Mindnumbing Thoughts

Got Perspective?

2008-07-09T11:01:00.004-04:00

I was going to blog about Google's new Virtual World and while I was installing it, I was flipping through the latest issue of Business Week. Rather than blab on about Livey (at first glance, it looks like yet another odd attempt to create a usable virtual space), I'd much prefer to talk about the interview Maria Bartiromo did with Jerry Levin.

If you remember your dot com history lessons, Mr. Levin is the guy who was pushed into retirement after the Time Warner/AOL disaster. What I didn't remember, was that in 1997 his son Jonathan was robbed and killed by a former student. I'm always curious and interested to see how really successful people deal with tragedy, and what becomes of them.

One of Maria's first quesitons was "What have you learned in the past half-dozen years that you didn't in all those years climbing to the top?"

Levin's answer stopped me in my tracks. He talks about his relationships and perspective being in a "rather parochial zone of interest." This is so interesting because I feel that lately, I've been getting caught up in a very small, insular world focused on social networking and marketing.

Levin went on to say "If something didn't touch on any of the businesses of Time Warner, then I didn't have any interest." It's natural I think to be focused, but when you start to become too focused, you also lose some valuable perspective.

Finally, Levin saying in a BusinessWeek interview that "it's probably helpful to invoke the feminine principle and be compassionate, empathetic, understanding, give respect to everybody, don't get deluded by the natural hierarchy. And don't get too self-satisfied that you have all the answers" is astounding. It's too bad that it took a life disaster to realize these simple truths.

The interview is great - Levin talks about trying to "find a calm, meditative state every day. With the tempo of executive life, that seems almost impossible, but it's probably the most important thing that you can do." This seems like great advice,sort of like not checking your e-mail incessantly... seemingly impossible, but important to consider.

That's all nice and good, but to the heart of the matter... Bartiromo asked Levin "Do you have any regrets in terms of the way you lived your life in Corporate America?"

His answer, if honest, is absolutely perfect.

I think I'm the poster child for not paying attention to the most important
thing in the world. The death of my son was probably the pivotal experience of
my life.

Everyday since taking my new job with Microsoft I've tried to remember the most important things in my own life. Working from home has given me tremendous opportunities to be more inovlved with my wife and my children and it's vastly improved my perspective and quality of my life. I try to keep my eyes and heart open and to listen both professionally and personally. I may not get it right every time but I think I'm on the right track.

Quotable

2008-07-07T15:12:00.003-04:00

I was digging around the wayback machine at some old web sites I managed and found this funny quote on an old Sirkin.com homepage...

"Everything is different, but the same... things are more moderner than before... bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers... San Dimas High School football rules!"

Anyone remember what movie that is from (heck yes I know the answer).

The Future is Theirs

2008-06-20T18:21:00.003-04:00

My daughter graduated 5th grade today and I was really blown away by what some of these kids have planned for the future. Brain surgeons, authors, athletes, aid workers and more. The ceremony was terrific and despite me having very bittersweet feelings about seeing my daughter graduate, it was a really good day.

Earlier this year, I taught a Junior Achievement class to my daughter's 5th grade class. It was my 4th time doing this sort of volunteerism, and I continue to really love the experience. As with most volunteer activities, I started out thinking this would be a great way to give something back. In the end though, it's me that gets the most out of the time I think.

This year's class wrote me notes after our sessions ended. While it's always nice to get a thank you, these notes really went over the top. I feel so lucky to have had the chance to show some of these kids more about business and to get them excited about their own futures.

Stephen wrote "It was cool to see how much of a difference unit production and mass production worked. Thank you so much for talking with us about business."
James wrote "I learned that you can find ads almost anywhere."

Anthony wrote "I never knew there were different typs of advertising. I just thought advertising was advertising!"

Jen wrote "When I grow up I want to be a sole proprietor and open a nail salon called Jen's Tens."

Alison wrote "I really enjoyed the toy store lesson because it showed me how a business really needs a lot of different people and equipment. I found the advertising lesson interesting because now when I see a commerical on TV I try and figure out what type of ad it is."

Not only do I think Junior Achievement has a great model, I think it's a super way to bring real world expertise and really rich extra content into the classroom. I can't wait until next year...

