JimRaffel.com

Keep putting yourself out there

JimRaffel — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 09:30:21 +0000

You don’t know who’s watching or when. So…..

Keep posting on your blog.

Keep updating your Facebook status.

Keep engaging on Twitter.

Keep working to understand Linkedin.

That’s my social media “plan” in four easy steps. Over the last year the size and quality of the network these four activities have allowed me to grow is nothing short of amazing. The tools are powerful and the only way to learn and understand the power is by utilizing the tools and being part of the community.

Keep putting yourself out there. It’s working. Trust me on this one.

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Asking Twitter vs Googling for it

JimRaffel — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 09:30:51 +0000

Recently I asked this question of my social media network “Do you sometimes “ask Twitter” instead of “Googling for what you are looking for?” Yes, I see both the irony and the lack of scientific method in asking this question of the people who follow me on Twitter. Regardless the responses are rather telling. Let’s start with those and then move into some patented Jim Raffel commentary and analysis of the issue.

@Einley “More than sometimes”

@julz156 “always!”

@deziner “all the time ”

@sharifrenno “all the time@ I feel you get more qualified responses than w/ a search engine. Twitter was an amazing resource 4 my trip this wknd!”

Tribal Knowledge. I think Sharif’s response is most telling and provides insight into why someone would be more inclined to ask Twitter than Google. Sharif Spent a weekend in Lexington Kentucky and utilized his followers to track down a nice bike ride. Google would find you a bike ride. Would it come with a personalized recommendation? While the answer is yes, to some extent, the engaged answer of a real person could carry more weight for me.

Google. I asked the same question of Google and got the following response:

None of the first three links really answered my question. At least not without reading into the articles and even then, not so much. When I asked my followers I had four solid answers within minutes and the seed of an idea for this post.

There’s a time and place for both. In my opinion asking your followers is more appropriate for tracking down nice bike trails, looking for a great restaurant, and anything else where the opinions of humans matter. On the other hand, “Googling it” is awesome for a map, a mathematical solution, a grammar answer, or anything with a factual basis.

How do you utilize Google and your social media network to find answers to your questions?

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Patience, as learned by blogging

JimRaffel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 09:30:42 +0000

There was a time not so long ago, when I could not wait to click publish on a new post. Sometimes I still feel that urge but I know from experience that by waiting a week or so the post will only become better.

Cooling off time. First, I edit the post with fresh eyes a day later. I have yet to find a piece of writing I have not been able to tighten up 24 hours later. As a mater of fact, entire posts sometimes get deleted at this point in the process. Some, because I feel the writing was just that bad. Others, because whatever I was ranting about just doesn’t seem that important anymore.

Edit time. I happen to also have a fantastic pair of editors. One has a full-time day job and edits this blog in exchange for an occasional “I Love You.” The other starts school again full-time soon. Both like having a little lead time (more than a day and less than a week) to review the volume of work I churn out. (Not every post gets edited before publication but most do at some point.)

It’s all about delivery. Not that I’m a comedian, (although I do try my hand at humor occasionally) but the order in which you serve up posts does matter. I sometimes write posts about products I have an affiliate relationship with. I’m pretty sure if I reeled three of those off in a row I’d lose some readers. So, when I write a few affiliate posts in one day I’m careful to share them with you over a couple of weeks.

Continuity of content. While writing a post, before I know it I may end up with 1500 or more words. I’m finding most readers prefer my thoughts in short concise bursts, so I will break a post like that into a week-long series of five posts. That may or may not mean you’ll see manifesto-type posts here again in the future (I’d guess you will from time to time).

I think any task that becomes a habit can only help people like me that struggle with patience. What say you?

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Moving a teenager to college

JimRaffel — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 01:41:07 +0000

I’m a big ball of mush sometimes. No, really I am. Normally when there is no one looking, like earlier this evening. I had just left my oldest child’s first home that is not a home we had made for her. For her second year of college, she has moved away (25 whole miles) into her own apartment. It hit me as a I walked to the car that both our stories would be changing now.

Is she starting a new story? Or, as I suspect, is one of mine ending? I think the reality is that her story is just continuing on, but my life has changed in a big way today. A way that only parents who have experienced children going away to college (or to serve in the military) can understand.

Yes, I have one more teenager but trust me, this first one, who I love with all my heart, will always be the more challenging one. She just will – she’s like her Dad.

