This is a serious question. After hearing their promos for the Suck Less program, which appears to be listener demographics, I decided, what the heck, I’ll fill out the survey just for fun. So far, standard stuff – where do you live, what do you do for work, how much money do you make, all things you’d want to do to target marketing to someone. Then we get to the odd questions:
Are you of Spanish/Hispanic/Latino origin?
Please indicate your racial/ethnic background (select one or more)
How many children do you have: [insert number]
Please enter the following information for each of your children:
Child #1 Year of birth: [input] This child lives with me [ ]
How many children live with you other than the above:
Child #1 Year of birth: [input]
A couple of things. Why not put Hispanic/Latino in the racial background instead of splitting it out? Probably just survey design.
But this is the big one: Why do you need to know the date of a survey respondents’ childrens birth, and why do you need to know whether they live with you or not?
If I were a parent, that’s not information I’d willingly divulge to even casual acquaintances, mainly for security reasons. God knows the headlines are full of stories about kids being abducted. Certainly, it’s not information that a security-minded parent would want to divulge on a faceless survey (privacy policy be damned), especially after being asked where you live.
Even stranger, if I had kids living with me who were not mine, as a responsible custodian, why would I reveal both their presence AND their age?
What -is- Podshow doing with this information, and who gets access to it?
The thing most people know me for depends on how you know me. As Stephen K. Hayes says, we all wear different titles to different people. You might be Mom to some, but Daughter to another. Chances are you probably know me in a few forms:
– As the producer of the Financial Aid Podcast and Chief Technology Officer of Edvisors, Inc./Student Loan Network.
– As the co-founder of the PodCamp UnConference movement along with the aforementioned brilliant Chris Brogan, and now Executive Director of the PodCamp Foundation along with co-Executive Director Brogan. Also organizer of PodCamp Europe, speaker at Podcamp Toronto, PodCamp Boston, PodCamp NYC, the PESC conference, and more.
– As this guy who leaves odd comments on your blog or podcast, or makes comments on Twitter directed at you, or adds you as a friend on MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Virb, and other social media sites du jour.
Which is the real me? All of them. None of them. It depends on who you are and the context in which we interact. If any of them are a surprise to you, then welcome to context switch.
The people I associate the most with includes you. Because if you’re reading this, you associate with me.
People who have influenced my life are countless. There’s an expression in my martial art – shikin haramitsu daikomyo – that is recited before and after every class. Loosely translated, it means every experience contains the potential for the enlightenment we seek. This could be it. Everyone has something to teach (even if it’s how NOT to do something) if only we’re paying attention.
My early years, before you probably got to know me were unremarkable.
You might not know this, but I used to be terrified of public speaking, and was TERRIBLE at networking. A few things along the way changed that – necessity, along with the rush of speaking onstage. My junior year of high school was the turning point, when I found that I could influence people reasonably well with my words, and ended up being voted Senior Class President, which was hilarious. Ever since then, being onstage has become a love hate relationship which has evolved to love over the years.
I’m passionate about new media and martial arts. Actually, I’m passionate about a lot of things. I love good music – I wouldn’t have played so much of it on a financial aid radio show if I didn’t love it. I love good food – occasionally, too much. I love the power and reach that new media and the Internet give us that a generation ago would have been impossible to even fathom, much less take advantage of. It’s the project closest to mind right now but it’s also an important one – can you imagine a decade ago a bunch of fans of a musician not only bootlegging concerts, but reselling them on behalf of the musician and directing every dime to the musician?
I love the martial arts because it’s so grounding. In a lot of other areas, your ego can run away on you, get out of check, but when you step into the training hall, if your skills can’t back up your words, you end up getting the crap kicked out of you, and that’s an absolute necessity to stay focused, stay on the path, wherever it leads you. The martial art I practice focuses on winning under nearly impossible conditions, beating the odds so you can get home happy and healthy.