Podcasting

2008-06-18T09:44:00.003-04:00

I recorded my very first podcast for the Microsoft CIO Network yesterday, finally joining the ranks of bloggers who have tried their hand at podcasting.

I was initially nervous about the interviewing/conversation, but got over that quickly. On the way back to my office, I started to worry about how I sounded, and how I would edit the audio.

I think I sounded OK, but need lots of work on how I interview and how fast I talk (I need to slow down a bit). I used Audacity to quickly edit the podcast and used the Internet Archive to find a snippit of sound to use as an intro bumper for the podcast. I'll share the final podcast here if I can (not sure I can use it in public).

What I really love about this way of developing content for a community is it's potential to be really authentic and informal. I'd like to continue to develop and refine a format that will result in a 20 minute conversation that really gives listeners some insights into the topic(s) and the persion (CIO) I'm talking with. Ad a model, I love how PBS does it's CEO Exchange and of course, Sundance's Iconoclasts.

Here Comes Everybody

2008-06-16T11:01:00.003-04:00

I just finished reading Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky (@clayshirky on Twitter). I took a bunch of notes and wanted to pull out some key things are really impact the development of social network and apply them to what I'm working on at Microsoft.

First up is the notion of "publish, then filter" - with the massive amounts of information being published today both online, broadcast and offline, filtering has become the real issue. As I think about my own ways of consuming information, it's the filters that are available to me that make big differences. For example, Tivo's search functionality, wish list/keywords and swivel search has revolutionized what I watch on TV. Similarly, I consume almost all of news and technology data via RSS feeds from a browser. I still read the NYTimes on Sunday, but I'm not convinced that I do it for any real reason other than I think I ought to.

Emerging platforms continue to accelerate the publish then filter trend - sites like Meetup.com allow users to "filter" by looking at participation. Interestingly, this means that publishers are going to fail a heck of a lot more than they are used to - there's just too much out there for groups, content, and information to succeed at the same rate they did in the past. This failure thing is going to be hard for lots of traditionally thinking companies - it's not in their DNA to embrace failure. I've seen this personally so much in my career in both the non-profit and for-profit sectors.

The open source movement provides a pretty good example of this in motion. Open source movements have no employees, no plan, no nothing really. It's not an organization, it's an ecosystem. The book points out in a blow my mind moment, that open source doesn't reduce the likelihood of failure, it reduces the cost of failure. This massive reduction in transaction costs (Coasan theory) is at the core of the book and is affecting companies across the board.

Shirky lays out a very compelling argument around how technology has enabled us to rapidly create new groups, and populate them with people who formerly would never be able to congregate (either offline or online). The top list of groups on meetup.com includes things like Pagans, Witches, Tori Amos and Slashdot. This, as Shirky puts it, is unlike any other group list, anywhere.

My favorite chapter of the book however is "Promise, Tool, Bargain." Shirky lays out a foundation for how to think about constructing communities. He's careful not to call this a recipe, because while every community needs a promise, tools and a bargain, the mix of interactions is simply too complex to prescribe anything other than a framework. That said, the order of promise, tool, bargain does matter.

The promise creates a basic desire to participate. In my case, the Microsoft CIO Network makes both an explicit and implicit promise to users that we'll connect our CIO's to each other, and give them new ways to access Microsoft insiders. Getting the promise right however is quite different than traditional marketers are used to. The distinction is that the marketing isn't done by us for them (our users), but is done with our users in collaboration. That's a trick you shouldn't try at home.

Tools are obviously what allow members to get involved. Here's where things get tricky (and interesting). CIO's aren't generation Y/millennials in how they use online technologies. While we do have a few members that blog and tweet, the majority just aren't contributors to online forums and spaces. We initially chose a message board/blog tool, but have recently started to add things like teleconference calls, interviews, audio podcasts and in-person events. I do believe we're breaking some new ground here in explicitly trying to build an online community of C-level execs - so we've got our work cut out for us.

Bargain is the implicit bargain among users - it's the culture and the expectation. In our case, I believe it's the humanization of Microsoft. That feels odd to say (and is a tricky subject), but I do believe that if we get this right, members will have an unprecedented doorway to us to help us craft products, deliver strategy and have a conversation with our customers. It's also why I took the job. The opportunity to help a company like Microsoft try something like this is a once-in-a-life opportunity.

