truck crossing the street? Possibly.

Hubspot suggests that listening to video game soundtracks is a good start for creating a playlist of background sounds to work to.

According to Business Insider, listening to songs you don't care about when working helps you focus because you can tune it out and not be distracted when your favorite jam comes on.
Some research indicates sounds of nature helps you focus while working but personally - I can't stand being distracted by the sound of animals making noises unless it's just the cicadas in the trees who have a very white noise effect.

I like listening to ambient sounds like Brian Eno's Music for Airports. When I was stuck at an airport for 2 days last year, because they over booked flights back home to Austin, I listened to Eno's Music for Airports while stuck...at an airport in Miami, Florida.

I'll never forget staring out of the window at the tarmac where the planes were taxi-ing up for docking and listening to that album - one of my favorites.

It works while you work to help you work because it's ambient without loud vocals to distract you from doing what you need to do.
Here's a cool playlist of ambient background sounds called:

Focused Work

When I worked at Facebook in the ads department, the sound of other employees chattering about personal drama was super distracting for the work I was doing and I desperately needed a solution.

Then I remembered back in college, my photography professor introduced me to a neat station called Radio Paradise.

I was in heaven! Commercial free music, 24/7 365! It is still a favorite and I listen to Radio Paradise while working on projects for clients, or e-commerce. I've discovered so much new music through listening to it my music library has really expanded.

I definitely suggest you try it out if you're at a loss for music to listen to while working. This year I donated to them during their annual fundraiser to stay on the air and I'm glad Radio Paradise is still around during lockdown times as good music right now really helps!

For more variety you can also listen to instrumental electronica music, like a recent track by artist Xander Cage called, More Than A Simple Bet.

What music do you like to listen to while you work?

. . .

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Time Management Tips for Entrepreneurs

Time management is a skill set not many are naturally talented at but it yields greater results than crossing your fingers and hoping you get everything done on your to-do list.

Entrepreneurs in particular are subject to having 500 projects, all half-finished, running at the same time because delegating time, energy and prioritizing tasks can be a challenge.

(More challenges: Congress Challenges Big Tech here)

The ability to self-direct is another talent that doesn't come naturally to everyone, let alone those brave enough to quit the 9-5 to start and run their own company.

You need two skillsets to be effective: time management & task management

According Journal of Universal Knowledge Management:

"Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledge for the accomplishment of collective goals

Tasks are also differentiated by complexity, from low to high. Effective task management requires managing all aspects of a task, including its status, priority, time, human and financial resources assignments, recurrence, dependency, notifications and so on."

I thought I'd share some effective time management tips with you on today's blog, from trusted sources, because, well, uh...we are all managing our own time now working remotely due to C19.
From Entrepreneur.com:

Break Down Your Activities Into Simple Problems

"Utilizing your consciousness requires more energy and can be avoided by simplifying your problems. Excellence in time management revolves around establishing a process and breaking it down into small, atomic operations that are easy to grasp and don’t require intensive resource consumption."
The idea is that you develop your own process that is generally the same for handling new activities or problems, but you adapt it to the situation.

This holds an advantage to producing repeatable results once you get in your groove for developing your new how for how you approach a task or problem.

When you break this process down into smaller steps, it's easier to systemize organizing your day instead of hitting that wall of overwhelm we feel when tackling everything at once.

From James Clear, author of Atomic Habits:

The Ivy Lee Method: The Daily Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity

"By 1918, Charles M. Schwab was one of the richest men in the world. Schwab was the president of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, the largest shipbuilder and the second-largest steel producer in America at the time. The famous inventor Thomas Edison once referred to Schwab as the “master hustler.”

He was constantly seeking an edge over the competition. One day in 1918, in his quest to increase the efficiency of his team and discover better ways to get things done, Schwab arranged a meeting with a highly-respected productivity consultant named Ivy Lee.

As the story goes, Schwab brought Lee into his office and said, “Show me a way to get more things done.” “Give me 15 minutes with each of your executives,” Lee replied. “How much will it cost me,” Schwab asked. “Nothing,” Lee said. “Unless it works. After three months, you can send me a check for whatever you feel it's worth to you.”

The Ivy Lee Method During his 15 minutes with each executive, Ivy Lee explained his simple daily routine for achieving peak productivity:

At the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow.

Do not write down more than 6 tasks. Prioritize those 6 items in order of their true importance.

When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the 1st task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.

Repeat this process every working day. The strategy sounded simple, but Schwab and his executive team at Bethlehem Steel gave it a try. After three months, Schwab was so delighted with the progress his company had made that he called Lee into his office and wrote him a check for $25,000. A $25,000 check written in 1918 is the equivalent of a $400,000 check in 2015."

So why does this work? It's simple without too much over thinking or analysis needed.It forces you to make hard decisions eliminating the fluff and it removes the initial barriers to starting up.

Also instead of multitasking it forces you to focus on achieving one task which can improve the quality of your results.

From Pat Flynn:

Take Advantage of Just-in-Time Learning

""Just-in-time-learning" changed everything for me. That is, I only consume content related directly to the next task I have in the current project I'm working on.

Blog posts, podcast episodes, videos—they must help me with completing that next task on my priority list, or else it doesn't deserve my attention...at this moment.

'Just-in-time-learning' changed everything for me. FOMO (fear of missing out) does make this hard though, because there's so much great stuff out there we don't want to miss.

However, if you're smart about it and as you come across interesting and potentially helpful content you put it aside into a tool such as Evernote for easy access later, it can truly change how much you get done versus how much you learn.

I love this tip from Pat Flynn - so much of the time entrepreneurs become program-addicts, enrolling in course after course and not taking action with A+ syndrome - thinking it has to be perfect to begin.

Focusing on just consuming content related to achieving the next task is a way to laser focus actions for all of us info-aholics.

Pareto principle - 80/20 Rule

Can't leave out the most well known time management strategy can I? From Forbes:

"This “universal truth” about the imbalance of inputs and outputs is what became known as the Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule. While it doesn’t always come to be an exact 80/20 ratio, this imbalance is often seen in various business cases:

• 20% of the sales reps generate 80% of total sales.

• 20% of customers account for 80% of total profits.

• 20% of the most reported software bugs cause 80% of software crashes.

• 20% of patients account for 80% of healthcare spending (and 5% of patients account for a full 50% of all expenditures!)

Instead of trying to do the impossible, a Pareto approach is to truly understand which projects are most important. What are the most important goals of your organization, or boss, and which specific tasks do you need to focus on to align with those goals. Delegate or drop the rest."

Investopedia has a good example here of how to apply the 80/20 rule as well.

Next up from Than Pham:

Do the hardest thing first, every single morning.

"Do the hardest thing first, every single morning. When you start your workday, tackle the task you find the most difficult to do or are most likely to procrastinate on. When we postpone those kind of tasks till later in the day, we often get stressed about them and keep postponing them."

"By flipping it, you can go on with the rest of the day knowing you were productive. Even if you did nothing else, you still had a productive day. I've done this for the last 5 years of running my business and it helped us tremendously. Everyone in our company does it too and it's part of our onboarding training to teach people this concept."

I haven't tried that one out, but I like the idea...and I probably would have benefited from applying it to my self-employment taxes this year as I literally waited until July 15th to file. ?

From my own experiences running multiple companies from the comfort of my own home, I've found one technique really useful. So here's a tip from the Jetski Shaman blog:

Time Stamped Index Cards and/or Smart Phone Notepad

Writing down a list of tasks for the day on a index card inside a spiral index card book or on a notepad on my iPhone with the empty checkmark circle is always super helpful and motivating.

• Write down all the tasks you have to do for the day on an index card or digital notepad

• Read over them and determine what has the 1st priority, 2nd priority, 3rd priority & so on

• Re-arrange the order of the tasks on a new notepad or index card according to priority

• Add a time stamp before the 1st word of the task for what time you want to achieve it

• Check off the tasks as you complete them. Ahhh the feeling of completing a task!

Pro tip: add a 30 to 45 minute buffer between tasks to stay on track as it sometimes takes longer

Credit: Apple.com

What about you? What have you found to be helpful for time management?

For more time management tips check out this article on 34 Time Management Tips

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Congress Challenges Big Tech Monopolies

Credit: AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, Evan Vucci, Jeff Chiu, Jens Meyer

Wednesday, July 29th, the 4 companies that make up Big Tech, Amazon, Apple, Google and Facebook faced off with Congress on allegations that their business's monopolistic practices stifle competition unfairly, breaking antitrust laws.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai, and Apple’s Tim Cook testified (remotely) on the anti-competitive behavior of their companies.

The House Judiciary Committee began this investigation over a year ago and collected over 1.3 million documents about these business practices.

This marks the 1st time that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, whose net worth is 181 BILLION dollars, has ever faced Congress.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL PRINCE/FORBES COLLECTION

Big Tech CEOs appeared virtually before Congress for 5 hours facing relentless criticism of their business practices. Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos' opening statement was:

“Just like the world needs small companies, it also needs large ones,”

The Committee Chairman Rep. David Cicilline likened the CEOs to kings and said Congress wasn’t going to bow down to them.

Graeme Jennings | Credit: AP

‘Your ability to dictate terms, call the shots, upend entire sectors, inspire FEAR resemble the powers of a private government. Our founders would not bow before a king, nor should we bow before the emperors of the online economy.”

Then the lawmakers cited details on the executives emails and internal documents they’d acquired, and pressuring Big Tech CEOs to explain how they got their market dollars.

Amazon’s antitrust investigation was considered less in depth as questions asked of Google and Facebook but there were some pointed questions asked.

These included how Amazon treats and handles 3rd party sellers on its website to whether or not the company properly regulates knock offs and counterfeit products.

Credit: Bloomberg

Rep. Hank Johnson asked:

“Why isn’t Amazon responsible for keeping all counterfeit products off of its platform?”

Jeff Bezos replied:

“We do a lot to prevent counterfeiting. We have uh, a team of more than a thousand people that does this.”

Lawmakers cited a Wall Street Journal report from April this year that stated Amazon.com Inc. employees have used data about independent sellers on Amazon to develop competing products, at odds with their own stated policies.

Rep. Pramila Jayapal asked:

“Does Amazon ever access and use 3rd party seller data when making business decisions? And a yes or no will suffice sir.”

Amazon CEO Bezos replied:

“I can’t answer that question ‘yes’ or ‘no’ what I can tell you is we have a policy against using seller-specific data to aid our private label business but I can’t guarantee you that that policy hasn’t been violated.”

Which essentially means, yes, Amazon has data mined independent sellers’ data to compete against them but, will assign blame later to a scape goat. Maybe a few contract employees will get fired.

When your company gets big, it's good to remember why we do this, so humanity doesn't get lost just crunching numbers.

What do consumers in America actually feel about Big Tech’s dominance of the market?

72% of U.S. adults believe big tech companies have too much “power and influence” in politics, per a Pew Research survey conducted in June, while an Accountable Tech/GQR Research poll in July found 85% of respondents believe they have too much power in general. [Source: Forbes]

Google was playing for higher stakes because of how advanced the anti trust investigation is against them. The other 3 companies aren’t facing as serious of a monopoly charge as Google is facing.

It’s highly likely there will be a new law suit filed against Google in the coming months.

Congress asked questions relevant to their ongoing investigation against Google. One of which was how often does Google tailor search results to keep people on Google instead objective data, and info other websites provide?

Committee chairman Rep. David Cicilline asked:

“Did Google ever use its surveillance over web traffic to identify competitive threats?”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded:

“Congressman, just like other businesses, we try to understand trends from uh you know data we can see.We use it to improve products for our users,”

Almost the entire rest of Google’s time at the hearing was defending itself against charges that its search results don’t favor republicans.

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook didn’t get as many questions.

Most of the questions Apple got related to the App Store, and whether when a consumer is searching for apps if the search results favor apps Apple engineers over competitor apps.

Rep. Hank Johnson asked:

“Does Apple not treat all app developers equally?”

Cook replied,

“Sir we treat every developer the same. We have open uhhhh and transparent rules. It’s a rigorous process. Because we care so deeply about privacy, security and quality, we do look at every app before it goes on…”

Cook said that Apple acts fairly, pointing to the diversity of apps on the app store, as well as the benefits to consumers in having a wide selection instead of just Apple-made apps.

Facebook’s CEO Zuckerberg got many questions on misinformation and perceived political bias on the many social media companies they own.

Zuck replied:

“We do not want to become the arbiters of truth. I think that would be a bad position for us to be in.”

Speaking to the charges of monopolizing social media sectors, there were questions about social media companies Facebook has bought such as Instagram.

Ant-trust investigations into this exposed internal Facebook emails Mark Zuckerberg sent around the time of these acquisitions.

Rep. Joe Neguse said:

“Facebook also tried to buy other competitive startups…in fact you did tell one of Facebook’s senior engineers in 2012 that you can quote:

‘Likely just buy any competitive startup but it will be a while before we can buy Google.’

Do you recall writing that email?”

Facebook CEO Zuckerberg replied:

“Uh Congressman, I don’t specifically but it sounds like a joke.”

Zuckerberg pointed out that his acquisition of Instagram was approved at the time by regulators.

A key takeaway is that Congress did their research this time to actually understand more of how these Big Tech companies work and had better questions.

Top down view shows that these companies will continue to be under the microscope from both sides of the aisle.

The House antitrust subcommittee is going to release a report in the aftermath of this hearing with recommendations on changes to antitrust laws - in regards to Big Tech’s monopoly.

Federal Trade Commission investigations in the states are going to use some of the information revealed in this hearing to further their cases.