Some thoughts after reading a copy sent to me by superhero Whitney Hoffman. The Dip is an interesting book, but a lot of the ways it’s been marketed don’t really work with the subject matter, at least not for me. It’s marketed… well, poorly. Every review, every interview I’d heard prior to receiving the book had convinced me this was one to definitely skip, and buy something else instead.
Had the marketing said, “In addition to all the feel good motivational stuff, you’ll also learn how the Dip relates to the Long Tail, and which strategy makes sense for you” I think I would have been in line the day the book went on the market.
The Long Tail, if you haven’t read it, by Chris Anderson, is a book about power law curves. We know them primarily through cliches – 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers, 1% of the world’s population has 99% of the wealth, etc. The Long Tail proposes different thinking in a digital marketplace – in a realm where you have infinite shelf space, you can offer infinite products and do very well – better, in fact, than a brick and mortar shop that can only serve the short head. The Long Tail is about the power of aggregation.
The Dip is about the short head. It’s about the top of the powerlaw curve, because being #1, even if the tail is really long, is more profitable as an individual because you cannot aggregate some things. Can you be #34 – #447 in your job? Not really, unless you can clone yourself. The Dip is about scarcity, while the Long Tail is about abundance. Be #1, because #2 experiences drastically fewer benefits than #1, and #3 – #infinity are pretty much screwed.
The Dip is also a strategic warfare book. The phenomenon known as the Dip, the barrier between top performer and dabbler, between #1 and everything else, is a filter – it’s the barrier that ensures that whoever is #1 in any given niche is there for a reason. Because we’re talking an economoy of scarcity, it’s also zero sum – if you are #1, no one else can be, and vice versa. In the book are a number of tips which will allow you to make the Dip a deadly quagmire for your opponents and competitors – ways to distract them, divert them, so that while they’re tilting at windmills, you’re going to the bank. I’d recommend combining the strategic aspects of the Dip with a more warfare-oriented book like the Art of War for best results.
Finally, the Dip and the Long Tail plug into each other. Take the Long Tail of careers, for example, and figure out which careers pay the income you want to earn (red line on graph 1). Even the best, top of the food chain career in some fields will still not pay out like it will in other fields; for example, you may be the best poo pet crafter in the world, but if the #1 position in poo pet manufacturing doesn’t fall above the baseline income you want to make, then that’s not the niche for you. Ideally, pick a career or field in which there’s a decent amount of cushion between what you want to earn and what the #1 person in that niche earns.
Then, if you’re #2 or #3, you’re still making what you want to make while clawing your way to the top. That little slice of the short head is where you want to live.
Overall, I’d recommend The Dip. It’s a good read with marketing that didn’t touch me at all.
Still steamed about US Airways, but I made a ninja play and we’ll see what happens.
In the meantime, let me ask you this:
Who has exceptionally good customer service? What are the absolute BEST customer service experiences you’ve ever had that immediately destroyed the competitors’ chances of winning you over?
I’d booked Flight 1091 at 6:30 AM out of Boston to Dayton, Ohio for the Stephen K. Hayes Full Moon of May meditation seminar. Everything seemed fine – e-ticket booked, confirmation email received (Travel Confirmation: B4P74G, ticket 03721357878361, passenger name Christopher Penn in case anyone from US Airways eventually reads this), etc. I get to Logan Airport this morning an hour and change before my flight is supposed to depart, great. Get to the self-service counter to check in, and the machine says, “No seats could be found for this reservation number. Please try again.” A couple more tries of this, and the machine finally spits back, “No seats could be found for this reservation number. Please see an agent at the booking counter.”
Of course, being Memorial Day weekend, the lines were on the long side, so after a 40 minute wait in line (getting really worried because the flight’s leaving SOON), I see an agent who brusquely tells me, “I’m sorry, we have no record of your reservation.”
[insert profanity here]
After expressing things internally, I said, “Okay, so there’s no ticket even though I booked one. When’s the next flight to Dayton?”
“4:30 PM, getting in at 9 PM.”
Not much good that will do me, since the 2 day seminar begins at 1 PM and concludes the first day at 9 PM. I head home after cancelling a bunch of reservations and calling my teacher to let him know briefly of the foul-up.