There is so much more that I want to write about this book but for now, that's it. Get a copy and read it!

Kids Say (and Write) the Darndest Things

2008-06-13T13:42:00.002-04:00

My 10 year old wrote this poem for a school project. As I was reading, I was getting more and more alarmed. Had I misread her? Am I a bad parent? Read the poem, and then find out what it's really about at the end.

Over the Wall

The world was spinning
Around and around and around
It left me behind.

The tragedy crashed down on me
Like rocks falling in an ocean.
It broke the surface and stayed below.

Waves lapped against the shore
As people tried to mend my heart

While sadness twisted it
Into crazy shapes.
As pretzel. I'm still confused.
A worm. I don't understand.
A bird. I try to fly above my depression.

It's like a wall, a great looming wall.
It crushes my heart.
It crushes my dreams.

Over the wall I climb.
High, high, high, until the wall is nothing but a memory.
If I fall, I go right back up.
High, high, high.
Into the sky.

So I'm reading this (it was printed and mounted on a purple piece of construction paper) and thinking oh my god, my baby girl has some real issues. When I asked her what the poem was about, she told me it was about her grandfather, who recently died.

I just about fell apart myself and hugged her, thankful that she is in fact, a superb human being.

Failure

2008-06-09T16:30:00.003-04:00

J.K. Rowling's commencement speech at Harvard really struck a nerve with me. In particular, her bits about failure and not pretending to be anything other than what she was.

Now, I am not going to stand here and tell you that failure is fun. That period of my life was a dark one, and I had no idea that there was going to be what the press has since represented as a kind of fairy tale resolution. I had no idea how far the tunnel extended, and for a long time, any light at the end of it was a hope rather than a reality.

So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me. Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged. I was set free, because my greatest fear had already been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

It's all here for you to read and/or watch.

Read the entire thing if you get a moment, this is one heck of a speech.

I've Lost My Mind, Again

2008-06-04T16:26:00.002-04:00

This is the 2nd in a long, painful series of videos designed to make my children laugh at me.

Book Notes; Groundswell

2008-05-30T14:54:00.004-04:00

I just finished Groundswell: "Winning in a world transformed by social technologies." Groundswell is a much reviewed and commented on book, so instead of my normal book notes, I figured I'd provide some links for you to follow.

The core premise of the book is that much of what's happening in marketing today revolves around creating "conversation" or "social spaces" where brands (er, brand managers) can have conversations with their customers. There's been tons and tons written about this in the past few years, but Groundswell provides a terrific framework that really helps clarify a lot of what many of us haven't been able to articulate to date.

In addition to the framework, the authors have also created a profile tool which allows you to profile your customers to see how likely it is that they are partiicpating in the new world of marketing and online conversations.

As you'd expect, there is also a discussion board where you can jump in yourself to chat about strategy, and marketing tactics.

If you want more.. check out delicious "groundswell" tags and/or "groundswell" on tweetscan to see who is tweeting about the book.

Like most books of this kind, Groundswell includes some terrific case studies and interviews like this one, that one and all the other ones. Like most books of this kind, Groundswell also suffers from bouncing back and forth between trying to please and inform noobs and salty old dawgs.

For my money, the framework alone is worth the price of admission.

And.. here it is:

Marketing Posts Coming Soon.. but Little Brother for now

2008-05-28T10:21:00.005-04:00

With all my recent travels, I've had a chance to read some great stuff lately including "Sea of Monsters," "Infected" by the sick and twisted Scott Siglar and most recently, "Little Brother" by the astoundingly terrific Cory Doctorow.

I was prompted to post about Little Brother after reading a book review on Sci-fi.com who gave the book an A-. It's also got 4 stars on Amazon (23 reviews). I'd give it a solid A- as well, the imagination and use of current technologies really blew me away. I also have to throw in the fact that Doctorow uses the XBox as main character and plot device (I work at Microsoft) which I found hysterical, and totally plausible.

