Don't Call Us, We'll Call You

We brought the kids yesterday to Bass Pro Shops, where to my metrosexual amazement, my son was in redneck heaven.  It was like watching a pig in mud.  Don't know where he gets the passion for fishing and hunting from, but I should likely administer a DNA test, because its not from me.

Watch out for sharks and gators...

Let it be known, the lessons we learn in the new digital and social marketing world that we live in are always applicable in the physical world, and vice-versa.  For example, as we were walking from guns back to bows to the waterfall, where parents were gathering with their kids for Aunt Mikki's Kid Fishing in the pond around back, we were not-so-subtly accosted by a gentleman.   I thought he was just providing directions to where we should congregate.  No, actually, he was selling discounted rooms at some family lodge Bass Pro Shops owns in Branson.

The lodge looked nice enough.  He wanted everyone to pay attention, even my son, who just wanted to put a worm on the hook of his fishing pole and fish.  Still, I let him go through his pitch, out of courtesy and curiosity.  I said, "thank you", but we don't have the money right now to buy a vacation, and that I would be happy to take some information to talk with my brother and his family when we planned our next vacation.

I'm not sure I could have said something that should have turned off a sales person more that, "I don't have money to spend."  But, that wasn't enough.  He would not let us go.  I then politely mentioned that my son was itching to go to Aunt Mikki's Kid Fishing activity, and I was not going to plan a vacation right now.  Only after a little more cajoling did he let us go, expecting us to come back after the fishing.

Intent is just as important in the physical world as it is online.  He could have spent that time with someone who gave a poop.  I mentioned specifically, I plan these sorts of family vacations with my brother and his family, so in a way, I was not the sole decision maker, and certainly, though an advocate, my son was not.  This is something you can find out in the physical world that you most times cannot in the electronic world.  Lastly, I had somewhere else urgent to go, so he did not respect me as a customer, which is as critical in the electronic world as in the physical.  Pushy sites are just as bad a pushy sales people.

As I think back, the only question he asked all of us is what we like to do.  He should have asked if I was planning any family vacations in the future and he would have been able to cut the sales call down to 5 seconds and everyone would have been happier.

An Amazing Concept

When I grew up, we received 4 TV channels.  I remember my brother and I, in the winter, watching TV together, lying down in front the TV with our feet on the baseboard heater, probably much too close to the TV, which has undoubtedly caused permanent damage in later years.

free comic book...you know you want it...

As Seth Godin has said about the TV Industrial Complex, communication and marketing to consumers has changed.  When I grew up, when there was a commercial on TV for Captain Crunch, it was obvious that we needed to go to the store immediately and buy some Captain Crunch.  The TV said so.

In the current age of information overload, spam mail, spam email, and getting Groupon'ed to death with emails and mobile notifications, people don't have the time and patience for outbound marketing anymore.  We fast forward through most TV commercials.  We read out news in 141 character bites. It's a huge challenge for many brands, but I would contend that this puts the largest stress on the most important element for brands to keep their customers engaged: a great product or service.

I know.  I'm amazing.  Hold the applause, please.  Hey, having other reasons for customers to come back for great content is awesome, but if you don't deliver on the goods they care about the most, ain't no one gonna care anyway.

Kid Confidence

My son is doing his first science experiment at school.  I convinced him, even though the electric principles are beyond his 3rd grade curriculum, to build different sized batteries from quarters from a project in The Dangerous Book for Boys, and to measure the difference in voltage.  The principles of electricity were easy for him to pick up using the analog of water flowing through a river.  My greater hope was just that it would force him to focus, to read and understand reasonably complex instructions, and to apply a discipline to perform and report on his work.  Regardless of the outcome, that is what his teachers are looking for, learning and applying the scientific method.

He Blinded me with Science!