When I got home, my wife urged me to call the airline and get a refund. So I called them up – 480-693-6735. The audio voice response unit kept telling me to submit a refund request online, and then when I queued up to speak to a customer service agent, the helpful prompt said, “Due to unexpectedly high call volume, your estimated wait time is 47 minutes.”
I bailed out of there, unwilling to wait 3/4 of an hour on the phone, and instead headed online to submit an electronic refund request. Here’s the email response I got:
Thank you for submitting your refund request via e-mail. We are experiencing an increase in customer e-mail and are working diligently to respond to all inquiries; however it could take between 45 and 60 days to review your request. If this schedule will not provide a timely response, please contact our Refund Department directly at 480-693-6735. When calling, please have your 13-digit ticket number beginning with either 037 or 401 available.
Your refund request is subject to additional audit and final approval by the US Airways Refund Department. All refunds are credited to the form of payment of the original ticket.
Thank you for choosing US Airways.
I’m sorry, 45 to 60 DAYS to review an email? I could send the email by carrier pigeon one word at a time faster than that.
Needless to say, I’m beyond pissed at US Airways for terminally poor customer service, and on top of that, I don’t anticipate getting a refund without a struggle, which I’m not looking forward to.
I’m most amused by the closer: Thank you for choosing US Airways. Yeah, that’s a mistake I won’t make again.
US Airways, and any airline that’s currently worried about staying in business, here’s a tip: if your business is in trouble, improving the quality of your customer service is the only thing that will save you. Take your entire marketing budget – all of it – and dump it all into customer service, because frankly, that’s where you need the most help. Pay your staff to not be surly, or hire people who aren’t surly, figure out a way to communicate with customers that doesn’t involve hold times approaching geological epochs, and make your damn computers work correctly.
Here’s my last bit of petty revenge. According to the web site, the customer service fax number is 800-892-3447.
Epilogue: US Airways eventually extended me a credit for the flight… and a $150 fee to use it. #!@# you, US Airways. I’m glad to see this post is #4 when you Google US Airways customer service.
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I’ve been a part of a project called Virtual Hot Wings, which is a fan-generated virtual CD for indie musician Matthew Ebel, who you’ve heard on the podcast a whole lot. I respect Matthew greatly for being a fantastic musician AND for breaking out on his own to do what he loves most, and helped with the creation of this CD. Here’s what is on it:
300 DPI cover art for printing your own jewel case insert
300 DPI label for printing your own CD label
4 complete free concerts of Matthew’s at various venues in Second Life
13 pre-ripped MP3s for use in iTunes or the MP3 player of your choice
Matthew Ebel’s press kit – if you know of anyone looking to book a gig with the new hardest working man in music (with respect to the late James Brown), or is looking for corporate music production, please feel free to distribute Matthew’s press kit
Two 30 second ringtones for your phone or Skype – Drive Away, and Coffeehouse Interlude
Please buy a copy of Virtual Hot Wings. It supports an independent musician and absolutely every penny/Linden goes to him, no middlemen. This distribution model has the potential to help indie musicians everywhere earn a living doing what they do best, and what we love them most for – playing music.
After the shootings on April 16, 2007, I watched as communities formed and reformed in the aftermath of the tragedy in Blacksburg. One of the most impressive and touching efforts was the For Today We Are All Hokies A Cappella tribute CD, put together by college a cappella groups across the Commonwealth of Virginia. It’s a damn good CD – all of the groups are professional quality, and the CD is a worthy buy. Two disc set for $20, proceeds go to the Hokie Memorial Fund.
Steve from the Wicked Good Podcast points us all to this LA Times article. Short version: the RIAA wants more money, and is tired of radio freeloading off of its content library. They want to extract performance royalties from terrestrial radio just as they want for every other form of media in which their artists are played.
To which I say:
You go, RIAA! Please, please, PLEASE demand money from radio stations. Please ask for as much money as you can in your demands from ClearChannel. Please make terrestrial radio PAY!