What's concerning is that if Google is filtering results from your Google searches to reveal less than the truth - this manipulates your perception of reality.

If Google search results only cater to their advertisers and things that support their platform - this is literally creating life choices for billions of people who view the same data as objective.

It wouldn't be an issue if there was a real space for other search engines to compete, but Bing is dead, Duck Duck Go is used by only a small minority and Yahoo search is a joke.

With Google being used by everybody...this is where being a monopoly causes issues:

How do you think antitrust laws should change in regards to Big Tech?

. . .

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Remembering Why We Do This

It's easy to get stuck in auto pilot - even our reaction to the news, major events and business developments can be automated.

Whirling into chaos, we numb out and forget our big Why, for why we do this. Why we started a business, why we continue to try to improve it and ourselves and we we hope for positive change if everything seems to be burning like the Notre Dame.

When it rains we run outside to roll up our car windows, adrenalin spikes and that one task is all we focus on.

I feel like since the global shut down of cities, the echo chamber on C19 has become a little too dominating, and a message of hopelessness. The reality is, there are good moments that still happen.

Every day.

Pictured above is a man in New Jersey who used a sign to thank hospital workers for saving his wife's life.

"Thank you all in emergency for saving my wife's life," the man wrote on his sign. "I love you all."
The nurse who snapped the photo is Allison Swendsen, who later shared the photo on Instagram and Twitter, where it quickly went viral.

When you are running your own business, crunching numbers, fighting with Facebook when they disable your ad account for no reason at all - it's hard sometimes to touch base with reality.

It's tempting to get sucked into the negative news vortex as well. But we are more productive when we nourish heart smarts and take time out for self care.

We function better, make more informed decisions and see more options open when there is also a little extra inner space that comes from setting the intention to genuinely care about your community, your customers and yes...your self.

A friend of mine recently told me that she felt like with all my big plans, launching a second business, being mentored by millionaires in ecom, writing a book - that I had forgotten to actually love myself.

It felt like I was being put on the spot and forced to be vulnerable while my attention was more focused on impressing this attractive girl I went to UT with, telling her all my grand designs.

She had a point - and I took it seriously.

It wasn't something that I vaguely considered - I set a specific intention to meditate on this during a break in one of my work days building my eCommerce store.

I focused on good moments that happened in my life, the things I've accomplished that I can celebrate as being uniquely me. Not just college degrees or starting businesses but repaired friendships, kind acts for others and developing self awareness.

My heart, which was weighed down with over concern for national issues, the pandemic, people I couldn't help but want to save - felt a release. The attachment lessened to trying to change things I couldn't, at least at this moment.

Afterwards, I got some great news for my business and even better developments unveiled themselves for my new startup.

It isn't a coincidence - there is a causal relationship between our mind state and emotions, and the quality ranking of business decisions -personally & professionally.

According to the Harvard Health Blog, self-care through exercise changes the brain to improve thinking skills:

"Exercise helps memory and thinking through both direct and indirect means."

"The benefits of exercise come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, & stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells. Indirectly, exercise improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety."

"Problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment."

This is good to remember as we all teach ourselves how to cope with lockdown as discussed in Monday's blog.

Need ideas for how to change up your self-care rituals or want to start from scratch?

Here are 80 Self Care Ideas which include:

√ Journaling
√ Taking time for slow contemplative morning coffee
√ Bookclubs
√ Exchanging social media time for nature time outside
√ Getting up early and reading inspirational books

That man in New Jerz, with his simple sign but powerful message, was so affected by the work done by nurses at that hospital, and his wife's life was saved, that he took the time to share this message even with social distancing.

The nurses that saw this both on social media and at the hospital went to work the next day, even more dedicated to saving lives and feeling glad they are appreciated.

Turns out compassion is great for business.

So take a moment to reflect on why you should love yourself and appreciate the efforts you've taken to get here today.

This will improve your mood, reduce stress and help you make even more strategic choices with better outcomes in your business.

What experiences have you had that give you hope? Comment below!

. . .

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Coping With Lockdown: Oil Plummets, Retailers Close for Thanksgiving

While Customer Service may be undergoing a makeover in light of recent protests, Target and Walmart are staying closed for Christmas this year. Dick’s Sporting Goods is also closing for Thanksgiving.

2020 is a year unlike any other with more rapid changes to business and the world as we know it.

The biggest shopping events of the year will take on a new tone now, as crowds are prohibited from gathering due to the rapid spread of the Corona Virus with over 16 million new cases globally.

Giant retailers are encouraging consumers to shop earlier online for the holidays and promise to start sales earlier as well, according to Target's blog.

Context is everything right now, this 2019 seemingly normal picture of what life was like shopping pre-C19 now, will trigger many emotionally, seeing people without masks at the checkout:

The year is flying by at super sonic speeds despite the feeling that time is dragging by extra slow, stuck at home and feeling cabin feverish.

The speed of major events that keep happening is making it hard to feel like we have had enough time to savor the moments, as each day can bring new challenges when adapting to life on lockdown.

This coming Monday U.S. Senate Republicans are expected to reveal a new $1 trillion coronavirus aid package. This could add more economic stimulus and perhaps even indicate a bull market trend for big oil who has been suffering losses due to reduced travel during the pandemic.

Per Reuters:

Brent crude LCOc1 lost 81 cents, or 1.9%, to $42.53 a barrel by 11:13 a.m. EDT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude CLc1 fell 65 cents, or 1.6%, to $40.64 a barrel.

Following the closures of consulates in Houston and Chendu, investors worried about relations between China and the United States and have retreated to safe havens, such as gold and bonds.
Is big oil partially responsible for Americans getting stimulus checks?

This is a good question, as the oil industry hasn't shirked donating millions to politicians in exchange for political favors in the past. This is part of what killed the electric car before Elon Musk brought it back through better brand definition and audience targeting.

Credit: Zbynek Burival

The more money consumers have, the more likely they'll use that money to break the monotony of staying at home all the time and splurge on trips, drive more and oil companies benefit from this.

The oil industry is doing everything they can to find a way to survive right now as the margins for refined oil products have dropped into negative areas:

Source: IEA

To be fair, trading divisions can make money even when prices dip by exploiting choppy market moves.

Is it possible that these fossil fuel companies, out of self interest, are pulling the strings they have to pull to nudge politicians towards printing more Monopoly money out?

When the Terminator can become the governor of California and someone who is illiterate, unable to read at all can become president in 2016 - who is to say what's possible these days...

There is still the larger question of where we go from here, for a long term plan. There are greater things at stake micro and macro level.

I haven't been able to see my son for a long time, since Christmas in 2019 as the pandemic hit and the fear that either one of us is asymptomatic keeps his mother from allowing visitation. Will I ever see him again?

Many families are experiencing strife due to how things are panning out, unable to go back to work because daycares aren't open and schools are closed to only virtual classes.

Oil based capitalism is literally the backbone of much of America's economy. When the bottom drops out as the flow of petrodollars halts there are new problems: where do we put all this oil?

Three quarters of the world's storage capacity have already been reached and the limits were tapped back in May 2020 this year as The Petroleum Economist reports.

Another side effect is that Exxon, Shell, BP, and a handful of others — who are much better positioned to survive this crisis than smaller producers — are using the crisis to try to roll back environmental regulations.

So perhaps not quite the benevolent saviors their PR agents would have us believe they are. While it's easy to say things like, just go green with wind, solar and hydroelectric energy sources this ignores how entrenched oil as a commodity is in the stability of existing markets for the global economy.

One of the newest coping mechanisms of fossil fuelers is Russia may agree to a three-way arrangement with Saudi Arabia and the U.S. to limit output to halt the downward slide of oil product prices.

Previously, Putin was resisting any concessions in a stand-off with Saudi Arabia since Moscow pulled out of a supply-limit agreement with OPEC over demands for deeper cuts in output.

But the reality is this industry has to prepare for challenging times, low oil prices, and learn how to adapt like the rest of us to the rapidly evolving situation with the corona virus.

There is no doubt that political alignments are being reworked, and arrangements are being made to consolidate in the interests of the most powerful forces at work in the world.

I'd like to see the same desperate winner take all driving unstoppable force the fossil fuel industry has right now, also coming from renewable energy providers.

In the aftermath of the pandemic, there will be new winners and losers. I would like to see a more sustainable business model from green energy that creates new markets for both investors and consumers.

What changes would you like to see after C19? Comment below!

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The Art of Guerrilla Marketing

Credit: Diana Parkhouse

Guerrilla Marketing is the ability to turn heads without an extremely large budget. According to Lexico Guerrilla Marketing is defined as:

Innovative, unconventional, and low-cost marketing techniques aimed at obtaining maximum exposure for a product.

It isn't what you'll learn about in a class on marketing from your community college or four year university. The key word here is unconventional.

PayPal Got Played By We Pay @ Their Own Conference

Have you ever heard of PayPal freezing a business's money randomly?

It happens. A lot. CNN Business descriptively states:

While it's supposed to be a measure to protect users against fraud, more often than not it has hurt businesses finances a lot. One person was raising money for cancer treatment when PayPal froze his account. Do a simple google search for 'PayPal froze my money' and you'll find thousands of results:

Pay processors and the drama they sometimes cause for entrepreneurs deserves a whole blog unto itself, but going back to Guerrilla Marketing, there are new competitors to PayPal every year. One refused to stay quiet.

One of my favorite examples of Guerrilla Marketing is when the payment processor We Pay dropped a 600 pound block of ice, with hundreds of dollars in it at PayPal's developer conference, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The message was clear:

“PayPal freezes your accounts” and that you should “unfreeze your money”… by switching to WePay.

Credit: https://techcrunch.com/2010/10/26/wepay-ice-paypal/

According to Hubspot this increased revenue for We Pay significantly:

• Conversions on landing page 3x higher
• 300% increase in weekly traffic
• 225% increase in signups

But Guerrilla Marketing isn't just pulling pranks it's being prepared for increased traffic and having a framework set up ahead of time to benefit from it. We Pay's achieved this by having a dedicated landing page for its stunt.

The WePay team had prepared in advance for a peak in engagement. They were ready for more emails, calls, and tweets than normal. And they had fun with it, documenting everything with pictures.

Carrie Remake Telekinesis in NYC Coffee Shop Stunt

In 2013, a marketing stunt to promote the remake of Carrie, a horror film from the Steven King book of the same name, pushed Guerrilla Marketing to a new level. A crazy telekinesis stunt was pulled on unsuspecting New Yorkers just trying to get a cup of coffee:

Needless to say, it was effective in getting the word out about the upcoming October 2013 film. While it could be argued that this ploy didn't perfectly fit the definition of being cost-effective

-I mean staging a telekinetic action scene in real life is rather elaborate-

I say it still counts as Guerrilla Marketing. Guerrilla Marketing stunts are risqué, highly visible, and attention-grabbing - all of which the Carrie NYC coffee shop captured. Hard to top that!

Carrie Foursquare's SXSW Tactic Added 100K New Users

On the balling-on-a-budget level, the company Foursquare, which popularized the concept of real-time location-sharing and checking-in, played an actual game of Four Square at SXSW in Austin, Texas in front of the convention hall.

Credit: https://www.zdnet.com/article/playing-four-square-with-foursquare-at-sxsw-2010/

The game drew 1000s of walk-up participants, said Dennis Crowley, CEO of the firm. While the company co-hosted a party Monday night, Crowley said, its SXSW presence didn’t include other bells and whistles like signage or a booth in the hall. It largely hinged on “a box of chalk and two rubber balls,” he said.

“We played all day long, and there was always a waiting line,” Crowley said. “We were handing out tee shirts, buttons, and stickers. Anytime someone didn’t know what Foursquare was, we helped them find it on their phone. We helped get them up and running and using it.”

Foursquare benefited from an additional 100,000 checkins that Saturday they played the four square game at SXSW on. Ever wonder why you see an ad for a store after walking by the store?

Since 2014, Foursquare launched Pilgrim, a piece of code that passively tracks where your phone goes using Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, and GSM to identify the coffee shop or park or Thai restaurant you’re visiting, then feeds that data to its partner apps to send you a 10 percent off coupon if you leave a review for the restaurant.

Today, Pilgrim and the company’s Places API are an integral part of tens of thousands of apps, sites, and interfaces. As Foursquare’s website says, “If it tells you where, it's probably built on Foursquare.”

While there are privacy concerns using Foursquare and it's technology, that game of four square they played was a great example of low cost Guerrilla Marketing.

If you want to use Guerrilla Marketing for your business here are a few tips:

• Keep your strategy fun, simple, and witty.
• Physically travel to the influencers in your target communities.
• Engage influential bloggers through mutual plugging.
• Flatter your audience. Always make them look good.
• Make social phenomena the core of your campaign.
• Be outrageous.
• Dare your audience to test your services
• Create a viral video that is humorous and pokes fun at yourself.
• Leverage existing communities, events and platforms.
• Impress people who can grow your business thru their audience.
• Create controversy by challenging your competitors. Credit.

How can you use this strategy in your business? Have you seen Guerrilla Marketing happen in real life, or have a favorite example yourself? Comment below!

. . .

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The 5 Traits of Emotionally Intelligent Business Leaders

Credit: Morning Brew

In the unprecedented changes we all face right now, it is sometimes unavoidable that workplace stress may rise. If you're keeping up with my blog you're employing top level SEO tips now but still may be getting stressed at work.

The usual suspects are interoffice politics conflicts, changes to how work is done or departmental shifts and of course new changes in technology (we can video chat now but still can't get the computer to load fast).