I felt a little lump in my throat as I walked out of her apartment. It hit me how fast the next several years will go. I remember many years ago a friend explaining that his daughter couldn’t be getting married yet. It had only been a few months ago she was a baby in his arms. A couple weeks ago she was a girl scout. Just last week she graduated from high school and went off to college. Surely two and half decades had not passed!

Time waits for none of us. I’ve got a few regrets related to how I parented but there’s clearly no use worrying about that anymore. My story now is to support her from afar. To be the safety net, even if she doesn’t know it’s there. I mean, if you can’t fall back on your parents, who can you fall back on? (I’m sure that goes back to how both my wife and I were raised).

Go out of your way to make the special moments happen. The happiest memories she shares are of time spent together as a family. Normally on vacation when Mom and Dad had less to worry about.

I’m Moving

Sketchnotes: Doodling with a purpose

JimRaffel — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:30:44 +0000

Recently I had the pleasure of attending Mike Rohde’s Milwaukee Likemind presentation on Sketchnotes. You can see my first attempt at Sketchnotes in the foreground of the picture with this post. I’ve tried sketchnotes a few times since and found real value in capturing notes this way.

Doodling. For whatever reason, holding my attention in a long meeting is a challenge. I’ve always taken notes because I could be doodling aimlessly in the margins of my notes. Taking notes the Sketchnotes way allows me to doodle with a purpose. I now draw keywords in large type and then instead of doodling, I color in the letters when I find my mind drifting. Strangely enough, I find I listen more carefully while my hands are busy coloring.

Conversation Starter. I was doodling with a purpose at a recent client meeting. During a break in the meeting one of the attendees asked what I was doing. I shared a bit of information about Sketchnotes and then he was kind enough to share this Harvard Business Review article Vision Statement: Tired of PowerPoint? Try This Instead. The graphic at the end of the article looks a lot like a colored in Sketchnote to me.

Easier to review. In looking back at the four pages of notes I took at that all day meeting I am stunned at how easy it is to recall the whole meeting. The key themes of the meeting that resonated with me are all in large colored in type. I have bullet points and little drawings all over. To me it makes perfect sense. The notes also flow like the meeting did and contain some arrows connecting points made hours apart.

Thinking on paper. For me it’s more about thinking on paper in a different way. As I mentioned, the doodling (coloring in the letters) seems to focus my mind on either a speaker or what I am thinking about and trying to work through. So this doodling with a purpose is just more fuel for my creative engine. Another tool in the tool box so to speak.

Do you make use of the Sketchnotes style (or something like it)? Is so take a few moments to share your thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Tiers of Access – A Cobbler’s Tale

JimRaffel — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 09:30:42 +0000

There once was a cobbler who made fine shoes. He made only a few styles, following a few patterns and was able to charge a fair price for his shoes. Because he made all the shoes himself and provided all the service to his customer first hand, his income was limited.

Along came a prince who offered a handsome fee for much of his current shoe making capacity. In exchange the cobbler had to agreed to make custom styled shoes that would only be available to the prince.

Word of the prince wearing the cobbler’s shoes spread and the cobbler’s work became more popular. The cobbler worked long days on his standard patterns and continued to service his customers first hand. In the evening he would work on the custom styles for the prince and deliver them in the early morning hours.

The cobbler grew wealthy but also quite weary. This pace was not sustainable.

The cobbler hired associates to help customers with the selection and fitting of their shoes. He took on apprentices to assist in the manufacture and design of his standard shoe lines. Life was better but now he often felt like a babysitter and referee keeping all the associates happy. He was also burdened by the prince to collect a portion of each associate’s wages and direct those to the price in the form or oppressive taxes and fees.

Then one day Zapittydooda, a traveling merchant with dozens of wagons traversing the countryside stopped at the cobbler’s store and asked to buy mass quantities of his shoes to take on the road and sell. The size of the cobbler’s audience grew dramatically.

One afternoon the cobbler lay down on a grassy hill and stared at the clear blue sky. He realized that the notoriety Zapittydooda was bringing him changed everything. He decided to dramatically change his shoe business.

There would be;

A modestly priced line available through Zapittydooda and his store. A store he could still be found in many days speaking with and assisting customers. By visiting the cobbler’s store one would have a chance of meeting, speaking with and perhaps even having his shoes fit by the Cobbler. The design and manufacture of this line would be completed entirely by his associates in the orient under his supervision.

He would continue to engage in long-term custom shoe contracts with the likes of the prince (but raise his fees a bit).