Why?
Because this could be a major opportunity for both podcasting and podsafe musicians. Working together, working as a coalition, we can offer terrestrial radio an alternative to paying huge bills from the RIAA. The arrangement is as clear as day – free play for free promotion. I’ll tell you as a podcaster, and I’ll put it out here publicly, that terrestrial radio stations may play the Financial Aid Podcast free of charge. I hereby waive the non-commercial clause of the Creative Commons license for any FCC-licensed terrestrial radio station. Please play my stuff.
For podsafe artists – NOW would be a great time to make sure your EPK is looking great. Now would be a great time to make sure that your marketing and sales teams are on hot standby, because if the RIAA successfully overturns the federal exemption on performance royalties, simple economics will favor the podsafe independent artist over the RIAA-signed artist, but you’ve got to have your stuff together, your quality as good or better than what’s currently on commercial radio, and have pre-drafted paperwork for radio stations.
As with many empires, the downfall of the music industry empire must come from within, and they’re doing a bang up job. Thanks, guys.
I was talking last night with a good friend about something that popped up in Google Earth. There’s a layer that automatically got added – the crisis in Darfur, all the flashpoints in the conflict, and the topic drifted to – how do you make a difference? Ultimately, how do you effect real, lasting change? Will donating? Writing your Congressman?
Ultimately, the ability to effect change is power. Without power, you cannot effect change, you cannot make a difference. If you have a little bit of power, you can make a little bit of change. If you have a lot, then you can singlehandedly change entire countries or continents. Consider at his apex just how powerful Alan Greenspan was – a single sentence could rocket or sink the economy for days, and create or destroy billions of dollars in wealth.
That tangent led us to the discussion of power vs. morality. They’re not the same thing, and in the drive in this morning, it finally occurred to me what they were. Morality is the direction you go – the way you steer. Morality is the gas and the engine that takes you there. No power means that you can steer as straight and true as you like, but you won’t get anywhere. No morality means that you can head off the road really, really fast.
You need both. Ideally, morality and moral guidance for most people is more or less in place; the trick then is to stay on target, stay on the road while you learn how to build power. That’s the harder part of the equation. We live in a society that actively encourages the bulk of citizens to NOT become more powerful, to forfeit their power to government, business, leaders, demagogues, zealots, religion, and so forth. You hear the pleas for the surrender of your power every day:
– Buy this product and you’ll be happy.
– Elect me to office and I’ll fix your problems.
– Worship this deity and you’ll go to heaven.
– Trust me with this decision and I’ll reward you.
The powers that be don’t want to steer you off the road. They want you to stop driving entirely.
How do you resist giving up what power and steering you have?
Clarence Smith Jr. of 42minus71.org and Do You Know Clarence?, was asking recently about his show, Do You Know Clarence? Truth? No, I don’t – but it’s not what you think.
In ninjutsu, a technique you look at today will look different in a year’s time, in a decade’s time, and when you finally retire from training. One of my teachers compares it to a chalk mark on a wheel. As the wheel rolls, the mark might look like it’s at the same spot again after one rotation, but the wheel has traveled some distance in that time.
One of the worst mistakes to make with any technique is to say you know it, to say you’ve got it, because you effectively close yourself off from learning more about it, from being free to revisit it in a day’s time, a year’s time, or a lifetime. That same technique, as your skills improve, opens up to reveal more and more secrets, like building a staircase on the fly. Every step you build raises you higher and lets you see more, even if the technique of adding one stair on top of another is relatively the same.
Do I know Clarence? Nope. I don’t want to, either. I want to be open to learn more about Clarence. I want to be free to be surprised, amazed, and shocked by the things that I’ll learn about him in the years to come. To say I know him is to imply that he’s told me everything, and not only hasn’t he, but he can’t. There are some things you just can’t explain. I don’t want to know Clarence, but that doesn’t mean I won’t subscribe to his blog or podcast or new media ventures, because I do – and that’s the first step to learning more.
Do YOU know Clarence? As Clarence says, let it marinate.