According to National Center for Biotechnology:

"Stress-inducing management practices included unrealistic demands, lack of support, unfair treatment, low decision latitude, lack of appreciation, effort–reward imbalance, conflicting roles, lack of transparency and poor communication."

While businesses can't control global pandemics, interpersonal conflict can be managed more effectively. Work-related stress is decreased the higher the emotional intelligence is of those most affected.

What is Emotional Intelligence, Exactly?

But before we dive into skill sets, let's get on the same page on what exactly Emotional IQ is.

According to dictionary.com Emotional intelligence is defined as:

Psychology Today defines Emotional Intelligence as:

Emotional intelligence is generally said to include at least three skills: emotional awareness, or the ability to identify and name one’s own emotions; the ability to harness those emotions and apply them to tasks like thinking and problem solving; and the ability to manage emotions, which includes both regulating one’s own emotions when necessary and helping others to do the same.

Why Is Emotional IQ Important In Business?

Whether you're the CEO of a company, a mid-level manager, or an employee, those who are high in emotional intelligence are better able to manage their emotions and the emotions of others around them.

This adds tools which allow them to be more effective managing pressure at work.

Below you'll discover:

5 ways that emotionally intelligent people handle work-related stress better

1. Amygdala Reactions Traded for Neocortex Responses

Ever been told to think before you speak, and thought, "What a novel concept, I'll do that of course!" and find yourself blurting something out later that you didn't intend to?

Emotions run much faster than thoughts and in certain moments like during road rage, we can literally see red when they overwhelm us.

On average, it takes around 6 seconds for our "thinking brain" also known as the frontal neocortex, to receive the same info that our "feeling brain" or amygdala gets first. You can see how this may cause a problem when attempting to respond reasonably right?

What happens often when we overreact is that there is a surge of emotions that is bigger than is really appropriate for the situation that floods our body.

So that moment when someone cuts you off, then goes slower than the speed limit (can you feel yourself reacting even right now?) is triggering the emotional brain to react first, within 10 seconds you can stop the rollercoaster of reactions when you think about how much more your life is worth than getting even with the one who cut you off is worth. That's your neocortex reasoning out cost benefit analysis.

Credit: https://nba.uth.tmc.edu/neuroscience/m/s4/chapter06.html

Here's the key: if we don't react right away, our neocortex's thinking process is activated which helps us make better decisions weighing out multiple outcomes of different actions.

2. They Know When to Take 5 to Gain Perspective

The brain is going to do what the brain is going to do - but emotionally savvy workers and management understand when their stress levels reach a peaking point where self-control starts slipping.

Business leaders and workers that are emotionally intelligent - and actively working on tuning in to this - get a lot more out of emotional energy expended at work. They intuit when breaks are needed to get space between a situation and their reaction to it.

3. They Name Names - in a Good Way

Another feature of emotionally intelligent business owners is that they know sometimes it is best to name the emotions they are feeling. This takes the bite out of the insta-reaction mode.

It can also be humorous to name an overreaction out loud - and humor is a great diffuser of tense situations.

4. High Emotional IQ People Identify Triggers & Respond Calmly

You aren't able to de-escalate a tense situation if you don't know what is creating the tension. One of the huge benefits of having a higher emotional IQ is being able to ID specifically what is triggering tense reactions.
Knowledge is power: once you realize what is setting you off, instead of reacting with anger because you were caught off guard, you can stay calm, positive, use active listening and set boundaries.

5. Emotional Intelligence Lets You Know When to Open Up

There are two extremes you may see in the workplace:

a) A co-worker or employee tells you their entire life story the first time you meet

b) A boss or work colleague never reveals how they are feeling, you walk on tip toes or don't interact at all

Finding a balance between these extremes involves knowing when to open up and become vulnerable to increase work cohesion which also furthers productivity.

Having higher emotional intelligence allows one to be aware of interpersonal relationships and signals when to enforce the company standards uniformly and when to humanize an interaction with empathy and understanding.

Deadlines might not be met, sometimes projects don't go as planned, other moments the wrong person is blamed for results not being ideal because another person wasn't pulling their weight.

Cultivating the capacity to not respond the same way to all external stimuli, like a robot might, but sensing both when showing a little vulnerability yourself is appropriate and when being open to others sharing as well is a function of emotional intelligence.

This ultimately improves teamwork, creates tighter knit workplace communities and reduces stress in interpersonal interactions. Authenticity is more than a buzz word - it makes one more relatable as long as you walk the walk you talk.

How can you use this strategy in your business? What situations have you seen benefit from the features of emotional intelligence described in today's blog?
. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

How to Use SEO to Drive More Sales

One of the pain points small to medium sized businesses have (& even Fortune 500s in some industries) is not understanding what SEO is, and feeling it’s too technical.

Search Engine Optimization is in essence, how to get your website to rank on google searches when your prospects are searching for your product or service.

BUT there are even more benefits to keyword research that will be revealed below.

Keyword Optimization in a Nutshell

Let’s first get clear on the specifics of what SEO is:

Search Engine Optimization discovers which specific terms potential customers search google with to find a service or product.

How money is made through search terms is by including these same search terms on your website. This gets your website ranking higher on Google search results.

But – you need to know the exact phrases as well as words, and that’s just the beginning.

Beyond SEO

Finding those keyword terms is absolutely necessary to get your website content to rank higher on search engine ranking pages (SERPs). Also, you’ll want to be on page 1 of Google for search term search results because people rarely look beyond page one.

Yet, there is a level deeper you’ll want to go for maximum benefits:

Customer intentions when googling. When you know why your prospects are searching for things as part of the customer experience you expand your opportunity for upsells & downsells as well as where and how to build out new products and services.

For more info on how to improve your business by understanding the customer experience read this metrics blog here.

Making keyword research a regular habit you do for your business helps understand how your audience views the world, which enables your messaging to be more on point with better customization and personalization. This generates better trust in your business too!

Have you ever made a content map? I linked a nice Hubspot article to the words ‘content map’ to peep, it’s great to map out your blog content & social media posts ahead of time.

Integrating SEO into how you map out your content calendar will boost your business presence online and up your game by a whole bunch, as more of your audience will read your blog and consume your content when it is already planned with SEO in mind.

Bullet Point Your Search Terms

Step One: Brainstorm Likely Terms Your Audience Searches For
Just start thinking up the type of terms your audience may search for when looking to hire your type of service or buy your type of products, when Google searching.

It can be helpful to role play what you would do if you were a customer, or what you already do personally, when googling for a product. Write down those search terms. If you have a team, get their thoughts too. Think of how your customers may phrase things.

Step 2: Validate Search Terms With Reality
Go on Quora, google your keyword term plus forum or blog or articles and you’ll find where online conversations are happening about your topic. This will get you the exact words your customers are using.

For example, if you run a podcast or marketing firm search “podcast+board” or “marketing+forum” or vice versa, and you’ll find forums and bulletin boards where folks go to find more info. It’s a great place to get your finger on the pulse of current trends.

Pro-tip: Look at Wikipedia, enter your search terms, and look at the table of contents on articles that pull up. This will get you some new search terms that be even more clutch.

Step 3: Google Autofill Hack
This is a nice little hack even millionaires I work with in eCommerce didn’t know about until I taught them! Go to Google.com and enter in the first word of a keyterm — don’t type in the full phrase though let Google autofill the rest.

This is the genius of it, Google will suggest the most popular search term combos that people search for. This will advance your search term list with real results you aren’t guessing on but have in specifics.

Bonus: Google Search Console
Stroll over to the Google Search Console to see the keywords your website already ranks for. Google will also give you the heads up if you have broken pages and/or links on your site, or anything that prevents them from properly indexing your webpage on search engines.

The Genius of Long-tail Search Terms

At this point, if you’re following the steps outlined in today’s blog, you’ll have quite a few search terms written down from:

√ Your brainstorming
√ Role playing as the customer
√ Your teams ideas on search terms
√ What you find on forums and boards in your industry and
√Google auto fill suggestions

To be effective you’ll want to have four to six baseline key phrases.

Ex: Marketing, marketing strategy, marketing plan and eight to twelve long-tail phrases.

Ex: Marketing plan template, Marketing help for small businesses, Marketing ideas during covid.

Baseline search term phrases are just that, your baseline. Start with these, put them on your landing pages, even in About pages if you can.

Use one phrase for your home page and the other phrases should have landing pages or whole sections of your website dedicated to these terms.

This empowers you to earn rankings on search results on Google. But make sure when choosing baseline key words to include relational search phrases in addition to the main one.

What I mean is this, remember when we talked about intention and the customer experience? The plain picture search term of say “marketing” will have higher competition than a less-than-obvious search term that denotes the experience your customer has on the customer journey.

An example of a key word phrase that reflects intent would be “get leads for my business” instead of just “marketing.” It’s a more specific intention which separates the people who may also be marketers from your customer base, that you actually want to reach.

As you may have noticed, the second phrase is a long-tail search term.

The long-tail search terms are fantastic on clarifying the customer’s intention, like the “getting leads for my business” above. You can even make certain weeks in the month themed for specific long-tail search terms you want to split test for SEO generated traffic on your site.

Sounds pretty dang useful right?

There are a few tools SEO experts recommend using I’ll mention as well.

SEO Tools Experts Use

√ Google Keyword Planner

Try and use your twelve to fifteen search terms in the planner’s keyword suggestion tool, and peep the ad groups Google suggests to piece out and label what you see.

You can find terms related to the ad groups, and view the estimated search volume for each term and the suggested bid — keep in mind it’s an AdWords tool made mainly to sell more ads.

Keep your perspective balanced here, as search volume is just one metric. Search terms with a lot of traffic don’t always help, but when you marry this to the bid price, you’ll notice high bid price means higher conversion values.

It isn’t a hard fast rule, but you’ll begin to see that bid price fluctuations are a vital sign when diving in to the research. Ideally, you want to mark and edit your search phrase with a combo of search volume and bid price. Try to find the mid point.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed right now – it’s understandable. You can stick with all the advice given before the Tools section here and still come out on top, better than before.

Here are a couple of other tools SEO experts recommend:

Yoast Suggest
Google Trends

TLDR Cliff Notes Version: Yoast is a free WordPress plugin (with advanced options on the paid plan), it alphabetically lists related search terms from Google, and Google Trends is gold for seeing a timeline of the popularity of a search term.

Google Trends is key if you plan on running Amazon or Shopify eCommerce businesses, as you can see spikes, dips and plateaus for search terms ( = buying habits) of a product you’re evaluating for adding to your shop.

What are your favorite key takeaways from today’s blog on SEO? Comment below, thanks.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

Dakota Access Pipeline Court Ordered Halt

Credit: Vlad Tchompalov

Sometimes a business losing out is a good thing for the global impact. Not every business is well adapted to current times and sometimes the market needs certain business models to die out to make way for something better.

As retail businesses learn to adapt so they don't close, the oil industry which is responsible for millions of deaths, wars, and occupation, is struggling as well.

You may have forgotten with the huge headlines coming and going in rapid succession, from Black Lives Matter protests to covid craziness, that the Dakota Pipeline threatened the livelihood of thousands native to the planned development site.

Dakota Access Pipeline TLDR History

Informational hearings for landowners took place between August 2014 and January 2015. Dakota Access, LLC, controlled by Energy Transfer Partners, started constructing the pipeline in June 2016 and cost $3.78 billion dollars.

Protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline occurred at several places because of concerns about the pipeline's impact on the environment and to sites sacred to American Indians. Indigenous nations around the country opposed the pipeline, along with the Sioux tribal nations.

The Obama Administration spoke out for the need to analyze environmental impacts more, then later President Trump did his best to fast track the pipeline into operation. Trump signed a presidential memorandum to advance approval of pipeline construction.

Then the Cheyenne River Sioux sued this decision, citing an 1851 treaty and interference with the religious practices of the tribe.

The pipeline goes underneath Lake Oahe, a water supply source for the Sioux Native Americans. The pipeline became active May 2017, despite almost 15,000 people from around the world protesting, staging sit-ins for months near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

The pipeline commercial operations started without oil spill response plan for the Missouri River crossing and without emergency response cleanup equipment stored nearby.

Jesse Jackson called the move to put the pipeline closer to the reservation, "environmental racism," as ABC News reported. But the plot thickens like a cup of day old coffee - why would Trump be so eager to support the pipeline?

Trump's 2016 federal disclosure forms show he owned between $15,000 & $50,000 in stock in Energy Transfer Partners - the company in charge of constructing the pipeline - per Al Jazeera.

Surprised? There's more. Energy Transfer Partners CEO Kelcy Warren gave $103,000 to the Trump campaign, as Reuters reports. Despite how crazy this sounds already it gets even crazier with Russian hackers.

Russian government's Internet Research Agency Troll farm spread misinformation on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram by creating a fake Facebook Page to enrage people with posts about the pipeline, same sex marriages, and racial issues.

As far as a business model, the oil industry is definitely anachronistic, as surveying your customers for what they like and giving it to them is one of the fundamental ways to grow your brand.

This isn't exactly a strategy being used here. But, there seems to be a positive turn of events. Well, not positive for the oil industry, but positive for the people it affects.

Dakota Access Pipeline Court Ordered Halt

Reuters states:

According to the ruling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it granted an easement to Energy Transfer LP (ET.N) to construct and operate a segment of the oil pipeline beneath Lake Oahe in South Dakota, because they failed to produce an adequate Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).

The court ordered Energy Transfer to shut and empty the 570,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) line within 30 days, closing off the biggest artery transporting crude oil out of North Dakota’s Bakken shale basin to Midwest and Gulf Coast regions.