If you are a geek, this book will have you nodding all the way through - from the ARG references and the fact that the characters end up LARPing their way to a terrific ending. If you aren't a geek (or if you are older than 30 and are curious), you'll be amazed at how emerging tech can (and will) continue to change the world around us. I have a feeling that in 20 years, we'll look back at "Little Brother" the way some of us look back at "True Names" and just shake our heads.

BTW... Siglar's book "Infected" has about 3 or 4 scenes in which I literally had to drop the book and shake an image out of my head. The man is sick - and terrifically awesome. If you haven't listened to the Earthcore podcast (an earlier Siglar work), get on it man! Infected has perhaps the best acknowledgements in any book I've read as well.

R.I.P. Pa

2008-05-21T16:39:00.005-04:00

My grandfather died yesterday at 2 PM. He was a stunningly important figure in my life, even as we spent less and less time together. I've been in a fog since I heard yesterday and I wanted to write down some lessons I learned from him and post them here as a way to memorialize my relationship with him. As the now eldest male on my side of the family (both grandfathers and my dad have all passed), the world ahead looks strange. It's a perspective I think better left for later in life. But as with all things, I'll find a way through it all.

My grandfather, known as "Pa" (not pawwww, I'm from NY, not Tennessee) was a pretty amazing guy in many ways. Pa had a great sense of humor and loved to laugh. He had a slicing, mean streak in him too and his sense of humor could be biting for sure. I always appreciated it for what it was - a true ability to see something and then laugh at it. It is still something I want to be able to do more readily.

Pa was a salesman in both the "sell ice to an eskimo" Zig Ziglar way and in the sad Willy Loman way. Later in life, he sold trinkets and goods on the streets of NYC. It never seemed like he was telling the truth until one day we actually saw him in midtown Manhatten. He was holding court, sitting on a chair smiling and talking to everyone and anyone. When he noticed us, his face lit up and he immediately started to introduce us to everyone and tried to give us stuff off the tables. He practically forced the pretzel guy to hand over his goods. He was so generous with me. When I was a child, he would never come with 1 present - it had to be a dozen or it just didn't seem like enough to him. I wish I was more generous of spirit. It's a lesson I'm managing to miss more often than not.

He also taught me in an unintentional way to be very open and accepting of people. I always hated how he seemed to be a real life parody of Archie Bunker and even at a very young age, I can remember rejecting that perspective. It's funny (and a little sad) that this was so. But it was what it was - and in the end, I'm better off for it.

I am sure the fog will lift eventually and life will go back to the daily grind, the rush and blogging, twittering and work. For now though, I just feel like sitting quietly by myself.

The post where I briefly return to non-profit marketing...

2008-05-21T14:27:00.003-04:00

If you like Seth Godin and/or are interested in non-profit marketing, check out this online chat from the Chronicle.

My favorite question and answer:

Question from Tennessee Nonprofit:
Are brochures dead?

Seth Godin:
and buried

Queue the looney tunes music...that's all folks...

Clay Shirky: Where Do They Find The Time?

2008-05-21T11:54:00.003-04:00

This video is stunningly good and thoughtful. Enjoy.

Anyone who seriously and academically claims that the sitcom is social lubricant under which the the wheels came off the enterprise (i.e. society) must be reposted as much as possible.

Makes me feel better for being such a d0rk.

UPDATED: How Does "Social Technology" Affect Business?

2008-05-13T19:28:00.005-04:00

I was going to leave myself a comment, but instead opted to update this post (updated 5/21/08)

The panel went really well - but I changed some of the content as I was taking the train down to the city from Bridgeport. I ended up going with 4 broad trends or factors that are driving the use of social networking and tools within the enterprise.

1. Consumers technology is invading the enterprise
2. Employees have an insatiable need for data, self-service tools and the ability to collaborate
3. Technology is fundamentally driving innovation
4. Generational shift

I think it went well and I hope to re-post video once it is available.

Here's the original, unchanged post:

As I mentioned in my previous post and on Twitter, I'm doing a panel this Friday at NYU. I'm on what looks to be a terrific panel titled "The Digital Future: What Social Networking and Marketing Tools Mean for Businesses and Entrepreneurs."

I'm guessing that my take will be slightly different than my fellow panelists, I'm assuming they'll be talking about the consumer space being from big agencies, Meetup.com and MTV. My focus is, and latest interest is looking at how social networking and marketing tools mean inside the firewall. It's a different spin, and one ripe for a lot more exploration and attention.