He's been worried about this project for a while.  Last night, we built a test battery, so he could become comfortable with it.  Today, he presents his project and the hypothesis he wants to test to his classmates.  I told him, as we built the battery, to document the steps in his notebook, to help him commit them to memory.  We built the battery successfully, and he measured the voltage with a multimeter (~1.7V, for those morbidly curious).  We then ate Pork Meatball Banh Mi sandwiches, which were awesome, but that's another story...

After we built the battery, documented it, and ate our sandwiches, he had to practice his speech.  This terrified him.  I gave him all the usual tips: to relax and breath, to simplify messages so they were easier to remember, and to practice.  The most important advice I gave him, though, was when I asked him if anyone in the class knew how to make a battery, he told me no, not even the teacher.  So, he was the expert.  His little Chicken McNugget brain lit up, and he got more and more confident while he practiced.  He stopped sticking his hands in his pants.  He stopped rocking back and forth and making us seasick.  He starting nailing his speech.

It's tough to separate which comes first, confidence or focus.  This morning, my son woke up and gave an excellent speech about his project and what he was going to prove, in front of the camera.  He wondered out loud if he would become a scientist, or maybe a sports broadcaster.

Either way, be the expert in everything you do.  The confidence and focus it provides is incredible.  It even keeps you from putting your hands in your pants while speaking in public.

The Mile High Club

Blogging from 35K feet is something that you have likely only read in letters to the editor in adult magazines, but I am doing it right now.  And, I like it.  Apart from the gent to my right that is snoring incredibly, leaning on me, and just generally encroaching in my space entirely too much, I can't think of anywhere I'd rather be.

I am on the way home from ad:tech New York City, where we had two really good sessions on tablets in marketing, and in the second, we focused on innovation.  I've had a Facebook chat with an high school friend, tried, but was unsuccessful in downloading an episode of Breaking Bad, watched Return to the Planet of the Apes with no sound, fended off the large gentleman to my right, listened to several podcasts, and now I'm blogging.  These are either signs of innovation, or some form of ADD that I suffer from.

Next thing you know, they'll serve free peanuts on flights and treat you nicely.  Now, that would be innovative.

My Notepad

For such a high-tech guy and self-professed nerd, I've had no bigger revelation in recent years than I take notes best with a notepad.  You know, that bundle of papers, bound in a cover, with a small writing instrument called a pencil.  Quite deflating for my image, I suppose.

Hey, I've tried every electronic solution.  I've taken notes on a laptop, for years, in the meeting reminders on Outlook.  That actually worked okay, but then in Office 2011, Microsoft changed things that killed my ability to do this.  Plus, I couldn't doodle.  Yes, I've tried Evernote.  Even subscribed to their über-package, and it, like many other new fads, over the years, eventually ended up on the shelf, collecting dust.  I've even tried Evernote and Instapaper, which I like, to get around printing out all the online articles that interest me but don't currently have the time to read.  No dice.  They didn't stick.

Having admitted these shameful truths, I realize that I was programmed at a young age.  I remember taking notes in second grade.  Like, I wrote everything the teacher said, regardless of importance.  I'm not sure how much I actually go back to review the notes, but I'm sure that the act of writing the notes onto a page helps engrain the thoughts into my brain, more than anything.

It's nice to finally come out of the electronics closet.  It feels good to know who I really am.  Plus, with a notepad instead of an iPad, at least the people I'm meeting with know I'm not sending email or playing Flight Control!

Mobile Lovers

Nothing will get my wife more riled up then when we are out on date night, and there's a table nearby, with a similar couple, but they both are looking at their mobile phones as opposed to talking with each other.  Make me giggle actually.

I always imagine them texting each other.

Female: "ur really making me hot, 2nite!"
Male: "yea, u 2"
Female: "what are u gonna order?"
Male: "dunno, maybe the steak?  u?"

I've actually been at a restaurant, where a couple had their laptops out on the table, across from each other.  Really?  I mean, I guess you could just be there for the sustenance, but that's a little extreme, don't you think?

Different strokes for different folks.  Hey, I've been caught my fair share of times, checking a score, or texting someone at a meal, so I'm no saint.