My Take

It is a complicated issue, at least the shutting down part is. While most people not either getting bribes from the oil industry as Trump was blatantly benefiting from or working for the oil corps, would agree that it's not good to endanger the water supplies of local residents, closing down the operations faces additional complications.

First, many jobs will be lost for those working the pipeline, which will cause a loss of economic stimulus from those workers spending their money in the local economy as well as their own struggle to survive.

Second, there will be a question of retaliation from the oil industry. This could take the form of people they hire to sue, or get elected and pass laws hurting Native Americans or other black hat tactics.

Third, it's going to be complicated trying to get the oil in the pipeline now, out of it, and transported elsewhere. It's likely the unused oil will be transported via rail cars to the west and east coasts.

So hey if you own a rail car company - there is some money to be made with this shut down. Many environmental and locals to the area are super relieved and happy to hear this news.

But, there are other elements at play that while working against the oil industry, in a way, soften the blow to their business, in that, oil consumption nationally is already at an all time low.

This is because of covid, people are staying home more, going out less, and using their cars a whole lot less. In addition to individuals, large events people drive to are canceled.

Those high school and college graduations that were canceled also mean thousands if not tens of thousands of relatives of graduates, especially in college, who live out of town, aren't driving to their family's graduation ceremony.

There are many other examples of where and how both individual car use and public transit and cross country bus transit are down.

Now, in the aftermath of the Dakota Pipeline shutting down, there will be less oil consumption, yet, we already weren't using as much oil as pre February 2020 this year. So..does it matter that much anyways?

Ideally, society as a whole would have shifted before now to more renewable sources of energy due to countless studies on the global impact of fossil fuels. It's just hard to convince established industries, with deep pockets and large contributions to politicians who pass the laws regulating oil to switch to going green.

Perhaps this is the push we needed to ramp up infrastructure around sustainable energy? I don't know. But I do know thousands of Native Americans are happy their water supply and burial grounds aren't threatened anymore.

This just brings up the important point to think about: if your business model involves harm to other people and the environment, it is time to rethink how you're strategizing for the long term. Certain businesses should be allowed to die.

Operating a business that has longevity means your marketing plan and long term strategy is just as responsive as site optimized for mobile viewers and social media presence.

The values that your company publicly demonstrates is the most attractive value proposition or unique mechanism think tanks can come up with. After all, like attracts like.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

In the Struggle to Survive There is Hope

Credit: Morning Brew

Before the Corona Virus hit and lock stock and barrel shot retailers in the face, brick-and-mortar businesses were already struggling. Several national chains closed down stores in rapid succession like Radioshack, Sears and Blockbuster.

While Tesla is booming in business, retail establishments still face challenges.

Now that stay-at-home orders are in place everywhere, and at best you may have 50% capacity allowed at restaurants, retail businesses need to recalibrate their strategy.

The wait-and-see if things get better approach isn't going to do anyone any favors at this point. We are 5 months into the new now. Graduations canceled, weddings forestalled, schools everywhere moving to remote learning.

McKinsey reports that consumers are more likely to keep many of the habits developed on lock down even after everything returns to normal. (Fingers crossed this actually happens).

In the Struggle to Survive There is Hope

While this does present new challenges, it also presents new opportunities. The masks, social distancing and occupation limits are pushing many businesses who resisted building a digital presence into either going out of business or putting their storefront online.

The bright side of this, is that it is a catalyst for many companies who would have otherwise slowly faded to the background and quietly closed their doors.

With Amazon competing as the largest general store, eBay, and more taking business away from store fronts across the world - now these same businesses are back in the game so to speak.

Being forced to sink or swim right now has helped many companies finally get up to date with creating an online store, meaning they have more opportunities to attract business than if they just stayed analog.

Brand loyalty isn't just an optional strategy - increasing the quality of the customer experience is now super vital to get customers to come back for repeat business.

Offering consumers options for ordering and picking up at the store, and ensuring their websites are mobile friendly are only a few of the adaptations businesses have to go through to survive.

As much doom and gloom as you read in the media, I take this as a good sign because it's pushing some businesses who would have gone out of business in the next couple of years to adapt in new ways that ensure their survival.

There's a taco shop I love who never posted on Facebook before COVID struck and now I can see their specials on their Page, as well as updates to their (rather outdated) website.

Customers can get more info ahead of time on what's on the menu, increasing the chance of this restaurant being where they have lunch today.

It's just one of many examples of how the threat of COVID closures have upped the ante for companies that would otherwise not have tried to go digital.

I see many businesses developing their social media presence now that straight up left their Pages dusty before.

The result is I'm seeing more B2C social interactions, peer support, more accurate reviews, and recommendations, lots of multimedia content, more personalization and an opportunity to build in gamification to the customer journey.

What positive changes have you seen in businesses that are new to right now? Comment below!

. . .

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Tesla’s Stock is Up – Elon Exceeds Expectations

Credit: Tesla CEO Elon Musk during the unveiling of the new Tesla Model Y in Hawthorne, California in March 2019. Photo: Frederick J. Brown/AFP, via Getty Images

The Tesla cars are like certain bands, either you love them or you hate them. Investors have been casting a dubious eye wondering how Elon Musk's car company will fair give COVID.

Tesla delivered a total of 90,650 vehicles during Q2 of 2020. This is an astounding 2,250 more than in the first quarter of the 2020. 82,272 Tesla cars were produced April to June this year, which is down from Q1 because of C19 holdbacks.

“While our main factory in Fremont was shut down for much of the quarter, we have successfully ramped production back to prior levels,” Tesla wrote during their Q2 announcement.

Credit: https://electrek.co/2020/07/02/tesla-announces-q2-deliveries-90650-electric-cars-beating-expectations/

Tesla Stock Rises

Audi just reported a more than 30% drop in deliveries in Q2, so Tesla is definitely ahead of the curve. Tesla’s market valuation is just over $224 billion (as of the date this blog is published).

Tesla has also passed the market caps of Dow components Coca-Cola (KO), Disney (DIS), Cisco (CSCO), Merck (MRK) and Exxon Mobil (XOM).

Tesla was predicted by CNBC analysts to deliver only around 70K and well over shot low expectations. As a result, Tesla's stock is rising. TSLA is up $100 (9%) trading at $1220 pre-market value (as of July 2nd, 2020).

Elon Musks's electric car company is showing great headline numbers for an auto industry struggling to make profits on new car sales due to the pandemic. Some of this is attributed to Tesla entering China as a manufacturer, when prior, Musk had only sold Teslas there.

The Secret to Tesla's Success

Tesla shares are on a bull run now even in spite of the economic downturn the world is facing, and this is largely possible because Musk understood how to dominate a niche market.

It wasn't just about going green, but targeting a market of buyers who wanted to go green without losing the class and style this level of luxury vehicles offer.

Just like Tuesday's blog reported that there is something beyond the surface at play, with how the Facebook algorithm prioritizes content, Elon Musk didn't just sell an electric car. He sold a lifestyle.

There are many lessons other automobile manufacturers and startups can learn from analyzing the rise of Tesla's success. Clearly cheap gas prices right now don't offer an incentive to buy electric cars.

Many sustainable energy companies that provided wind and solar options never survived, and this was largely because their marketing strategy depending on everyone just realizing going green is the right thing to do.

Elon Musk focused on dominating a single niche of wealthy-ish suburbanites who wanted to support renewable energy but not sacrifice aesthetics in the process. And his strategy is succeeding.

How can you use this strategy in your business? What sub niches exist with your main target audience that have potential for new products to serve their interests?
. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

Does Facebook Only Promote Sad Reacts? No – It Goes Deeper

The content that you see on social media, or Facebook at least, is not as random as you may think it is. The Facebook algorithm is how Facebook decides which posts users see, and in what order, every time they check their newsfeeds.

Credit: Hootsuite.com

In the early days, when the Facebook algorithm was born, in 2009, posts were sorted based on popularity.
But, after more time passed, Facebook decided to just do what ever they could to keep Facebook users on the platform. The reasoning is that the more time Facebook users are on Facebook, the more they can be advertised to.

Right now there is a lot of negativity on Facebook. There are positive posts too but many news articles state that negative talking points are organically being supported more than positive by the Facebook algorithm.

While Facebook is free to use, Mark Zuckerberg pays the bills through advertisers paying him ad money to run advertisements on the platform.

The more time people spent on Facebook, the more money goes to the shareholders of Facebook.

Facebook's Shareholders

Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth of $54.7 Billion dollars according to Forbes, holds over 400 million shares of Facebook, comprising a market value of around $82.2 billion.

The Vanguard Group Inc., an investment management company, holds approximately 184.0 million shares of Facebook with a combined market value of about $37.7 billion.

BlackRock an asset and investment management firm, holds about 158.2 million shares of Facebook with a combined market value of $32.3 billion.

FMR LLC, a financial services company holds approximately 123.6 million shares of Facebook with a combined market value of $26.1 billion.

T. Rowe Price is an investment management company offering portfolio management, equities, fixed income, asset allocation, and holds about 107.8 million shares of Facebook totaling a combined market value of $22.1 billion. Source: Investopedia

Facebook Algorithm Changed to Prioritize Friends & Fam

Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2018 that going forward, one of the biggest changes with Facebook was that the algorithm would be modified to prioritize friends and family posts instead of just advertisers' posts.

However, that's not what happened. Instead of seeing more communities of friends and families created, studies revealed that over 50% of increased engagement was paired with increased divisiveness, outrage and angry reactions.

At the same time, the way the Facebook algorithm prioritized content ended up supporting fringe posts on fake news from scam artists and spammers who knew how to work the engagement algorithm.

If It Bleeds It Reads

Journalism, in the news media has always had a slant for things that are negative. Despite the fact that there are also more positive topics that are newsworthy -- these are often ignored to prioritize the shock and awe and graphic violence stories.

So much so, there is even a catch-phrase that journalists use: “If it bleeds it reads.”

In a sense, Facebook has just allowed itself to become prey to the same ideology with one big predator creating the most amount of unhappy feelings in millions of people’s lives as they scroll the newsfeed: Fox News.

“Angry” is the top reaction when it comes to political content, though not other types of content. Fox News hired social media managers who knew how to bleed the hearts of millions through divisive negative stories on Facebook:

Credit: newswhip.com

It's clear Faux News knows exactly what they are doing, and do it well. Creating content that is negative and hateful will get more reactions, with a consistent narrative, posting schedule and relentless factory of discontented posts.

That's not the entire story though. There are plenty of other stories and posts that have gotten a high number of reactions that are positive. Posts about babies, pets, and baking cookies also have gotten incredible amounts of reach.

Over 2 MILLION engagements were drawn to the So Yummy Facebook Page's post on 12 cookie decorating hacks:

Credit: newswhip.com

So while many decry Facebook as having the intention of hurting people's feelings and spreading discontent, this isn't reality. Reality isn't one single narrative. When you subscribe to only one way of thinking you miss out on what's happening in the periphery.

The reality is, Facebook is a tool, and if bad characters spend more time on learning how to use this tool and get more adept at distributing content with higher engagement - they will dominate the Facebook Newsfeed.

Credit: Anthony Quintano

What's curious is how many people seem to miss out on the fact that reactions such as the laugh react and love react, if prioritized in high numbers also drive just as much engagement on Facebook.

The narrative that keeps getting repeated is that Facebook is only supporting negative content, when studies by NewsWhip for instance, show this simply isn't true.

NYU professor Scott Galloway, who is known for his outspoken views on Facebook - and someone whose perspective I value - has also missed this essential fact as well in a recent interview with Fast Company:

"What these companies [eg Facebook] have done is created a business model where the most incendiary, upsetting, controversial, and oftentimes false and damaging things get more oxygen than they deserve because we are a tribal species and when people say things that are upsetting we tend to engage. Engagement equals enrichment. The more rage equals the more clicks equals the more Nissan ads. So these algorithms have figured out that if you promote the flawed junk science of anti-vaxxers, it increases shareholder value. There is a population of people out there that believe vaccinations are bad, and they should be heard. But they should not dominate health news so that you start getting these stories from your friends on Facebook. It starts adding legitimacy, and then there’s a trend around anti-vaccination, and more two- and three-year-old boys and girls have their limbs amputated because of an outbreak of measles which we thought we had conquered 30 or 40 years ago."

While there is definitely a lot of truth to what Galloway speaks of, as far as accountability, fact-checking, anti-trust laws not being enforced on big tech companies like Facebook & Google - he misses the point that there is more than one narrative here.

Positive stories get distribution and crazy amounts of reactions too - just share a photo or video of a puppy and see how many reactions and likes it gets. But - as stated before, when companies who want to use negativity to drive reactions put their posting in overdrive, it will definitely also create massive social media engagement.

One headline I've read recently said,

"Facebook Prioritizes What Makes You ‘Sad’ Or ‘Angry’ Over What You ‘Like’"

and yet this is false - as reactions aside from the likes, also include the wow, laugh, love and new Care react - not just sad or angry.

Later on in the article the author says:

"...all reactions are weighted the same, which means the News Feed prioritizes things you “love” equally to things that make you “angry” or “sad.”"

But the headline stated only the negative emotions.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is an example of cherry-picking info to frame a story to support a bias. A pre-existing narrative being told instead of examining the data and seeing the full picture. How you use a tool determines the emotional outcome.

What's even more disturbing is how willing the public is to accept a pre-framed narrative without investigating it, reactions become almost robotic. (Read Great Leaders Don't Create Robots for more tips on leadership).