I've spent some of my day today going over what I'm going to say regarding this topic and have come up with some key points. Let me know what you think.

1. Consumers and web technologies are quickly and powerfully spilling over into the enterprise
Stories in Business Week about Apple's invasion of the enterprise is just the latest, but think back for a moment the last time that you took a new job. I always have that scary moment when I think, "oh man, I hope they aren't blocking IM, Youtube or Facebook." Not because I want to fool around, but because those tools and sites are critical to keeping me connected to my network and to the information I need as a marketer to get my work done. The iPhone is just the latest consumer technology to come knocking on IT and the enterprise door, and this time, consumer adoption is all but forcing a reaction from IT departments. Businesses can no longer afford not to let these tools and technologies inside - if for nothing else, employee mutiny (and illicit workarounds and/or hacks).

2. Insatiable need to access data, self-service and to collaborate with each other
Business Intelligence, dashboards and metrics; can you imagine running a business without these? It wasn't so long ago that deploying these types of system were either too complex or too expensive. Not so any more and not because it's suddenly cheap to develop a BI solution. Employees and their managers have an unquenchable thirst for data these days and it's a trend that is most certainly accelerating.

Meanwhile, self-service is a hallmark of the "new web" and is something that is easy to take for granted. It was just 6 years ago when I had my first non-profit job and was told there was no way in the world that we'd allow donors to manage their own data on a web site. How quaint!

As for collaboration, I read today that Wetpaint is growing like mad and has something like 900,000 wikis. That's a lot of "wiki" going on in a world where I'm guessing not so many of your managers or executives have ever even heard that term.

3. Technology is driving innovation
How dare a marketing guy make such a statement! At least I put it at #3! Seriously though, this one is simple and easy to see. Advances in technology combined with ever more savvy users is driving innovation at astounding rates. This applies across the board in both the enterprise and consumer spaces and is just amazing. The coolest thing you saw 6 months ago is old hat by now.

4. Within the enterprise, social technology is forcing enterprise IT departments to deploy ever more flexible, scalable and complex systems that put people at the core, not systems
As I was thinking about this panel and talking with friends about this issue it struck me that "social networking" or the broader "social systems" within an enterprise isn't what has changed. Organizations have always had complex social systems but have never had tools and technologies that have laid them bare for all to see. This exposure is forcing IT and enterprises to think about these previously hidden hierarchies and relationships. What consumer applications like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter have done is to put people at the core and circle everything else around them. I remember a time not so long ago when IT systems were about data and processes and completely ignored users, profiles, collaboration and reputation.

That's what I have for now... thoughts?

Panel Time..."A Look to the Future"

2008-05-12T16:23:00.002-04:00

I'm doing a panel this Friday in NYC - my first as an official Microsoft employee. It should be interesting. Learn more about the event here and the speakers here.

Following the great success of NYU Stern’s Florence 2007: Global Alumni Conference, we are pleased to present our first campus-based conference, New York 2008: Alumni Business Conference – A Look to the Future. Join fellow alumni and guests to hear from industry leaders and scholars on current market issues on financial risk, investing, entrepreneurship, marketing, digital media, and social networking. Dean Thomas F. Cooley and Aswath Damodaran, Professor of Finance, will provide keynote remarks, while Ed Altman, Max L. Heine Professor of Finance, and Mark Tercek, Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern and Director of Goldman Sachs' Environmental Markets Initiative, among others, offer their expertise in the breakout sessions.

Social Technographics

2008-05-12T11:48:00.002-04:00

Groundswell
Originally uploaded by msirkin

I'm reading a great new book called "Groundswell" that is really helping me frame out what's next for the CIO Network I'm trying to build out. This chart clearly shows that if we lean on "creators," those that create unique content within the site we're going to have issues. Instead, we're focusing on how to drive spectators up the ladder, perhaps with polls, and other "frictionless" ways to rate content and participate on the site.

It's interesting to play with their profile tool and map out different ages and locations to see how different strategic approaches might work (or not work).

Rare Example of Great Marketing

2008-05-11T17:27:00.004-04:00

Great marketing can seem so simple at times. Turning mistakes into big wins seems to me to be the easiest way to impress customers these days (not that you want to make mistakes in the first place).