Finally, he would consult with other cobblers and those who wanted additional information about the shoe business. His rate per day would be relatively high. Unlike the prince, however, one would not need to commit to months and months of the cobbler’s time. One could hire the cobbler to speak for an hour about making shoes. Or one could hire the cobbler for a day or a week to look at one’s cobbler shop and offer advice to improve it.

Life became very good. The cobbler cried tears of joy, for he has found a way to divvy up access to his most scarce resource (himself) using tiers of access.

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Idea Curation

JimRaffel — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:30:41 +0000

Once you start blogging it becomes pretty easy to spot ideas for posts almost everywhere you go. Developing a system to curate all the ideas is an entirely different matter. While no two writers use exactly the same system I thought I’d share mine with you.

Remote idea curation. If you are like me the one thing that you are never without is your mobile device. I found a nice little text editor for my Android device. Each month I create a file to capture and curate the ideas until I can do more with them. Sometimes the note is one or two words. Other times I feel like I’ve typed half a post before I’m done. The key is to capture as much of the idea as you can at the moment it’s happening.

Idea centralization. Gathering all your ideas together in a single central location is the next step. I use an off-line blog editor called “ecto” on my Mac. I’d provide a link but I’m actually concerned that it’s no longer supported and am starting to look for an alternative. Regardless, the point is I begin to organize the posts with a working title and as much body content as I can think of.

Pick one and write. When I have time to write I just look through the pending posts and pick one. Today for example I had more than a dozen partial posts I could have worked on but this one resonated with me. So, in addition to 5-7 completed and scheduled posts I’ve got another twelve to pick from to work on.

Idea variety. Those dozen partial posts have been collected over a month or more. No matter my mood or energy level one of them is going to resonate with me enough to work on. Just look down the list and pick one that feels right.

That’s how I curate my ideas, what’s your secret?

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Who and What Inspire You?

JimRaffel — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:30:11 +0000

From a blogging perspective I am most inspired by other bloggers. Some bloggers have the ability to capture so much of themselves in their writing that to read their blogs is to know them. About a year ago I came across the blogs of Anne and Krista, both of which have helped inspire my personal development and renewed interest in blogging.

Anne. I read Nothing in Moderation and Better Than I Was Yesterday on Bananzattack almost a year ago. At the time I remember thinking to myself, you came through all that and transform yourself into the person that writes this blog? If you can do that, then I too can do almost anything to become a better person.

Krista. Shortly after meeting at a Tweetup I took a look at Krista’s blog and a post about time was right there waiting for me to read. I was at a point in my life when I needed some time to heal. Reading the words of someone else reminded me time takes, well time.

Not every blog I read is about business. Not every book I read is about business. I get outside the box and look for ideas and inspiration anywhere I think I can find them. Sometimes I even look where I don’t think ideas and inspiration will be and – surprise there they are.

Your turn, who and what inspire you?

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Being a Writer

JimRaffel — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:30:23 +0000

If you want to be a writer then you have to write.

I know it sounds crazy but you do.

Probably, for a long time without getting paid to be a writer.

It’s all about practice and preparation.

The more you write the better you will become.

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What Do You Get Paid For?

JimRaffel — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:30:52 +0000

Here’s the thing, spending hours a day furiously responding to emails, tweeting, or updating your Facebook status, that’s not work. It makes you feel busy, important and “loved” but it’s probably not what you are getting paid for.

What do I get paid for? It’s a good question and this post resulted from me asking it of myself. Here’s the answer I jotted down several days ago: “Short intense bursts of creative thought surrounded by a lot of what may appear like loafing around to some but is in fact engaging in activities I have found feed the creative engine.” My output then, is “creative thought” and my job is creating an environment in which creation of creative thought flourishes.

What about all the rest of the “stuff” I do? Well, in order to be compensated for your output, you will have to transmit it to someone. In my case sometimes that means preparing a proposal which is then transmitted to my customer via email. That email will probably in turn result in a volley of emails that will go back and forth for as along as a week or ten days (your results may vary). While I have to read and respond to each of those emails, the act of doing so is not creating any more output or supporting the environment in which creative thought flourishes.

Your turn, what do you get paid for? The fact that you got this far in the post means that like me (a few days ago) you aren’t completely sure. Simplify. Look for outputs that are uniquely your own that somewhere down the line result in revenue to you or the company you work for. Anything not in that category is “a race to the bottom” and can be outsourced to India or China overnight.

What did you come up with? Come on, don’t be shy, share in the comments what you get paid for.

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