Ironically, a lot of the trite dialogue on social media, could have been written by a computer algorithm as it's one person trading talking points they didn't think up, or research themselves with another who is doing the same thing.

People don't study anything that doesn't already confirm their existing bias, and look for things on Facebook to support this rather than research their own beliefs.

It would be great to see folks get informed beyond the 3 primary outdated emotionally charged talking points on posts shared without even googling origins of the info and fact checking with multiple sources.

Forgive me, perhaps I am biased about people who are biased, as I worked at a college instructing students on how to cross reference primary and secondary sources. Authenticating data sources is important before becoming emotionally invested in what you think is the absolute truth. But back to Facebook.

It seems like there is a lot of opportunity right now to prey upon people's fears on social media, but there are just as many opportunities to encourage hope, trust and faith that things will get better.

I've seen posts celebrating the bravery of health care workers get amazing distribution, positive reactions and countless likes.

Don't fall victim to a one-story narrative, examine all sides, cross reference sources to make sure you aren't being fed a one dimensional version of a 5 dimensional reality.

I encourage individual Facebook users, as well as companies and entrepreneurs, to use the tools we have wisely. To do our best to create networks that support authenticity, mutual respect and a narrative that promotes sustainable social networks.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

Great Leaders Don’t Create Robots

Credit: Rock'n Roll Monkey

Does every piece of news, blog and social media post have to reference COVID19 right now? While we are limping our way through a pandemic sometimes there needs to be a break from obsessing.

During a crisis we look for leadership to guide the ship we're sailing into safe harbor. At every company, you'll have tons of managers but not very many leaders. Let's talk about leadership.

At an email-marketing conferences I attended, the speaker made it a point to communicate that we won't succeed without a solid plan.

To attempt to keep doing the same thing without strategy is called "hope marketing" and makes a lot of folks live the reality of "broke marketing."

Hope without a strategy doesn't create leadership. Leadership is developed when your hope and positive thinking are matched with a concrete vision of the future and a way to get there.

Real Leaders Know It Ain't About Them

Word of mouth is one of the most powerful ways to grow a tribe, to create a group of people dedicated to a specific purpose or cause. You'll find this in any major sport - word of mouth is a powerful driver and builds communities.

One of the mistakes people make is defining leadership as the worship of a single person. Identity politics is one of the most divisive cancers right now plaguing America.

Leadership that lasts beyond tomorrow and creates a strong community grows when the leader gives people a platform for spreading ideas that work.

Who do you trust more: an ad you see on your Facebook Newsfeed, or a recommendation your friend made? The friend of course. The culture around a product or service grows when people recruit other people. That's how ideas spread too.

People won't do it for you - they do it for each other. Leadership is embracing that it really isn't all about you. It's about the movement you're creating. The shared values of those who follow you.

Change is Inevitable - Except from Vending Machines

Generally speaking, managers don't like people that stick out. By definition they want everyone to tow the line, and stick within established rules.

Many companies have PR statements that say they are about innovation but reward conformity more than anything else. It was definitely like this when I worked in tech at Facebook. You didn't want to stick out in any way.

Managers were overworked and had no bandwidth to recognize the talents of their employees. I quit my job at Facebook because of this and started a successful consulting firm and e-commerce ventures.

I was a deviant - I didn't fit in with the status quo. But neither did Elon Musk, Henry Ford or Tony Robbins. All of them are outliers that challenged conformity. While I wouldn't say my contributions to society can light a candle yet to these notable people, there's something important to worth mentioning:

Managers don't like deviants, they don't like nonconformists who may be eccentrics or mavericks with too much individual personality. Deviating from conformity is a failure for a manager working to deliver within the rigid lines of their role.

Managers crush nonconformists - that's what they do. Managers don't inspire people. Leaders do.

Leaders understand a different outlook: change is unavoidable and also one of the keys to success. Not human robots.

Credit: Craig Sybert

As it turns out, when you have a workforce that is dedicated to change and more fully engaged in making things happen-- not only are employees happier but they are also more productive.

This is a much better way to organize a business than making people walk on tip toes, using threats of losing job security and fear as a motivation to do a good job.

Leadership isn't just popularity, power and showmanship.
The Harvard Business Review states:

"A successful leader as one who can understand people’s motivations and enlist employee participation in a way that marries individual needs and interests to the group’s purpose."

Find Someone Succeeding & Encourage Them

When someone at the job place has created a workaround, or another way of doing routine work that works better, instead of punishing them for not conforming shine the spotlight.

While it won't always be the case, often innovation comes in small packages from employees just figuring out a better way to do a task that isn't officially sanctioned in the employee handbook.

Great leaders find someone deviating from the norm creating success - and encourage them.

Many things we know and love as part of every day life happened because someone did something different than the norm and challenged the group-think of conformity in the workplace, society or within a specific industry.

Air Bnb is one example of this, so are Lyft & Uber, as well as Google's Gmail as mentioned in the blog about managers needing to adopt flexible strategies from leadership to keep folks motivated post COVID (to not just do the minimal but to exceed expectations).

It's raining right now in Austin, Texas and Leonard Cohen is playing on the online radio station I listen to, Radio Paradise.

As I listen to the lyrics sang, I think of leaders who inspired me in my journey from 9-5er to entrepreneur. And the traits they have in common.

One of the shared attributes every one of them has, is the ability to put aside their own ego and become sincerely invested and curious in how other people think, feel and perceive life.

Who are some great leaders you've met in your life? Who inspires you?
. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

5 Tips on Starting a New Business During Covid

Credit: Danielle MacInnes

Now is a great time to start a business. You're saying, "Hold up Trevor, we are all on lock down, are you kidding?" No joke - right now is a great time to start a business with a caveaut:

Design a company that is agile, not dependent on physical location, with a strong online presence.

Businesses succeed when they solve a problem. Right now, consumers have a whole set of new problems that your business can solve.

Whether you're launching a new clothing line for sweat pants and lounge gear or at-home fitness training, there are opportunities to grow and succeed in the new marketplace.

Create a Business Plan

Starting a new business is exciting, nerve wracking and you gotta think on your feet a lot. But, if you have a business plan mapped out ahead of time it gives you a great jump off point.

You may not even follow the plan. Or you may pick and choose parts to follow and adapt other parts as you go along - being agile is critical to your success. Pivoting as you see fit allows you to succeed.

Don't kill yourself writing it. Make it 5-7 pages max. Get your ideas out of your brain in a format for a business template.

Cover these Important Business Points

Write down your answers to these questions in one document:

How are you going to grow?
What are you trying to build?
How are you different from competitors?
How do you make customers wildly happy?
Ponder the chapters of your business

Think about the segments of growth for the chapters of your business. For instance, if you're starting a vegan delivery food truck that customers can order from via an app - 1st you'll have the food truck and app developed.

Then your vegan food delivery service can expand to a full restaurant. After that it'll become a catering business for a larger area. Perhaps this will then open up to franchising or being priced to sell.

The concept here is that when you're thinking on your feet, you can miss important details. When you're doing some deeper thinking on the bigger picture of your business ahead of time you can map out the smaller steps in between significant moves.

You won't have time to sit on your couch and just strategize once you've really got the ball rolling. You may not have all the answers but putting your thoughts down in a structured business plan gives you a resource to refer back to to connect the parts.

You'll have something to refer back to when you're on the move making things happen. It helps you gain perspective on how you connected ideas together that manifest as concrete action steps.

This is especially helpful when you've spent time ahead of time analyzing your competition so you know how you can stand out - or at least have a starting place.

Go Find Smart People to Criticize You

After creating your business plan, structured for stay-at-home, online-friendly covid reality, then find the three smartest people you know.

You know who these people are, they are the super smart folks around you in your friends circle or even co-workers from present or previous jobs.

It would be even better if they also run their own business. Either way, you want them to give you hard criticism on your ideas. Because this helps you increase your ability to make your business better.

Be prepared to hear some hard words. Go into it expecting they will tell you your ideas suck. Don't fish for compliments. Lean into their criticisms. Ask open ended follow up questions.

Remember - your goal is to get them to poke holes in your strategy and future visions so you know where you can improve.

It's highly likely if they see things you aren't seeing, and you want to get investors, those angel investors will see the same things or some of them as well.

Thinking up objections ahead of time and better yet solving them puts you ahead of the rest.

Get Yer Legals Set

Make sure you understand the basics on what you need to do for local taxes, which vary state to state. For example if you're starting an e-commerce store you need to buy at the least an LLC or sole proprietorship, and a sales tax license.

You'll want to get a business bank account to separate your taxable income from your business from your personal finances. It'll be set up with a business EIN number, which is like your social security number for businesses.

Invest in a good attorney and a good accountant. Prioritize the accountant first as you'll want to make sure you don't owe the IRS money. You can hire an attorney after you start making income. When you're ready to scale, you have to make sure your books are straight.

And of course, make sure you have a website for your business, and a business email that isn't just @gmail. Look up Gsuite and how to connect that to your domain for a business email.

Find People Like Me

Reach out to entrepreneurs like myself who already run their own business and ask them for two minutes of their time.

You'd be surprised but many people who are very successful love giving back and helping the newbs out with advice they wish they knew when starting out.

[Hint hint - the reason why I wrote this blog]

Having a solid convo with an established business leader, the higher up the better, will help you see the gaps that laterally moving won't catch.

It's also inspiring to talk to those who have tried what you're doing and succeeded.

What are your tips for those starting out with a new business? Or, what do you wish you had tips about for starting a business?
. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

The Economy of Integrity

Credit: Bonnie Kittle

We live in uncertain times but one thing we can all count on is our own ability to frame the social interactions we have. This is both in our personal lives and in business connections when we interact with other business owners or potential partners for joint ventures and more.

It's one of those nuances of human behavior often ignored - are you being the best version of yourself?

This is where professional development meets personal development. Why is it so hard to take a step back outside the echo chamber of previously held beliefs?

Some of it is habit. Habit in how we think of ourselves, the world, other people and our potential. For many, their careers don't take off until they figure their shit out, as a person. Yet - you won't see this taught in MBA programs at major universities.

It's Not What You Do It's How

There are tons of awful people that donate to charities yet abuse their spouses, do unhealthy amounts of drugs and never take a long hard look at who they are actually becoming aside from profit margins met.

Have you ever tried to save a friend from themselves? Passionately advocating on how to dodge the bullet you see headed towards them from their current actions and life path?

What usually happens?

A shit ton of defensiveness and resentment.

Leonard Cohen once sang,

"And I lift my glass to the awful truth
Which you can't reveal to the ears of youth..."

Cohen sings of the eternal resistance of being told what we know is true - that perhaps we aren't trying hard enough. Perhaps we owe it to ourselves to be a bit more honest on if actions taken are doing justice to the version of ourselves we become when energy follows thoughts.

The act of becoming is talked about in many esoteric texts and yet very divorced from the business world, as far as an inherent quality we associate with success.

The art of becoming is the acknowledgement we aren't perfect but also aren't helpless about who we become during the process of living our lives.

I've been blessed to meet, rather recently, a number of influential multi millionaires at the top of their game for their industry. And in this circle something is different than others I've met in previous years who were also successful in business.

These people, many of whom know each other, have spent time understanding who they are and reflect honor and integrity into how they do business and affect the world.

Back to the friend you're trying to save analogy (happened several times for folks I know). It isn't what you're saying. The content is gold - your intentions are pure, you don't have anything to gain here. It is all for the sake of your friend who is fucking up that you want to save.

It isn't what you say, it's how you say it. If anyone feels lectured to, instant walls go up. Higher than the BS ones the prez wants to build between USA and Mexico. Just add water or err um..strongly worded advice.

People feel the energy coming from you behind your words. This has parallels in the start up world as well.

LTV Isn't Accidental

Of the highly successful 7 figure business leaders I've had the luck to meet, connect with, and in some cases become friends with - the feeling of 'this person genuinely cares for others' and reflects that in how they do business is a great predictor of not just success but longevity.

You may have heard of LTV, the life time value of a customer who makes multiple purchases with your business. A customer's LTV exponentially increases if they trust your business. This is the economy of integrity.

When customers feel a bond because of the tribe you've created based on integrity, the rituals specific to your business, and the values you stand for (and what you won't accept: read I'm Not For Everyone) this not only increases long term profits but you become an excuse for others to rise up and act better.

Do we need to wait for Christmas to be generous, forgiving and proactively giving?

Of course not. It's an attitude. An attitude of gratitude. Ok I did see that on the wall at a meeting I was at back in the day. But despite it's rather pithy phrasing, it speaks to deeper concepts.

It's the idea that every Sci Fi author understands - sometimes we are world-creating. We create a micro world of who buys our product or service and determine what kind of environment and culture we create.

Make use of the free will and choice we do have to lead a company based on values of integrity. It gives back so much more than it takes. Your influence continues to grow positively and affect the lives of others in a way that inspires them to do the right thing.

Don't Take My Word for It

Don't take my word for it - plenty of studies from multiple sources back up, empirically, the values delivered by being a decent person, and how that decency affects organizational structures beneficially.

From the National Academy of Sciences:

"Leadership by individuals of high personal integrity helps to foster an environment in which scientists can openly discuss responsible research practices in the face of conflicting pressures. All those involved in the research enterprise should acknowledge that integrity is a key dimension of the essence of being a scientist and not a set of externally imposed regulatory constraints.

To the Journal on Public Integrity and Ethical Leadership:

“ 'Moral values and norms' are often absent when scholars are involved in describing, explaining, and understanding the reality of governance and administration (the dominant focus is on goals and interests; biases and irrationality; institutions; and context and power). An “ethics and integrity turn” in the dominant fields of study is needed."