I got Guitar Hero for the Wii a few months ago - and found out that the disc needed to be replaced because the original didn't have the proper sound capabilities. I filled out a web form and received a self-mailer that had shipping already paid. The note from Activision said a disc replacement would come in 4-6 weeks. Just before we went on vacation, I dropped the disc into the mail and hoped that it wouldn't disappear forever.

About 3 weeks later, I got an automated e-mail telling me that they had received the disc and were processing it. 2 days later, I got a note that it had shipped. Exactly 5 weeks from the day I dropped the disc in the mail, I had a replacement disc, as promised.

A week later, while I was away on a business trip my wife called and told me I had a box from "Red Octane." I had no idea what it was and asked her to open it. To my surprise, the box contained a sweet Guitar Hero faceplate. How cool. I'd never buy myself one of these, but always wanted one - it's like they knew!

Call me impressed. That's one solid way to bring a smile to a customers face and build a brand. As a bonus, my 8 year old flipped out and did her best rockin guitar hero impression after she saw the new guitar.

The lessons for marketers:

Admit your mistakes publicly and move to make them right
Under promise and over deliver
Suprise and delight

Twitter Is Killing My Will to Blog

2008-05-02T10:05:00.003-04:00

I'm so used to posting short snippets on twitter here and here, that I just can't find the strength to write a blog post with any substance.

I'm knee deep in building out my new project and getting acclimated to Microsoft. What an amazing company. It's great to be up to my ears in community building again. Much better than what I was doing before, that's for sure.

There seems to be a fire hose of marketing blogs, Facebook analysis and stuff lately flowing at me - I'm about to declare RSS bankruptcy!

Seriously though, doesn't any of this Web 2.0 stuff feel like a retread, just a little? The hype-o-meter is seriously pegged as high as it can go right now. Wasn't it just a year or so ago when virtual worlds was all the hype? Go on - comment away about how this is sooooo different. I dare ya.

Headed to Seattle next week for another week in Redmond, and after that I'm back in CT for a bit until heading to Boston, then Ft. Lauderdale for some CIO conferences and such.

Driving Engagement

2008-04-24T15:28:00.002-04:00

I've got loads of experience building social networks and community spaces for donors and general consumers - but my new project, building an invitation only, closed community for CIOs is proving a tad more difficult - though it is still very early in the game.

I was catching up on some different articles and found this one on Chief Marketer called "The Six 'C's of Social Influence". It's a decent article, but not completely on point for my own needs.

Then 2nd "C" is customization - which has me thinking and reconsidering how much or how little to allow community members to create their profile. Right now, it's super limited - basic photo and bio only. I'm considering however, opening it up a lot more just to see what folks start to do. Worst case, nothing happens... best case, I start to learn something.

This has already been a super interesting ride, and I've only just started a few months ago.

Microsoft and Second Life

2008-04-23T16:54:00.003-04:00

I've spent a lot of time in my first few months at Microsoft trying to find folks focused on innovative marketing strategies and tactics. MS is loaded up with amazingly smart people. I'm wrapping up a conference call with some folks who are "poised to make history for Microsoft by holding the first ever full-fledged Launch event in Second Life."

They have a volunteer network of folks working on an island and are about to do some very slick things... take a look. Here's their SLURL as wel.

Wow, I Love Being a Coach

2008-04-22T20:31:00.005-04:00

I'm excited beyond reason because it's softball season again... and once again, I'm coaching! I want to coach kids full time someday. I love it that much. I think sometimes I was actually born to be a camp counselor.

In any case, I usually send out an e-mail to parents with some guidelines every season to help orient parents to my coaching vibe and style. This is part of the email I just sent.

Also, it's worth mentioning that the girls will get a chance to play most positions this year except for 1B and Pitcher. We have to be careful about who plays 1B to avoid injuries. As for pitching, if your girl wants to pitch and hasn't before, please talk to one of us. First time pitchers are going to have to earn their way onto the mound by practicing at home and before games. If they want to pitch, they are going to have to earn it!

While we do keep score in this league, please do remember that it is mostly instructional and not competitive. Yes, we'll try to win, but that's not the focus. My personal goal each year is to help the girls get to understand the game and to want to come back and play next season.