The Economist referenced a study ran by Tim Hird of Robert Half Management Resources who aptly said:

“Companies with strong, ethical management teams enhance their ability to attract investors, customers and talented professionals,” explains Hird, adding that ethical behavior starts at the top and allows companies to create a culture that values integrity."

Going back to the friend analogy - the reason I bring this up is that this fits your engagement with your customer base as well. If you really want to help your friend out and avoid a slow motion accident you see coming, listen first. Focus less on the righteousness of the point you're making. More on what his or her needs actually are.

Same goes for the impact your business has on the world through the interactions your clients have with each other, with your business and others they come into contact with after purchasing.

When the person you are is reflected in the values of your company, this ripple effect increases CTV by just making people feel more comfortable because they know, see and feel your integrity.

You may just inspire them to also live their lives with higher integrity - helping your business thrive through word of mouth, increase customer retention and long term profits but also help the world become a better place.

"The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office."

-President Dwight D. Eisenhower

I'd like to hear your comments on your experiences as a customer and business with integrity.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

What the Workplace Looks Like – Post COVID19

Image by cromaconceptovisual from Pixabay

Many businesses have come to a full stop due to the Corona Virus, or rather the response to C-19 from governments across the world putting entire countries on lockdown.

What does a post Covid workplace look like?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, 21.0 million are unemployed in America right now. The unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons are up by 9.8 percentage points and 15.2 million, respectively, since February 2020.

Employers are taking a step back, scratching their heads and trying to figure out what hiring strategies look like, and how workplace organization will accommodate social distancing.

Remote Workflows Increase Employer Value

You may have noticed that businesses you work for or are a customer of have started partially staffing offices again. To the extent this will continue depends on the spread of the corona virus, death counts, and potential vaccines.

Many workplaces, especially in the tech sector, already offered remote work options. When I provided IT support for Facebook's servers, Facebook had us working partially remote.

This added many advantages being able to multitask household chores like doing laundry while still monitoring dips and spikes in the flux of Facebook's site stability.

Employers adapting to C-19 by offering remote work options will attract some of the best talent from literally anywhere in the world.

This increases job satisfaction as well if location is no longer the make or break factor in accepting a job. How many times have people moved away from friends and family just to land a 'good' job?
Countless.

What happens when your commute time is increased 5 times as much driving to and from work? Definitely doesn't make you appreciate working somewhere more.

I've known folks who commuted literally from other cities to work everyday. And not outlier suburbs but literal whole other cities hours away.

Working remote offers savings in gas money, babysitting money for parents, and expands the talent pool employers can select from.

Productivity Hacks & Employee Behavior Drives

If the new future post covid19 involves more remote work, employers will need to develop new productivity hacks. This includes the necessity of increasing engagement among employees.

When I worked remote for another IT company that offered tech support for colleges we had group chats where we could share comments together on more than just the job.

The social aspect helped relieve the monotony of working only by yourself at home without physical socialization.

Socializing is important. Research by Oxford University's Saïd Business School, in collaboration with British multinational telecoms firm BT, has found a conclusive link between happiness and productivity:

The happier employees are the more productive they are.

Autonomy and trust will need to be increased in order for even a partially remote workforce to be productive.This means, individually, employees have to find out their specific behavior drives.

This is likened to the aspiring college student - if you went to college one of the things you had to figure out, consciously or by habit, is how you learned the best.

Are you a visual learner? Audio learner? Did taking notes by computer lessen how much you retained versus shorthand notes that are hand written in a notebook?

One of my biggest challenges going to the University of Texas was discovering how I learned the best. It was a Rubik's cube.

Spanish grammar was a particular roadblock for me. Through trial and error I discovered that I learned best by immersing myself in Spanish Netflix shows, Spanish radio stations, and attending Spanish speaking meetup groups - in addition to the standard flipping of index cards for vocab and grammar memorization.

Employees will need to find new routines if working remote, that helps them stay focused and productive. Management can take the lead helping this process by increasing engagement and feedback activities.

The End of Chats by the Water Cooler Era?

Side chatter may be reduced if people aren’t physically at the job place. No more random stops by your friends desk on the way to your lunch or the bathroom.

No more chats by the water cooler

While to some this sounds like a good option it’s good only in the out dated IBM of the 60s work model of dress codes, strict workplace protocols that kill creativity and innovation.

This antiquated notion that the more alike and the same everyone was the easier it is to control them and increase their output has been proven wrong by numerous studies (read my blog on intrinsic motivation).

Some of the best ideas that created billions of dollars in revenue came from chats at the water cooler, as well as side projects that were left up to individual employees to develop to their own liking versus strict company standards.

Gmail itself was invented by an engineer during Google's famous 20% days.

"We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google,"

as Business Insider quoted Google saying.

Paul Buchheit, the creator of Gmail, created the first version of Gmail in one day, reusing the code from Google Groups. The project was known by the code name Caribou, a reference to a Dilbert comic strip about Project Caribou.

The point is, if remote work is going to become the norm, management will need to adopt more flexible strategies from leadership to keep folks motivated to not just do the minimal but to exceed expectations.

Companies will be at an advantage to be inclusive of free range creative brainstorming moments where staff can socialize, share experiences and create mini think tanks.

What other ways do you see the workplace changing due to COVID19? Comment your thoughts below!

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

The Power of Tribes

Credit: Joel Mott

We live in challenging times right now. Police brutality has led to business closures from storefronts near protest marches, COVID19 panic buying has led to food and toilet paper shortages and many college graduates, like myself, were stripped of the gift that walking across college stages in grad regalia gives our hearts and souls.

Would be memories never created due to the bizarre pausing of normal life, as we all wait, breathless, for the next thing to happen, hoping paradoxically for things to return to normal.

Business right now is also juxtaposed with innovation opportunities but strained to maintain existing product lines above margin.

Steve Jobs' iconic slogan for Apple, "Think Different," really applies to all verticals still attempting to run a company in these challenging times.

How to Challenge the Status Quo Correctly

Companies that defeat the status quo often succeed where many fail. Whenever the state of affairs is changing, it gives one a chance to be remarkable.

However, many grains of sand make up a beach. Microinfluencers are forgotten by heads of marketing as they push out more cold audience targeted ads.

When you challenge the status quo and can follow through with incredible products or services so unlike what's already out there you start to build a cult following & the story of your business changes.

This following is what makes the difference when you actually are

"Thinking Different."

Quality always beats out quantity. A highly engaged group of followers will recruit more people to join your tribe. They'll take the lead creating micro leaders to step up to the plate and push the envelope.

Nature Abhors A Vacuum

The problem is, there is such a large amount of people that have convinced themselves that it's best to do nothing. That's part of the reason why we see Black Lives Matter protests striking a chord globally. The sleeping masses have woken up and see doing nothing isn't enough now.

To build a business, you need to build a brand. To build a brand you need to build a following. To build a following you need to think differently than the other millions of brands out there saying,

"Buy my stuff, buy my stuff."

Nature abhors a vacuum. A vacuum exists when many who think alike, share pain points your product or service can solve but see no leadership to guide them forward.

Leaders find out how to enter these vacuums and generate momentum. They create the ripple effects the world feels later, after critical mass is reached.

This type of movement generates another type of momentum: the speed of shared trust, the pace of belonging, the transformation of individuals into a tribe.

Be Congruent Inside & Out

Distinguishing your customers from other brands and their clients takes some work. You need to develop your own rituals unique to your company's vision.

Don't be afraid to be a little eccentric. As long as it isn't forced. Jobs was probably very socially awkward but with a genius for aesthetic design.

The funkiness of having all MacBooks after a certain period, come with Garageband, a program to create music, really helped solidify Apple's tribe from competitors.

When you're feeling stuck, think about rituals you enjoy. Contemplate how to integrate these with your tribe. What are things you enjoy, hobbies-wise?

Take a moment to see if you can repurpose some of these activities into a ritual for your company. You may see there are areas you can still rise to challenge the status quo and become remarkable.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

Where Reverse Engineering Fails & Stories Win

Credit: Math

Just like a good cup of coffee, feeling like you are beating the competition in your business's market is a feeling you want to savor. But what are you competing against?

The typical response is binary. Apple competes against Microsoft. General Motors competes against Toyota. Netflix competes against Hulu.

However, when customers are using your product or service to solve a pain point they are doing so to satisfy a complex set of emotions, moods and attitudes.

There are times when a customer may decide to purchase from you because they want to meet a goal. The steps towards reaching this goal have sub-steps that have to be achieved before reaching the purchase point.

The 3D Sphere Model of Competition

Credit: jgvdthree

Just the belief that things can get better is a foundation for moving forward. If consumers don't believe that anything can improve it will be a lot harder of a sell. How does what you sell help your clients make progress in their lives?

The way someone makes progress towards completing a goal is a path that offers many moments for you to solve their pain points. If you have an Ecommerce store selling coffee it would make sense to sell coffee mugs as well right?

Amazon's suggestions of similar products customer bought after buying what you're purchasing is responsible for millions of dollars in sales.

But the only way you will be able to even get to this point is if you understand what is competing with your products. Think beyond a linear timeline. Make it more like a 3 dimensional sphere that intersects with other spheres.

If You Were Selling Coffee...

If I was selling coffee, the competition you may think is other coffee brands, and tea. However, just like last Tuesday's blog mentions another source of competition is not buying anything at all.

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, talking about the competition Netflix faces said:

“Really we compete with video games. We compete with drinking a bottle of wine. That’s a particularly tough one! We compete with other video networks. Playing board games.”

Thinking outside the box of typical market research on the competition, you'll want to ask, "What do people do instead of drinking coffee?"

Crazy as it seems there are folks who use cold showers to wake up in the morning, or buy really bright lights to turn on in the morning. Workers who work the night shift have their own unique sets of alternatives to coffee which can only last so long before a tolerance is built up.

Energy drinks, Yerba matte, lemon juice and even just water are other sources of competition to coffee. Cigarettes are a replacement for coffee to stimulate the user into being more awake as well as physical exercise.

Using the sphere model of where competition exists for your product, we can see it's more than tea but also yoga mats and stationary bicycles. What circumstances are people in when they seek coffee?

Students, office workers, teachers, entrepreneurs and many more use coffee to start their day. It's a popular drink. What aren't people saying about coffee?

Power of Micro Targeting

Answering these type of questions helps you niche down to a specific market you can micro target and develop a tribe of enthusiastic buyers that will take your company to the next level.

Going with our example of coffee as a sample product you would be selling, we can definitely sub niche down to different categories like:

Social coffee drinkers - they only drink coffee in a coffee shop with friends

Daily coffee drinkers - there are subcategories here as well, the instant coffee drinkers, the pre-ground coffee drinkers, and the whole bean grinders that consider themselves coffee aficionados.

Intermittent coffee drinkers - switching between chai teas, coffee and green teas this group is constantly experimenting with a variety of caffeinated beverages.

How you speak to each member of these groups (which can be subdivided further) will be different.

The marketing messages for an instant coffee drinkers won't be the same as a coffee aficionado who might only use an Aeropress and burr grinder (this is me - I love making some of the best coffee ever created).

The experiences that each group has inside of specific circumstances will decide how you present your product. Finding out that exercise is a competitor for drinking coffee may make you want to pivot into finding ways to combine both.

Reverse Engineering Vs Story Model

There are certain brands who will never have direct competition because of the immersive experience buying their product creates for customers. Trying to reverse engineer an existing business's model can only go so far.

Creating your own story that is filled with rich details solving multiple pain points in the customer's journey is how you stand out from the competition. The truth is most companies don't go to this level of detail.

Crafting unique rituals specific to your consumer's demographics, and circumstances surrounding their decision to buy is going to put you leagues ahead in your progress towards becoming the best version of what your business is capable of.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

If You’re White & Don’t Know How to React to Floyd’s Death…

Credit: Rachel Fergus/RiverTown Multimedia

Disclaimer - while this is normally a business blog (eg last blog on Biz Metrics) in the wake of George Floyd's death I can't stay silent on how we got to this point.

Protests rock the nation as many discover the motivation to stand up and fight for civil liberties and equality for blacks after George Floyd was racially killed by officer Derek Chauvin.

Now white people are scared of being labeled racist and wonder what to do.

There were decades of police brutality against African-Americans before now, but with the advent of smart phones, suddenly the nation is captivated by the tragedy unfolding before them.

Speaking with a Crisis Intervention specialist on the phone, who is black, I learned that he is bombarded with calls from his white friends and clients asking how they should be reacting to Floyd's death.

Questions like this frustrate me. Growing up in an all black and Mexican neighborhood as a child, many social constructs of race and class were de-codified quickly when our common language was mutual poverty.

I saw how my dad was racist and how false his ideas about blacks and Mexicans were.

In middle school, due to federal race quotas at white west side schools my whole neighborhood was bussed out of our hood to a rich white school we weren't comfortable at.

I was the only white kid on the bus. With four people to a seat, being bussed from the east side, before gentrification brought white people to poor neighborhoods I quickly saw how I was perceived to represent oppression, lost job opportunities and systemic racism.

It was a trial by fire. I got into a lot of fights. The first week my glasses got thrown out the window. Crypts and Bloods gang signs were being thrown left and right by these middle schoolers.

I learned early on, real recognize real. I was the son of a construction worker, we were broke as well. After a lot of conflict, I slowly gained acceptance and with this acceptance I saw clearly how we have-nots were perceived by the rest of the world.

I had an advantage, being white, because it was assumed that I was headed places other than drug dealing. But the incredible amount of entire life times planned out in the single look of eyes by someone white in a position of authority shook me.

I saw why even young kids were cynical. If they were a POC, they were expected to fail more than to succeed, and this kind of thinking got into their heads. Sometimes it was a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Many times it was straight up wrong and prejudiced. This came from school administrators, employers, police, bank tellers, homeowner associations, middle to upper class suburbanites and more.

I had good friends who were white, some no longer friends now, who showed me their beliefs about blacks and other nonwhite races through subtle comments I picked up on. The nuances were clear to me now due to my non-trust-fund up bringing.

I couldn't believe this shit was so pervasive. I talked with my friends who were black like,

"Do you actually see this? You deal with this daily?"

"Yup."

And yet, black people continued to give whites revealing their prejudices, passed down from parental figures, free passes. Infinite amounts despite white people's ignorance at how they came off.

Yet...white people get to be defensive, as if they are the victim, if there needs to be a sincere discussion about race, class and social constructs? WTF.

The Myth of White Fragility

I hear many convos about "white fragility" and white people not knowing how to talk about racism. Dictionary.com defines white fragility as:

"The tendency among members of the dominant white cultural group to have a defensive, wounded, angry, or dismissive response to evidence of racism."

It's mind boggling to me to hear these types of conversations because the only people afraid to talk about racism are people who are racist to some extent.

When you are the only white person for more than a 15 mile radius in your neighborhood, growing up, you learn pretty quickly about white people who often unintentionally insult black people with assumed predictions of black people's lack of ambition, success and intelligence.

Systemic Racism Comes From Passed Down Beliefs

The over policing of black neighborhoods leading to more blacks in prison is a known issue for those growing up beneath the poverty line.

The threat of life or death being in every encounter between the police and black people versus the innate security white people have with the police is a large dissonance in basic comprehension of the issues at stake.

Then there is the over compensating actions of white people who, unable to have honest conversations with themselves about inner ingrained prejudices, want to festish-ize black people.

But I Have Black Friends...

How many conversations have you seen on Facebook where an "all lives matter" white person defensively claims, "But I have black friends!"?

It isn't about 'having' black friends buddy. It's understanding how you marginalize another race's struggle against the unequal treatment they receive in job opportunities, education, and systemic racism in local police, state legislation and even the office of the president (after 2016 especially).

The especially frustrating part of this is almost every person I've seen post about all lives matter or how they, as whites, feel marginalized and not allowed to talk about things is that these people are just whining about themselves.

There is no understanding of a greater issue here other than their personal butt-hurt feelings that perhaps others perceive their prejudices more than they do.

Instead of posting on Facebook, about how you as a white woman, or man, are the 'victim' of censorship, take a good long hard look in the mirror and ask,

"What are my assumptions about black people?"

That's a good place to start. And realize just like Aspergers syndrome you can unlearn bad habits and learn how to improve your self-awareness. Don't defensively try to overcompensate.

The Winners Write the Textbooks

This defensive overcompensating doesn't help anything at all. Making black people into some sort of boyscout badge you collect and pin to your lapels doesn't make you less of a racist. It does the opposite.

One of the reasons why blacks have struggled to gain equal footing in America is because America was the only country to make slavery inherited from mother to child. Even Greek slaves had rights.

That level of labeling blacks as less than human continues post reconstruction era with vagrancy laws that rounded up freed slaves and charged them debts they could only repay by going back to work on the plantation.

These same plantation owner confederate types who never thought black people deserved the same rights as whites taught their sons and daughters for generations their racism.

So in-spite of progress, technology, Emancipation Proclamation (made mainly to keep Europe out of the war) and even the internet we have generations of people growing up with money, entitlements and racism running for public office.

They become legislators with these passed down beliefs that defied basic common sense that ended up manifesting in white-washing history text books and gerrymandering to invalidate minority votes.

When I spoke at the Teacher's Union in Austin Texas about the debate legislators were having to take out all mentions of slavery from Texas textbooks I asked Texas legislators a simple question:

"How is less information about our history, and black history, going to empower students?"

The winners write the textbooks. It's from the top down that the discussion of race and equality has been suppressed as Noam Chomsky famously said:

“Control of thought is more important for governments that are free and popular than for despotic & military states.The logic is straightforward: a despotic state can control its domestic enemies by force, but as the state loses this weapon, other devices are required to prevent the ignorant masses from interfering with public affairs, which are none of their business…the public are to be observers, not participants, consumers of ideology as well as products.”

From School to Jail Pipeline

The pipeline from school to jail for blacks especially, is just another attempt to re-establish the free labor system of the plantation days as prisoners make products at jails that are sold for profits they don't get a share of.

Part of the pipe line from school to jail is established by teaching only how to pass standardized tests instead of social skills, critical thinking and conflict-resolution training.

More contributors to this are permission parenting, being too afraid to establish consistent boundaries at schools (as well as defunding schools in minority neighborhoods and funding rich white schools with even more money).

When I was a substitute teacher at Austin Independent School District, I saw real life examples of this.I was working on my Bachelor's at UT and substitute teaching on days I didn't have class and saw some horrible things at Fulmore Middle School.

At Fulmore there was a whole grade level of kids who had behavior issues and were previously kicked out of regular ed to the Alternative Learning Center(ALC) for students who couldn't socialize without disrupting class.

These kids were 99% minorities, with very few white kids among them. The ALC said, "We give up," and kicked this same group of kids, who cursed out teachers and started fights back to Fulmore Middle School.

Due to group testing, the teachers just passed them on from grade level to grade level without any real intervention done. Same social problems, same lack of consistent boundaries being enforced, it was clear that jail was in the future for many of these kids.

Stop Assuming the Worst in POC Students

I talked to one of these "problem students" who was causing trouble and avoiding doing his math assignments in class. He was a young black kid about 9 or 10 years old.

I didn't talk down to him or just assume he was deliberately slacking off to make the teacher mad or make it about myself at all like I've seen some teachers do. I simply asked him,

"Do you like math? What obstacles are you facing with it?

He really opened up to me and talked about troubles at home and stated that he was actually good at math but was self conscious of "appearing too smart" around his friends.

We had a conversation about the future and the kind of opportunities available for those gifted in math and science. I shared that having a skill in math can lead to higher paying careers and opportunities.

And not just that. But how to make it real to him, the kind of lifestyle you can benefit from when you aren't broke.

It got through to him and he became very diligent at getting even better at math than when he started the semester.

Just a change of tone, from expecting the worst from kids who faced other problems besides school, and giving a real world context made all the difference.

This student succeeded because he wasn't labeled as any different than his white classmates, or expected to fail because he was black.

Just having a real conversation and being acknowledged isn't an impossible thing to do yet we don't see it happening at the frequency needed to change the world for the better.

Ron Clark has demonstrated without hesitation that being real with students improves their academic performance and commitment to education. Veiled racist assumptions doesn't so let's change this.

Separate Has Never Been Equal

So when there are white people who now want to sooth their fears of being perceived as racist by segregating black people into a box to be checked off to include their social circles, or that having black friends is somehow part of 'a list of accomplishments'

-- that's wack af. And low key prejudiced.

This kind of thinking misses the entire point that it is by segregating black people as less than or needing a special category from whites, you just come off as racist.

White people worried about being labeled racist - do less talking, more listening. Start actually paying attention to the social structures you benefit from that not everyone has access to.

Stop worrying about your public image and have some honest reflection about what your real thoughts and opinions are about black people. Examine where these beliefs come from:

*Experiences?
*Assumptions?
*Things you read in a magazine or heard from a friend?
*Beliefs from comments your parents made?
*Religion or the desire to fit in to your white social groups?

Unless you take the time to f-ing be honest and learn how your perception was formed, you will probably continue to feel overly sensitive talking about race.

Race isn't something to be afraid of talking about unless you're hiding something from yourself.

Stop hiding.

Recognize you may have innate prejudices by just how you were brought up, identify these and see how they conflict with reality to move beyond them

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

How To Measure Better Company Metrics

startup blog, startup blog, startup blog

Credit:Luke Chesser

It is easy to get caught up in measuring metrics at a company as a way to gauge success but the data is often not organized in a manner that allows a business to consistently forecast which tactics will be successful.

When you start up a new business, it's exciting to have data that you can parse to see which split test is successful, whether this is in advertising creatives, ad copy or product designs.

But, it's often taken for granted just how complex and layered this process is because it isn't just about delivering a satisfying product but a complete experience that makes buying from your company stand out from the competition.

Distinguishing Your Company From Others

Even the limitations of your product or service can be used as part of the unique selling mechanism. Take for example Twitter's 280 characters limit for tweets & calling a post a "tweet." (See last week's blog on the war between Trump and Twitter)

There are so many levels of a pain point your product or service solves, that it takes a very nuanced approach to address the gap filled. This means that just basing definitions of success on quantitative data will miss the elephant in the room, the customer's:

Credit: Sarah Kilian

Why a person buys your product or service is not always something so granular that it can be put on a spread sheet. This why can change at different times of the day, year or with a set of personal experiences of infinite variety.

Facebook's Metrics Fail to Measure Actual Data

When I worked at Facebook in the ads department we had scores that rated us on how effective we were at our jobs. The number one score was Customer Sat, for Customer satisfaction. The C-Sat scores determined the stability of vendor contractors that staffed for Facebook as well.

However, there was a huge hole in universally rating everyone, for every type of customer, based on one, very black and white metric. The amount of money a person had to spend on ads often was a big trigger on whether or not they were satisfied with the support from the ads department.

If you were too broke to spend enough money to both A/B test and retarget (or even understood what retargeting is) then it didn't matter how many help center articles you read --you'd be unhappy. It wasn't an accurate measure of job performance.

We didn't have conversations with management on understanding why customers chose Facebook over other social media platforms to advertise on.Or how Facebook products or services helped make progress in people's lives & which circumstances they were trying to make progress in.

How to Discover Multileveled Pain Points

Many organizations completely miss defining what the real reason is that customers hire them, and easily fall into the common trap of a one-size-fits-all solution that never solves the problem.

Diving deeper than the surface level metrics opens up new possibilities for growth hacking and innovating company structure, both B2B and B2C.

Taking the time to investigate a customer's multileveled why for consuming your business's offering helps uncover the real reason they buy. Before Volvo messed up their brand image, people didn't buy Volvos to get from A to B or for a flashy look. They bought Volvos to feel safe.

The Secret to True Innovation

One thing you'll discover when going beyond quantitative metrics is the reason why your customer does not purchase. This is often an even more important area to focus on.

If there isn't a product or service that fits a customer's needs, they'll choose not to buy anything rather than settle for a less-than-perfect solution.

Customizing a product or service to fill this need is where many entrepreneurs have made billions of dollars. If you've looked at a niche and felt like you don't have any room to compete because it's over saturated that's a big sign that you probably haven't defined your client avatar's Why well enough.

It's a whole range of experiences that create the need that you're solving. This goes far beyond the basic demographic information of age, gender, location and interests.

When you captivate the story of every day consumers in that split second of struggling to move forward and being stopped by not having what they need - this is the real gold.

Workarounds Offer Insight Into Product Development

Finding out what things your customer base is substituting for what they really want is another opportunity to growth hack. If they have a work around that's pretty "meh" because what they want isn't available you can become very successful by solving that trade off.

Start paying closer attention to the workarounds you use in your own life to get things done, digitally and physically. Being both the consumer and the entrepreneur at the same time can yield new insights because of the way you can think outside the box than just quietly suffering wishing for something better.

Take note of both your own circumstances, and social-emotional depths when faced with something you can't solve perfectly. Observe other people's buying habits and workarounds and discover if consumers are repurposing something it isn't intended for.

This will signal a new gap your product or service can fill. It's a story that mere metrics won't tell you about. This type of market research reveals the nature of pain points in a way that offers you a chance to stand out in solving them.

. . .

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

Twitter Censors Trump’s Attempt to Incite Violence

Credit: dole777

My last blog discussed how entrepreneurs to go from good to great and today we're going to dive into tech news as Trump faces off a battle with Twitter and free speech.

Twitter has started labeling questionable tweets the president has made with a little “i” and a warning.
Due to the shut downs implemented by national & local governments, responding to COVID19, many states are considering mail-in voting ballots as the most viable option to avoid long lines and crowds.

Trump tweeted that mail-in voting would lead to voting fraud and stated sensationally, that:

“Mail boxes will be robbed, ballots will be forged & even illegally printed out & fraudulently signed.”

Twitter responded with a warning that implied this was all fiction:

When interviewed by media sources like TechCrunch, Twitter stated Trumps tweets “contain potentially misleading information about voting processes and have been labeled to provide additional context around mail-in ballots.”

But the intrigue doesn’t stop there. A few days later after the fact-checking label Twitter labeled another one of Trump’s tweets with a “Public Interest Notice.” This label states that he broke Twitter’s rules about promoting violence on the platform.

Trump reposted this on Facebook and Instagram before Twitter came down on his post for glorifying violence.

CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, while defending Facebook’s policy to not fact-check politicians has stated there are limitations to what is allowed on Facebook.

“Even for politicians we don't allow content that incites violence or risks imminent harm — and of course we don't allow voter suppression,”

- Mark Zuckerberg

Trump threatening to send in the national guard was in reference to the situation in Minneapolis where there are tons of riots in response to a white police officer killing a black man who posed no threat to the police.

The man’s name was George Floyd. A shop keeper had called the cops because he suspected Floyd was using counterfeit money.