Finally, please do not address the umpires for making bad calls during the season. If you feel that there was a bad call, come talk to one of the coaches quietly. The umps do a terrific job and the best they can - again, it's not a competitive league, so there should be no reason for harassing them at any point.

Please do enjoy seeing your girls grow as ball players, it should be a fun year!

Opening day is this Saturday, sweet!

I Had an "AH-HA" Moment

2008-04-21T15:34:00.003-04:00

By now, you should have probably figured out that I'm reading Eckhart Tolle's "New Earth" and following the online class with Oprah. Yea, yea, I know.

I've posted a few times on Tolle - here and here.

In any case, I actually had an "ah-ha" moment that has been hard to explain, even to myself. While on vacation last week the galaxy seemed to click into place for me. We were all sitting around the dinner table talking, looking out over the ocean and suddenly I was awash in the most wonderful, amazing feeling. I felt like my entire body started to float up over the table and I was looking down on my family and myself. I felt totally connected to them at that moment and even managed to catch myself aware of the feelings as it was happening.

Can't explain it much further than that. It was a special feeling and totally unexpected. The world is a wonderous place and quite hard to explain at times.

2007 Best Posts

2008-04-21T15:31:00.002-04:00

Reposted with my own permission from the now defunct npMarkekting blog...

In no particular order, here are my favorite posts from 2007 - a year in which I again didn't blog enough (or by some accounts, blogged way way too much). It was a tough year and I learned a lot about marketing, myself and the world. I also played a lot of golf (but no where near enough by my count). Ok, here goes...

Favorite Post #1 - Great Marketing in the Oddest of Places A post about the good work that the MTA does with their newsletters and keeping their customers informed, and laughing.

Favorite Post #2 - How the New Web Transforms Your Organziation "Marketers do not have the right to interrupt you."

Favorite Post #3 - Authenticity It appears that it is working for Obama in a big way, eh

Favorite Post #4 - Best Development Resources I still get 7 or so hours of sleep, really.

Favorite Post #5 - Yikes, it's not working! I love failing, because it means I'm making progress.

Favorite Post #6 - Causes vs. Organizations I still think I'm right... yea, definately.

Favorite Post #7 - Leave the Ivory Tower, Now! And wow, the Africa trip really proved my point on this one.

Favorite Post #8 - “Edge”tion – Another Look at Causes vs. Orgs Lots of discussion, comments and goodness from this post... horrible title though.

How Much Is Too Much?

2008-04-21T14:44:00.003-04:00

Twitter, Blogging, Facebook, Myspace and more. How much is too much? How far "out there" can you, no, should you be?" I started in with many of these social networking platforms out of curiosity about how to become a better marketer but find myself ensonced (is that a word?) and entrenched in them so deeply I wonder who I've become.

The "me" that is represented on these platforms is not a true representation - it's shaded in particular and confusing ways. I find it dangerous lately - I sort of feel like I'm losing the inner, private "me" to the public one that you get when you google (err... live search) "Marc Sirkin."

I share things with strangers that I don't even tell my good friends about. That's odd isn't it?
I connect with people who I'd otherwise never be "friends" with under any other circumstance (this is both good, and bad I think).
I find myself getting wrapped up in following people who clearly have nothing going on, or so much that it's impossible to catch up with them. I think that's what I've become myself - hard to catch and impossible to know.

I continue to blog and tweet and post pictures everywhere - yet lately I am finding much of it empty and frankly, meaningless. There is so much noise out there - am I simply contributing to it (pollution?) or actually adding a valuable voice to some conversation somewhere?

I am even starting to believe that regular, normal people manage their lives MOSTLY in private! Could that be?

Half of Google Adwords Traffic is from Worthless Link Farms

2008-04-08T14:07:00.002-04:00

Is anyone surprised by this? I have asked no less than 20 people if they ever click on ad words ads and have never gotten a "yes."A couple of months ago I started in earnest tracking the advertising hits that Google generates for me. And what I found is not a happy picture. About 30-40% of the traffic generated - ie. the traffic that I pay for - comes from link farms, that is Web pages that have nothing more than a bunch of links that redirect to Google Adsense links...

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