Floyd was being led away, peacefully in hand cuffs, but moments later the police had him on the ground. George Floyd was filmed dying with a cop's knee on his neck as he begged for mercy saying,

"I can't breath!"
"I'm about to die."

Floyd died, without cause, or justifiable reason for being killed. It is thought to be a racially motivated killing by the police as there has been a history of police killing blacks without just cause in in Minneapolis and America as a whole (just like Eric Garner died in New York for selling loose cigarettes).

The public's response to the blatant killing, on camera, of Floyd, without cause, by the Minneapolis PD is rioting in multiple cities and states.

Trump said, in response to the protesters of Floyd's death:

“When the looting starts, the shooting starts,”

This statement being an outright threat of violence and murder against American citizens, unhappy with the way George Floyd was murdered by the Minneapolis police.

The policy that this tweet violates is listed in Twitter’s policies, visible to anyone in the public that takes the time to read them:

You may not threaten violence against an individual or a group of people.”

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook) are all private websites, and many forget that they agree to bide by the rules of the website by using it.

Trump has been at war with tech companies for years, and it looks like for the first time, we are seeing the policies being universally enforced even against the president.

I think what’s hard to define in an issue like this, is the fact that free speech is guaranteed as part of the first amendment in the constitution but not in every environment.

Free speech is limited if you’re trying to:

Incite violence
Falsify statements of fact
Promote harm to children
Violate intellectual property rights
Talk sh*% at work or school

Basically it’s like, you can have free speech in public but if you’re at school you have to follow their rules. If you’re at work your free speech rights don’t include jumping on a table and inciting a riot.

The same applies with personal property - if you’re trespassing your free speech rights don’t supersede other rights.

The gray area is while Twitter, IG, FB and other social media sites own the digital real estate of their private websites & make following their policies a requirement to use their websites - there are billions
of people on their websites.

You have in essence entire countries all on a single website, so the public’s perception of what they can or can’t say is like, “I have a RIGHT to say ANYTHING I want online,” without considering, this isn’t a school. It isn’t a plaza where peaceful assembly is allowed.

It’s (in the case of Facebook) one man’s website you are a guest on.

It’s a hard pill to swallow, and there are many upset and indignant Facebook users whose content violated the community standards or advertising policies but feel owed and entitled to be allowed to break the rules, as if a private website has to guarantee their rules of use, terms of service if you will, are broken at anyone’s random impulse.

Similar to being a guest at someone’s house, upsetting the home owner by being disrespectful, being asked to leave, but refusing to, stating, “I have a RIGHT to be here,” when, technically, you don’t unless you own the house.

When you are on IG, Twitter or Facebook you are a guest at their house, and to stay there, you need to follow the rules of the house or be kicked out.

However we are in new territory just due to the sheer massive amount of people on these platforms and the ability of social media sites to influence elections, get hacked by Russians and have bots on Twitter manipulate people into chaos and socially engineer political opinions.

These types of hacks and social manipulation affect the world at large. They can lead to real physical harm and changes in society that aren’t beneficial.

Would Trump have been elected if there was no Facebook?

How would life be different, politically? Would Bernie Sanders or Hilary be president instead?

We don't live in that reality so it's impossible to say. But it gives context as to why social media companies are under scrutiny for what they allow on their platforms and what they don't.

Trump’s response to being somewhat censored (Twitter left the tweet up just made people have to click through a warning to see it) is to try to use his executive powers to limit the legal protections social media companies have.

However, many legal experts have stated they doubt this executive order would have any real effect on the tech giants.

Trump’s vindictive executive order targets the Communications Decency Act. Section 230 of the legislation gives a wide range of immunity to websites who moderate their own platforms.

It’s been called "the 26 words that created the internet."

Facebook and Google replied to the executive order saying that if passed, it poses a real harm to the internet and digital economy.

"Undermining Section 230 in this way would hurt America's economy and its global leadership on internet freedom,”

said Google spokeswoman Riva Sciuto.

Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said that by putting the liability of what anyone says on their platform, back on Facebook and other social media companies, this would only lead to censoring billions of people. The idea is that it’s practically impossible to never offend anyone all the time.

Twitter responded to the proposed executive order by tweeting:

"#Section230 protects American innovation and freedom of expression, and it's underpinned by democratic values."

Twitter also tweeted:

"Attempts to unilaterally erode it threaten the future of online speech and Internet freedoms."

. . .
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How Entrepreneurs Go From Good to Great

Credit:NeONBRAND

As an entrepreneur you are a risk taker by virtue of your chosen profession: to be a leader instead of a follower takes courage. But how good do you have to be to succeed? How is success defined in your professional and personal life?

My last blog, COVID Economic Recovery Solutions, discussed the benefits of investing in employees, and seeing the return of professional development in productivity, profits, and increased word of mouth marketing.

In the same way you may invest in your staff, you can also invest in your company's other assets.

Don't Settle for Good Enough Go for Great

We walk a fine line between "just good enough" and "great." To the average suburbanite, just being able to pay bills without a boss breathing down your neck is a huge success.

But the line between good and great, while being thin, is what separates the quitters from the Elon Musks and Steve Jobs of the world. Entrepreneurs benefit from a daily check in and brainstorm sesh on how to make what's good even greater.

You will feel the difference, those few extra hours here and there add up to the bling, the shine, the razzle dazzle of a clean mean business machine. Your customers will feel the difference too when you put in the energy to fine tune and improve what's "just good enough" into something truly excellent.

Drive & Dedication

It feels good to solve a problem - this is at the heart of 99% of all marketing messages. When you've gone through the rigmarole of questioning how to fix something until that eureka moment - it's satisfying to arrive.

But don't rest on your laurels. The allure of complacency is strong and keeps you at mediocre instead of embracing your brilliance. You have to cultivate the inner engine to improve. It has to be an attitude. A mantra.

Once you create the habit of improving, you can't help but get better. This is across the board, personal, romantic, business, family, social life, hobbies, sports - attitude is gratitude.

What I mean is, you'll thank yourself for creating the habit of dedication to improvement. It's a new routine that once developed will help you reach the next level of your potential.

Self Sustaining Networks & Teamwork

There are plenty of entrepreneurs who can wear 10 hats and play multiple instruments. But to be truly successful as an entrepreneur, this means building a strong network. Creating a team that fills the gaps in your own competence is part of what crosses from 'just good enough' to something great.

I chose to use the word sustainable with a specific intention: The personal and professional networks built must be mutual, reciprocal and headed towards a destination that is beneficial.

If only one business is benefiting, see where you can help the other business benefit even more. This goodwill will not go unnoticed. It's all about who you know right? You may catch the eye of an affiliated interest that yields even greater return.

At the very least, you've increased loyalty to your brand and secured a better professional network.

The Self Efficacy Question

Self-efficacy is, in a nutshell, increasing your abilities by believing that you can increase your abilities. And of course taking action to increase them.

It's shown remarkable results in test scores in children in Kansas City, Missouri, and strengthening people's beliefs that they have what it takes to succeed produced even better results in college students at University of Wisconsin Milwaukee.

Student underachievement brought about by low academic motivation is a major factor contributing to school dropout levels according to the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Beyond Social Cognitive Theory in an academic setting, self-efficacy has huge potential to help businesses improve. 7 League Boot leaping over obstacles with emotional resilience is achieved by believing that you can overcome these obstacles.

The consistency and commitment to keep on trucking, and examine your methods for achieving success along the way is the key to making that success a reality.

Live, Breath, Sleep the Mindset of a Champion

Whether you're fighting cancer, winning an olympic gold metal, or mastering the art of public speaking - the mindset that you have frames your ability to perform at low or at peak levels.

To even consider quitting a day job requires a whole shift of mindset. But let's take that one step further.

When you believe your company will succeed, in addition to making the efforts to ensure it will, the mindset of a champion means that that needed grit to not only survive but to thrive is present.

Having the mindset of a champion doesn't mean you ignore the less-than-great realities of a situation or sugar coat the gaps in your business.

It means you don't hesitate to face these head on, and do what it takes to succeed. With of course, no moral ambiguity. Doing the right thing, for your business, only improves who you are and the quality of customers you attract.

I've mentioned this before, but one of the defining moments of my life was when my childhood mentor drove me to a homeless shelter when I was kicked out of my mother's house.

He let me know that while he doesn't support this happening, I also needed a wake up call and realize that even if I didn't like my step father, I had to do what it takes to survive with a roof over my head.

Hows that for a gut check?

I didn't have the mindset of a champion then. But 3 days ago I graduated the University of Texas at Austin, having gained acceptance into UT with a recommendation letter from the president of Austin Community College.

It was a hard struggle but once my mindset changed from victimhood to proactive reluctant hero - life aligned to produce the results I wanted.

The same is true for entrepreneurship.

What separates us from the 9-5ers is our ability to innovate, think outside the box, create solutions, and have an unshakable belief in ourselves, our brand and the goals we set out to achieve.

This is the mindset of a champion.

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]

COVID Economic Recovery Solutions – Treat Employees Right

Credit: Husna Miskandar

The economy's crashed, hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost and now as society begins to rebuild and open up again it's time to rethink how jobs are structured.

Recently, when moving 4 filing cabinets out of my living room, in order to build an at-home library I spoke with the manager at U-Haul. There were 7 people waiting, with an average wait time of 40 minutes just to check in a rented truck or U-Haul van.

When I asked the manager, a man named Christopher, if it was possible to hire one or two other employees to help manage the customer load he replied,

"I can't get people to work here. They all want to stay home and collect unemployment benefits due to COVID."

I was shocked that the economy is hurting not just because of COVID fear making local governments close down brick & mortar shops but also due to people not wanting to come to work to mooch off of unemployment.

Credit: https://writingboots.typepad.com/.a/6a00e55283a630883401bb0953519e970d-pi

This hurts retailers but also local cities and their economies because when and if local businesses reopen, if they are understaffed, with long lines, it's just going to push consumers to order on Amazon instead of shop there.

Obviously some businesses like U-Haul you can't order online..though drones are doing some amazing things these days.

Low Quality Jobs = Low Quality Work

Aside from the rather unique moocher situation with some staying home to college a paycheck and not working remote but living on tax-dollar funded government benefits...

- There is a lot to be said about flipping burgers or working a register or answering phones and being treated poorly by management.

The Trickle-Down Effect of Incompetence

When the number one concern of employers is not investing in employees to create a high quality work environment, but how can we cut costs, outsource labor to 3rd world countries, lower the hiring wage, reduce worker hours and spread them out over more employees and reduce benefits - well is that motivating people to do a good job?

The question answers itself. If an employee is given a half-ass training (because the manager is also underpaid and under trained), and they are disrespected and made to feel like:

"You are easily replaced so appreciate this shitty job,"

Then it's the trickle down effect of incompetence.

On the other hand, if employers approached training employees as an investment, with professional development included to help employees not only gain competence but additional skill sets to make them more of an asset to the company and their growth opportunities - this changes the ripple effect in workforce management.

Investing in both higher wages and professional training, with work culture more evolved than mashing buttons to get minimum wage then employees will find their own reasons for working harder to do better.

This creates a better quality product or service for the end user that the company serves, which then increases customer retention, loyalty and lifetime value.

Brand loyalty is something that shouldn't just be customer-centric. Brand loyalty cultivated in both the customers and the employees, when increased also increases profits and productivity.

Strikes at Whole Foods and Amazon

If decision makers at the CEO level can't read the room or doubt the logic in the above paragraphs just look at the strikes by Whole Foods workers and Amazon employees who continued to toil on in unsafe working conditions.

When you aren't given a lot benefits-wise, as a bargaining chip from your employer, you don't have a lot to lose if you get fired for striking.

This loses time, money, convenience, customer satisfaction scores drop and just as employees leave for a job that pays $1-3 dollars more an hour so will customers when there are delays due to poor work ethics and project management skills by hiring managers and those who structure employee business models.

Businesses Have to Adapt to Survive COVID19

Instead of making excuses about how an existing system can't change, employers should wake up and smell the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee: with the lack of foot traffic now is the perfect time to retool the business model

Sam's Club, Costco and HEB grocery store have all taken the lead here and raised wages for their employees as well as invested in their safety.

As mentioned in management philosophy blogs, research has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that when intrinsically motivated individuals apply their efforts to a task they are 10 times more productive and successful than people who are only money-motivated.

This means it isn't just about the money - don't treat your employees like dirt anymore and they will reciprocate. So few jobs actually invest any sincere time in building new skill sets in their employees but every time a company does this, the employee becomes an unofficial brand ambassador.

Feeling respected and appreciated is the cornerstone for every social interaction that's successful, from family, to relationships, to friends to business both B2C and B2B.

Creating this feeling in employees with concrete specific investments in improving their abilities, you now have a spokesperson for how great your company is. Many of these employees are like micro influencers with their own social networks sometimes rather large.

More employee loyalty creates more profits because you get better work done, word of mouth organically spreads to their friends, families, and facebook and twitter accounts without a single ad dollar needing to be spent.

In a large company multiply this by 100 or 1000 - it's pretty damn clear it's stupid to treat employees as disposable to-go containers or warm bodies to fill a space when there is a much higher return from professional development in the workspace.

Where We Go from Here Matters

Ecommerce is booming, many jobs and even schools may utilize more remote work than in person attendance now. Businesses will have to adapt to a post-COVID world in order to survive. This means the old guard has to change.

Instead of hyper focusing on reducing labor cost - putting some real thinking and research behind it to create a 2020 strategy that involves treating and paying employees better, will only benefit everyone better and rebuild the economy. Mic drop.

Available for freelance writing and guest posting on your blog: [email protected]